Horticulture students triumphant at flower and garden show

Each year, the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show features the Nursery and Garden Industry Victoria (NGIV) ‘Avenue of Achievable Gardens’, a series of small, stylish, functional, and – most importantly – achievable, gardens created by horticulture students from around Victoria.
This year, University of Melbourne Master of Horticulture student Heather Forward won first prize for her garden, ‘Rousseau’s Jungle’, and recent Associate Degree in Urban Horticulture graduate Benjamin Taylor won third prize for his creation, ‘Grounding’.
Ms Forward says her garden was inspired by the jungle paintings of French post-impressionist painter, Henri Rousseau.
“What I am trying to do with my work is to paint a picture using plants,” she says. “Plants, water, reflection, sculpture and abstracted forms are used to evoke lush jungle and exotic tigers.”
Mr Taylor sees gardens as a place where we can feel physically and mentally grounded.
“Most of us live quite busy, heady, city lives, and gardens can be a real sanctuary to come home to – to really just sit down and relax,” he says.
Mr Taylor says his garden is “a little bit like a native tea garden,” with aromatic and medicinal native plants surrounding a circular fire pit.
“It is an example of how even in limited space – a space the size of our small urban allotments – we can still cultivate a sense of connection with the continent we inhabit.”
The students, along with friends and fellow students had four frantic days to install their gardens on site in the Melbourne Exhibition Gardens, shifting three tonnes of rocks, ornate screens, a tiger statue and hundreds of plants into place.
Ms Annette Warner, lecturer in Urban Horticulture in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science, says there was some stiff competition in the ‘Avenue of Achievable Gardens,’ but Ms Forward and Mr Taylor had done exceptional work, and it had been a joy to see their gardens take shape.
“I am very proud of the way they resolved complex issues when shifting their work from design concept to realisation,” she says.
“There is a high level of commitment required on behalf of the students to see a project of this type through to completion.”
science.unimelb.edu.au/flower_and_garden_show