Ordered beauty | A mod take on a classic European garden

With ‘Urban Luxe’, garden designer Andrew Stark’s 2026 Show Garden at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show (MIFGS) offers a contemporary take on formal European gardens, with clipped structure, symmetry and lush planting.

Garden name: ‘Urban Luxe’
Garden designer: Andrew Stark
Garden construction: MPF Garden Company

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The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show runs from 25-29 March 2026 at the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens.

‘Urban Luxe’ is Andrew Stark’s reimagining of the classic Italian formal garden. The formal foundations of historic European gardens – symmetry, structure and rhythm – are reinterpreted through his fresh, design-forward lens.

The garden features meticulously clipped hedges of box and laurel, layered with double rows of stylised birch trees that form a ‘living pergola’ – creating architectural lines and a sense of movement and symmetry. These strong frameworks are softened by block-planted, long-flowering perennials and hydrangeas. Together, they create textural contrast and vibrancy.

Oversized, opulent sculptural pots are visual anchors for the garden, giving opportunities for pause, reflection and impact.

We asked Andrew about the process behind ‘Urban Luxe’, and how he approached bringing instant maturity to the space.

Andrew’s 2026 MIFGS design – “I pay close attention to proportion and scale. A garden must hold its own against the architecture. That often means confidently overscaling key elements – larger trees, stronger structural planting, defined axes – so the landscape feels anchored and substantial rather than decorative.”

Designing for a temporary show is very different to a permanent garden – how did you approach that?

I’m used to crafting gardens that unfold over time – spaces that mature, soften and gather gravitas year after year. A Show Garden, however, demands that sense of maturity, instantly. The aesthetic must land on day one.

Every decision had to be deliberate: selecting advanced trees with strong structure and character, choosing plants with fullness and maturity, pre-conditioning plant material so it looked settled, and designing layered planting that felt organic, not staged.

Are there particular details, plants or materials, that feel especially important to the overall composition?

The most important compositional detail was the “living pergola” – the table-top clipped birch canopy, formed from trees. The ‘Moss White’ birches (Betula pendula) were meticulously trained and clipped to create a horizontal plane of foliage overhead. That canopy provided shade, but more importantly, it delivered architectural formality, geometry, symmetry and balance.

Behind this, the three-metre-high Waterhousia floribunda (weeping lilly pilly) hedge was critical. It formed a deep-green backdrop that grounded the entire composition. The density of the hedge allowed the lighter birch trunks to sing, and it created intimacy – removing the visual noise of the Show.

Then there were the pots – the jewellery of the garden. The handmade emerald-green glazed pots were imported from France, as were the antique reproduction vessels that reinforced the illusion of age, as though the garden had evolved over decades.

What do you hope visitors take away from experiencing the garden?

First and foremost is a feeling – exhilaration and inspiration.

I also want them to see what’s possible. A great garden should expand your idea of what your own outdoor space could become.

So often people underestimate what a garden can be. It’s not just planting around the perimeter of a property – it can be architectural, immersive, emotive. It can completely elevate the way a home feels and functions.

“I rely on confident planting schemes – clipped shrubs for structure, dependable species for longevity, and a restrained but powerful palette that reads as cohesive rather than cluttered,” Andrew says of his landscape design style.

Flowing perennial planting in garden by Andrew Stark

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Design by Andrew Stark of Andrew Stark Gardens
Construction by MPF Garden Company
Plants from Warners Nursery

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The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show runs from 25-29 March 2026 at the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens. This year’s theme, Kaleidoscope, brings together show gardens, large-scale floral installations and a programme of garden experiences across five days.

Highlights include the Show Garden Competition, workshops and demonstrations, art installations, food and retail stalls, and the Great Hall of Flowers – a showcase of contemporary floral design within the Royal Exhibition Building.