The Queensland Garden Expo is by far my favourite garden show. Personally, I think it is as good or better than the Sydney one. If you are in Queensland, make sure you get to the Queensland Garden Expo on the Sunshine Coast (Nambour showgrounds – you can catch the train from Brisbane, after which it is a 1km or so walk). Aside from the CPs that Gotcha! Plants will sell, it is an excellent day out for everyone, regardless of whether they are hard core gardeners of not.
Have a look at Gotcha! Plants’ website here if you haven’t already to see what they offer: http://www.gotchaplants.com.au/ .
I’ve also reviewed Gotcha’s nursery here and here. As you can see, they have awesome plants, all grown from seed. This could be your chance to get hold of that plant you’ve been after, but never found!
As a bit of nostalgia - I’ve visited nearly every year since 1992, mainly looking for carnivorous plants. I’ve seen a number of nurseries and CP suppliers come and go over the years at the expo, and the number and diversity of CPs on sale rise and fall.
- 1992 had maybe two sellers, one with a few ex tissue cultured venus’s flytraps and some Drosera spathulata that suspiciously looked like they had been grubbed up from somewhere.
- 1993-1996 saw no CPs whatsoever on sale – a few VFTs if you were lucky.
- The expo had a sort of renaissance from 1997 on. One nursery sold Exotica Plants Nepenthes and increasing numbers of Sarracenia from Fly Free Zone in the years 1997-2000.
- In 2001 through 2003, an orchid nursery took over with Exotica’s Nepenthes, while Sarracenia all but disappeared.
- In 2004, the aforementioned orchid nursery again selling large numbers of magnificent Nepenthes from Exotica Plants, plus Fly Free Zone themselves selling Sarracenia, Cephalotus and Drosera, plus Drosera, Dionaea and Utricularia from the just starting out Gotcha! Plants.
- 2005 was supposedly even better (according to my family – I was stuck in Sydney), with Gotcha! and Living Traps selling huge numbers of magnificent plants (including 30 cm Heliamphora!).
Since then, Gotcha! has become the only seller of CPs, but they provide a reliably high amount of diversity and excellent plants (in fact, they provide a better range at their stall than what Triffid Park do at their stalls – with the possible exceptions of Darlingtonia and Cephalotus).
So make sure you go if you can – you won’t be sorry!
