Nannup Flower and Garden Festival: A blooming roster of flower festivities and celebrity appearances

The Nannup Flower and Garden Festival has unveiled its full line-up for its upcoming weekend of premier gardening workshops and activities. Headlining the event, which is one of the highlights of the South West’s lifestyle calendar, are celebrity gardening gurus Sabrina Hahn and Costa Georgiadis, who will be taking eager green thumbs on tantalising tours through some of the town’s best gardens. Celebrating its 25th year the festival will cover all things garden, from expert workshops and cooking demonstrations to full weekends with some of the biggest names in the WA green-thumb world. Sprouting on August 13 the festival will be in bloom for 16 days, with more than 82 events on offer. Event organiser Jo O’Dea said the tulips are already starting to flower. “We normally have about 10,000 people at the festival and we’re certainly expecting that, we had nearly 10,000 last year during the pandemic so I expect more this year,” she said. The first full weekend of flower festivities, August 13 to 14 is set to include a series of workshops, fresh produce cooking lessons and panel discussions as well as the secrets behind the perfect wicking bed and the importance of animals in gardens, ending with the sounds of South West band Formidable Vegetable. After a morning of connecting to country with Wadandi man Josh Whiteland at Kondil Park and a tour of The Nook with Georgiadis, punters can make their way to Nannup Bowling Club for even more festival events and activities. Two full days of native flower discussions with Esperance botanist Katie White, workshops with professional botanical stylists, fresh produce cooking lessons as well as panel discussions with celebrity gardeners will take out the Bowling Club’s August 13 and 14 weekend roster. Festival-goers who are looking to perfect or create their own wicking bed can learn All the Dirt podcast host Deryn Thorpe’s secrets behind creating the water-based flowerbed in one of her two slots on Saturday or Sunday. The first weekend of the festival will end with an evening with Georgiadis and friends at the Nannup Brewery on Saturday, bringing together the impressive line-up of presenters accompanied by the “up-beet” sounds of Formidable Vegetable. A second weekend of flower fueled events will span from Friday August 19 to Saturday 21 with gardening Hahn taking attendees on a tour through one of the town’s most “stunning” gardens. Hahn — along with Geographe Community Landcare Nursery’s Rod Cary and Nannup’s own Dr Bob Longmore — will make an appearance for a breakfast event at the Loose Goose on Sunday followed by a walk through the Nannup’s Foreshore Park to discuss all things native. August 19 to 21’s weekend events will be accompanied by another series of discussions, workshops and art displays at Nannup Bowling Club. The last of the festival’s 16-day run will span from August 26 to 28 and include another series of expert workshops at the Bowling Club including information of frogscaping, liquid fertiliser and Shitake mushrooms as well as numerous cooking classes. Saturday and Sunday’s festivities are also set to include a family fairy-garden tutorial, another Nook tour — that will take a closer look at the history of planting, fire mitigation and animal fodder — and end with Especially Tulip’s tutorial on a different kind of wicking bed. Ms O’dea said while celebrities such as Hahn and Georgiadis are major festival highlights, the Town Hall’s floral exhibition is something not worth missing. “The exhibition celebrates 10 of WA’s most high-profile florists including Lara Rose, Fox and Rabbit and Matthew Landers and is going to be open everyday of the festival,” she said. More information on event times and days as well as a full program can be found on NFGF’s website.