By TANIA PHILLIPS

FOR the second year in a row, a Kendall nursery is set to be one of the major drawcards at a major national garden show in Sydney in September.
Australian Native Orchid specialist nursery Earth to Joy, owned and operated by Lloyd and Mandy Edwards, will have a display and stall with Mr Edwards also giving a talk during the event at Centennial Park, Sydney from 4-7 September.
The inaugural show last year saw thousands of visitors from all around the country venture to Sydney to see the show, described as Australia’s answer to the Chelsea Flower Show.
This year’s show has doubled in content, including over 30 display gardens, a Grand Floral Pavilion, exhibitors and talks and workshops by renowned gardening experts (Andrew-Fisher Tomlin, Don Burke, Graham Ross and Indira Naidoo, just to name a few), as well as a dedicated children’s area.
Mr Edward, who has been interested in native orchids since he was a child and now has a massive collection of more than 60,000 plants, said they had enjoyed being part of last year’s inaugural event and were looking forward to returning.
“We are looking forward to it – it is a massive experience,” he said.
Mr Edwards, who admits to being “quite passionate about Australian Native Orchids”, said last year’s event had generated interest in the Kendall-based nursery including visits and several contracts, and he hoped this year’s bigger and better event would also prove just as successful for the local business.
And the Edwards are in good company. The event will include the who’s who of Australian gardening including multi-award winning landscape designer Jim Fogarty, who is fresh from his Best In Show win at the UK’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.,
The designer, who won the Royal Horticultural Society title this month, exhibited a Gallipoli-inspired garden titled ‘The Last To Leave’ at the inaugural Australian Garden Show Sydney last year and will participate this year as a judge alongside fellow judges including Graham Ross VMM, My House Rules’ Joe Snell, director of Horticulture Operations at Royal Botanic Gardens, Jimmy Turner and Linda Ross.
“I’m looking forward to joining the Australian Garden Show Sydney team again this year and having a hand in judging all the new and creative display gardens produced by such a high calibre of landscape designers,” Fogarty said.