Costa Georgiadis oozes passion when it comes to all things gardening and that inspires ordinary backyard gardeners to find their passion, their green thumb.

Known for his work on ABC’s Gardening Australia, Costa is a well known landscape architect who travels the country promoting sustainability and environmental issues. He said his love of nature developed in his grandfather’s market garden while growing up in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Costa is bringing that passion back to Morwell for the second year running, when Latrobe City Council and the Friends of the Rose Garden present the 2019 International Rose Garden Festival on November 16 and 17.

Even though Costa regularly visits communities across Australia, like Morwell, he is also busy in his local community, doing things like volunteering at his local school, getting involved with fundraising events and acting as referee at Saturday rugby.

The International Rose Garden Festival at Morwell will showcase more than 4000 roses in bloom. They include around 400 rose varieties, a fact the Costa picked up on when I spoke to him, which you can hear below.

The festival will also include a live performance from children’s favourite dirtgirl.

Here’s what’s planned for the expanded two day program:

– A walking tour around 400 rose varieties in amongst the 4,000 in bloom
– Live music from The Nigellas, Mel Pollard, Sweetlip and the concert and brass bands from Latrobe City
– Art creations from local street artist, Steve Bechaz and a display of sculptures from local artists including Nicole Allen
– Local artisan produce and wine from within the region
– dirtgirl performs the Grubby Bucket Show live
– An evening light installation – A midsummer night’s lights will feature a creative light installation from the talented Tim Newman
– Glamping options for the weekend traveller staying at Gardening Australia’s award winning garden ‘Serendipity’ only 10 minutes from the Festival

LISTEN as Costa talks about the passion of Morwell’s rose gardeners, and gardeners everywhere:

More about the 2019 International Rose Garden Festival at https://irgfm.com.au/
More about Costa at http://costasworld.org/