The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show was a sea of stunning floral and botanical displays, this year attracting 108,492 visitors. It ran from Wednesday March 20 to Sunday March 24.
Billed as the largest horticultural event in the Southern Hemisphere, the show is staged in the World Heritage site of Carlton Gardens and the Royal Exhibition Building.
Multiple garden and floral arrangements inside the classically designed building produced a visually artistic and colourful display that contrasted against the timber interior of the Royal Exhibition Building. The Florentine dome and deep arched doorways add focal interest to the historical building designed by Australian architect Joseph Reed at the height of the international exhibition movement.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries world exhibitions flourished as host countries showcased their industrial, scientific, and cultural items alongside nationally produced foods and beverages to an international audience.
The Royal Exhibition Building was constructed as a Great Hall, a permanent building initially intended to house the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880 and the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition in 1888. In 2004 the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens received a World Heritage Listing.
Since 1995, the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show has been held annually in the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens with the event taking place early April each year. The show did not go ahead in 2020 because of the Covid_19 pandemic.
This year the Carlton Gardens were host to an assortment of horticultural displays and related stalls for the annual event. The green grounds, lushness of the leafy European trees and ornamental lake replete with ducks provided a recreational botanical experience for visitors. There are three decorative fountains in the Carlton Gardens. Both the Exhibition fountain and the French fountain were placed there for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880. The Westgarth Drinking Fountain was added later for the 1988 Centennial Exhibition, a gift from a colonist.
