Open Gardens: Nannup Flower and Garden Festival

The winter garden festival at Nannup, Western Australia, will have a sea of colourful displays and activities.

Nannup bursts into colour with masses of tulips and hyacinths in full bloom.

Nannup Flower and Garden Festival, Main Street, Nannup, Western Australia. Festival Co-ordinator, Nat Taylor. Open: August 13-16. Free entry plus ticketed events

Describe the event: It’s a winter festival designed to entice garden lovers out of their cosy lounge rooms to experience the beauty of Nannup and its historical timber-town background. The main street bursts into colour with masses of tulips and hyacinths in full bloom. The festival runs over four days, with large displays open from Thursday. Across the weekend about 100 stalls, stage and street entertainers, workshops, demonstrations and special guests create the wonderful festival vibe. For this, our 19th year, our special guest is food sustainability advocate, garden designer and author Indira Naidoo. There’s a program of 11 open gardens to visit and a paddock-to-plate program offering master classes with Naidoo, Sabrina Hahn, Josh Whiteland, Neville Passmore and Vince Gareffa. There’s also a kids’ craft area, wholesome food, vintage cars, local choirs, and craft and history displays.

What makes it special?Lined with wine barrels filled to the brim with colourful bulbs, the streetscape really is a photographer’s paradise, and I can imagine quite a few selfies up on Instagram this year. Originally there were many tulip growers in the southwest, as tulips love the climate here.

Biggest challenges: The weather leading up to the festival can make it challenging to get the timing right so that the flowers peak this weekend. Thankfully our major local sponsor, Especially Tulips, and our valued supporter, the Shire of Nannup, are very experienced. Both our town gardeners are on their knees planting out the beds months beforehand, and the wine barrels are filled by volunteers working with Nannup Garden Village Inc. Then it’s fingers crossed so the gardens remain perfect to showcase our lovely town.

Favourite part: The Great Hall of Flowers this year has a Night in the Garden theme, which is sure to be illuminating. Basically the inside of our heritage town hall transforms into a big indoor park, complete with hundreds of tulips. There’s even a barn owl or two this year to meet and greet.

Don’t miss: An Evening With Indira is a long-table banquet with guest speaker Indira Naidoo on Thursday night, featuring a menu of amazing local produce prepared by chef Tim Whitty, with matching wines. Our opening event, Tulips After Dark, on Friday night offers mulled wine, finger food, open fires and live music. We’re unveiling our newly created living sculpture, a special wrought-iron tree sculpture surrounded by garden beds. During our street parade, lanterns made by local schoolchildren and in community lantern making workshops will be paraded and then placed to light up the living sculpture. The first stage of our Centenary Garden, designed by Sabrina Hahn, will be opened on Saturday morning. Then you can kick up your heels at the bush dance on Saturday night.

Details: Nannup is less than an hour’s drive from six big tourist towns including Busselton and Margaret River, or a day trip from Perth or Albany. For a program of free events and bookings for ticketed events go to nannupgardens.org.au. Entry to the Great Hall of Flowers is $5, or $4 for seniors on Thursday, Seniors Day.