Niagara Parks horticulture student headed to Melbourne garden show
Elissa Astorino first Canadian to be asked to attend event
Flying to Melbourne, Australia to take part in one of the world’s largest flower and garden shows is an exciting moment for Niagara Falls born and raised Elissa Astorino.
The 21-year-old third-year Niagara Parks School of Horticulture student will be designing her own garden at the 2024 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, as well as working as part of a team on world-renowned Irish garden designer Peter Donegan’s presentation.
“I’m very honoured to be asked as the first Canadian to go,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to go to Australia, and I’ve looked at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show and it’s really quite beautiful, so I’m really quite honoured to be part of that and be working with all these designers and meeting new people.”
The event runs March 20 to 24 at the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Astorino was invited to take part in the event because of her connection to Donegan. Her school runs a mentorship program that encourages students to network with people in the industry. As Astorino has an interest in design, Donegan was someone with whom she wanted to connect. At first, he told her he was too busy with various projects and preparations for the Melbourne event, so she asked if she could be part of that.
She even flew out to Ireland to meet him, and spent six days there over her Christmas break working with him.
“He’s an amazing mentor,” Astorino said. “He was telling me about his design path and career. It was just really inspiring. From the minute I first spoke with him via Zoom meeting, I was determined, I wanted to work with him, and I did.”
Donegan said Astorino’s drive to impress within a tough industry is admirable.
“Elissa’s ambition brought her to Dublin (and) gained her a position
‘‘ I’ve always wanted to go to Australia, and I’ve looked at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show and it’s really quite beautiful.
ELISSA ASTORINO NIAGARA PARKS SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE STUDENT
on the team charged with realizing the featured show garden I designed for this year’s Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show,” Donegan said via email. “That does not happen easy, I can promise you — and earned her the right to realize her own border garden at the show.”
Donegan’s garden will be quite large; it will even include a cabin and a small plane.
Astorino’s own garden will be more modestly sized. She’s creating a border garden measuring 2.4 metres by 2.4 metres in a raised flower bed. A contractor will be sourcing plants for her and she’ll be picking out plants and flowers days before the show.
Her display will have a personal story to it, with a focus on dementia, which she was inspired to do because of her late grandmother who had dementia. It tells the story of a mom and daughter and their love for each other.
“I wanted the story of my garden to be something meaningful,” Astorino said.
“It shows the unconditional love between the two and even when the sun has set, there’s still stars in the night that make everything bright.”
She’s also raising funds for Dementia Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County and has set up a fundraising page on canadahelps.org for the organization. She chose the organization, even though her grandmother didn’t receive care from it, because she was impressed by the program it runs for people with dementia and their caregivers.
At the event, she’ll also raise awareness for Dementia Australia.
Astorino’s journey to Australia is self-funded, but she did receive a grant from the school’s alumni foundation to help pay for some of the costs.
To learn more about the young gardener, visit her website at astorinodesign.com.