A Place for Us winner Best Visual Display Award
Emma Sheppard-Simms won our MIFGS Student grant. The grant provided $10,000 to design and install a vibrant garden at our stand at the 2023 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show (MIFGS). Emma and her all female team also secured sponsorship to build the garden. We are so excited to announce that her garden @aplaceforus.vic won The Best Visual Display Award.
Emma is pictured above (fourth from right) and Event Director Marcus Gale (3rd from left) and the all female installation team.
Crowds flocked to our Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show stand this year to see a very special display garden, called A Place for Us, designed by our student grant winner, Emma Sheppard-Simms.
And we weren't the only ones who thought it was special—Emma's stunning garden helped Open Gardens Victoria win the Best Visual Display (Exhibitor) Award at the show. We are beyond thrilled and so incredibly proud of Emma and her history-making all-female team (pictured top left with MIFGS Event Director Marcus Gale).
The garden drew in more than the crowds and judges! Costa from Gardening Australia joined Emma and her team for a proper chin wag (tune in June 2, when the story goes to air). Chloe Thomson from Bean There Dug That interviewed Emma about the garden, and Melissa King from Better Homes and Gardens stopped in to say hi and congratulate the girls on their beautiful build. Michael McCoy from Dream Gardens popped by for a visit, along with our favourite gardening writer from The Age, Megan Backhouse. AB Bishop, horticulture editor at Gardening Australia Magazine and co-host of the Gardening Show on 3CR, visited too and will be including the story in an upcoming issue of the magazine. Thanks also to OGV supporters Jac Semmler and Stephen Wells for showing your support.
The OGV marquee was a step above this year and we are so grateful to all who volunteered throughout the show to help promote our wonderful organisation and what we do.