MIFGS 2026 – Show gardens

Story by Claire Bickle

The 2026 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show was a celebration of horticultural achievement, showcasing an exciting diversity of designs, plant selections, construction ideas and creativity.

From habitat gardens to productive patches, creative nooks to calming spaces, formal design to wild meadows… there was endless botanical inspiration for visitors to take home and apply to their own gardens. These were some of the highlights.

WE THE WILD
DESIGNER Matt York, above, Ratio Consultants
AWARDS Best in Show, Gold Medal, Best Use of Plant Life

Matt York’s design message was loud and clear: “I wanted to show the restorative power of nature – that gardens can deliver health and wellness to not just the individual but collectively to a city as a whole and reconnect us all to nature.”
The stars of Matt’s design were nine 200-year-old grass trees (Xanthorrhoea glauca), pictured in main image.
“As soon as we placed them into position, everyone felt this presence, an ancient energy,” Matt says. “These grass trees actually formed the cues for the entire material and plant palette: their black trunks, the copper-bronze underfoliage, and the blue-grey foliage set the tone for everything.”
The charcoal tones of the trunks were echoed in features such as a black-clad ‘eco cabin’ (an upcycled skip bin), a metal fire pit, and powder-coated steel boxes containing stacked timbers. Blue, grey and silver tones flowed throughout the garden thanks to plants such as kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra ‘True Blue’), emu bush (Eremophila ‘Silver Ball’) and woolly bush (Adenanthos sericeus ‘Silver Streak’).

This garden shows that small and highly considered gardens can deliver pollinator support, habitat creation, urban cooling, biodiversity and therapeutic, meaningful outdoor spaces for people.
Matt York

Key plants

Banksia ‘Birthday Candles’
Casuarina ‘Cousin It’
Emu bush (Eremophila glabra ‘Silver Ball’)
Giant spear lily (Doryanthes palmeri)
Grass tree (Xanthorrhoea glauca)
Grevillea ‘Lady O’
Kangaroo grass (emeda triandra ‘True Blue’)
Mat rush (Lomandra ‘Silver Grace’)
Rice flower (Ozothamnus diosmifolius ‘Radiance’)
Soft tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica)
Straw owers (Xerochrysum bracteatum and X. viscosum)
White correa (Correa alba)
Woolly bush (Adenanthos sericeus ‘Silver Streak’)
Yellow buttons (Chrysocephalum apiculatum ‘Desert Flame’)

URBAN LUXE
DESIGNER Andrew Stark, Andrew Stark Gardens
SHOW GARDEN NAME Urban Luxe
AWARDS Silver Gilt and People’s Choice Award

This crowd-pleasing, sumptuous garden evoked Paris in the springtime – and that was very much the point. Designer Andrew Stark (above) set out to design a sophisticated, European-inspired garden that was “plant-based, with every element a standout talking point”. And he certainly delivered with ‘Urban Luxe’, a design based on formal symmetry, architectural lines, luxurious planting and grand-scale gestures. Key talking points were two cathedral-like ‘living pergolas’ of pleached silver birch trees (Betula pendula ‘Moss White’). Other structural plants included meticulously clipped topiary spheres of buxus, bay and camellia, and a backdrop hedge of Syzygium floribundum ‘Warners Select’. These anchor plants were underplanted with a richly layered tapestry of pink, white and purple-flowering perennials, colour-blocked and arranged by height to create form, flow and movement.
Oversized handmade urns and green- glazed pots – filled with hydrangeas and clipped dwarf lemons – created focal points from every angle.
The white of the birch trunks was echoed in the white urns, plinths and Turkish limestone paving, while a central water feature and three narrow rills delivered reflection, sound and cooling.