The Queensland Garden Show is celebrating its 42nd year at Nambour Showgrounds with more than 90 free talks across five live stages, 360-plus exhibitors and a speaker program featuring Tammy Huynh alongside some of the country’s best-known horticultural experts.
The event runs from 10 to 12 July 2026 and is expected to attract more than 25,000 visitors. For Buderim residents, Nambour Showgrounds is just a 15-minute drive north-west along the range, making it one of Queensland’s most accessible major gardening events. Around 65 per cent of attendees travel from outside the Sunshine Coast region, highlighting the show’s statewide appeal.
The 2026 program spans seven hectares and includes more than 55 nurseries selling 60,000 plants each day, a Giant Kitchen Garden, a Plant Clinic for one-on-one advice, hands-on workshops and a packed schedule of talks and demonstrations. It is the kind of event where visitors can easily spend a full day exploring, which is why two-day and three-day passes remain popular.
Tammy Huynh makes her Queensland debut
The headline addition to the 2026 speaker programme is Tammy Huynh, who joins the show for the first time. A presenter on ABC’s Gardening Australia, author of The Plant Book and 2021 Horticulturist of the Year, Huynh brings a focus on indoor plant care that reflects how much gardening culture has shifted in recent years toward balcony gardens, apartment growing and houseplant collections.
“One of the things I love most about gardening events is the opportunity to connect with other plant enthusiasts, share knowledge and learn something new,” Huynh said ahead of her Queensland debut. “My sessions will explore indoor plant care, common problems and some of the biggest myths surrounding houseplants, with plenty of practical tips to help people grow with confidence.”
Her sessions sit alongside returning horticultural heavyweights Graham Ross AM, Sophie Thomson, Jerry Coleby-Williams and Phil Dudman, who between them represent decades of practical growing knowledge. New speaker Robert “The Mountain Man” Wilson also joins the programme, bringing his perspective on legacy horticulture to the lineup.
From the vegie patch to the chef’s stage
The Cooks Garden Stage adds a food angle that makes the show genuinely useful for home growers who want to know what to actually do with what they harvest. Head Chef Mal Meiers from ēthos at Alsahwa Estate appears alongside Kenji Hiroto from SOKA, crowd favourite Matt Golinski, and Robert Cauilan, Executive Chef at Aussie World and the Banana Bender Pub, whose cooking draws on Filipino flavours applied to modern Australian cuisine.
“Whether you’re interested in rare, unusual and ornamental plants, new plant releases, growing your own food at home, creating a more sustainable garden or simply learning from some of the best minds in horticulture, there is something in the program for every gardener,” said Colin Fruk, Chief Executive Officer of Greenlife Industry QLD.
A rooster crow and 60,000 plants
Beyond the speaker stages and the nurseries, the show runs a Plant Clinic where visitors can bring their gardening problems directly to experts, workshops for those who want to get their hands in the soil, and the returning Rooster Crowing Competition as part of the Poultry Spectacular.
Adults and children both compete, and it has become one of the more genuinely unexpected highlights of the weekend.
The economic reach of the Queensland Garden Show is considerable. Over more than four decades, the event has injected over $200 million into the local economy, with a visitor base that extends well beyond the Sunshine Coast into Brisbane, regional Queensland and interstate.
Tickets and getting there
The Queensland Garden Show runs Friday 10 July to Sunday 12 July 2026 at Nambour Showgrounds. Gates open at 8am and close at 4pm each day.
Ticket prices are as follows:
- Adult entry – $26.50 (online) / $29 (gate price)
- Pensioner concession – $23.50 (online) / $25 (gate price)
- Locals entry – $21.20 (online) / $22.50 (gate)
- Children 15 years and under – Free
- Groups of 10 or more – $20 each
- Two-day weekend pass (Saturday and Sunday) – $45
- Three-day pass – $65
- Parking: $10 per car
The showgrounds offer excellent disability access including on-site disabled parking, ground-level exhibits and accessible toilet facilities. Guide dogs are welcome.
Tickets are available online, where the full speaker programme and session times are also listed.
Published 25-June-2026
