Tumbarumba woodland garden “Fallow Fields” is just one of 12 open to the public this week as the Tumbarumba region goes on show with two major festivals. Photo: Tumbarumba and District Garden Club.
A flower festival that germinated in a video store in Tumbarumba will this year be the toast of the town as it celebrates a milestone 25 years as a beloved community event.
Yes, this highlight event has teamed up with another to present a weekend of flowering foliage and flowing vino as the 2024 Tumbarumba Spring Flower Festival and Tumbarumba Tastebuds welcomes hundreds of visitors to the Snowy Valleys.
The timing couldn’t be more perfect with the town of Tumut also playing host to the first ever Snowy Valleys Bloom Street Festival – a NSW Government-sponsored gathering set to shut down and light up Elm Street with live performances, cultural activities, creative installations and interactive light features flowing into Rotary Pioneer Park.
Up the foothills and back to Tumbarumba, where the two spring festive events set down for this weekend cover the length and breadth of this region’s heartland including the communities of Tooma, Rosewood, Laurel Hill and a few good spots headed southwest down Jingellic Road.
First there’s the wine.
Increasingly known nationally for its premium cool climate wines, Tastebuds is the annual showcase of the region’s finest with eight local vignerons this year opening their cellar doors and offering exclusive pop-ups to the public all day Saturday and Sunday.
These include Wondalma Vineyard, Courabyra Wines, Obsession Wines, Mt Tumba Vineyard, Kosciuszko Wines, Johansen Wines, Copabella Wines and Allegiance Wines.
From those vantage points, visitors will see how from 300 all family-owned hectares of high country vineyards, about 150,000 cases of wine are made annually, with Chardonnay the wine most often associated with Tumbarumba, and their Pinot Noir rapidly gaining ground.
Such is the diversity of elevation and aspect of vineyards the region also produces other award-winning varietals including Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Gris, Gamay, Shiraz, Merlot, Tempranillo and Sangiovese.
And then there’s the incredible offering of Ladbroken Distillery Brewhouse, the new kid on the block shaking the industry up with its handcrafted Australian single malt whisky and distinctive Australian botanical spirits and liqueurs.
While meandering arounds the foothills and valleys with wine (or gin) on your mind, there’s the opportunity to visit 12 of the region’s open gardens, some of them never before opened to the public.
This is the crowning glory of Tumbarumba Spring Flower Festival’s silver jubilee celebrations. Yes the idea that sprouted in the charming old Tumba Video store where just five members of Tumbarumba and Districts Garden Club decided to host the very first People’s Choice Flower Show.
Some of those five members return year after year to make sure the flower show remains an annual event, featuring locally grown flowers, where the competition is fierce, the blooms impeccable and the colours breathtaking.
Over the years the brief expanded to include open gardens, in town, on farm, even schools, where the public are allowed access to private and public gardens for two days of the year.
This year is the largest exposition yet with seven extensive country gardens, a high school garden, new town gardens demonstrating the potential of smaller spaces, and a garden lovingly tended by an octogenarian who credits her youthful spirit to her gardening passion.
Several gardens are also making a comeback, having not been open to the public for at least a decade.
The festival also features popular sculpture and photography competitions, both sponsored this year by Snowy Hydro, and held at Tumbarumba Showgrounds stadium.
The sculpture competition, which aligns perfectly with the internationally acclaimed Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail in the region, promises to be a feast for the eyes.
The photography competition will include categories designed to inspire and encourage participants of all ages, including special categories for primary and high school students.
Additional information, including maps, is available on the Tumbarumba Tastebuds and Tumbarumba Spring Flower Festival Facebook pages.
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