Thinking of traveling to South Africa, Road Trips Gardeners? Consider a stop at the Makana Botanical Gardens in Grahamstown for the third Flower Festival. It’s set for October 29 and 30, 2011.

Guest speakers are Tanya Visser, editor of The Gardener magazine, and David Davidson, who, with Raymond Hudson, has won numerous gold awards at the Royal Horticultural Society’s annual Chelsea Flower Show in London, England.

The flower competition consists of eight sections – Container Plants, Roses, Cut Flowers, Indigenous Plants, Proteas, Orchids, Herbs & Vegetables and the Children’s Section. A group of homeowners in Grahamstown will once again open their gardens to the public over the weekend of the festival. There’ll also be workshops, a plant sale, garden competition, food court and entertainment.

The Grahamstown Flower Festival takes place in the second oldest botanical gardens in the country, which have been redeveloped and upgraded over the past three years.

The gardens, adjacent to Rhodes University, will be taken over in their entirety by the Festival organizers for the weekend of the event – from 2 p.m. on October 28 to 3 p.m. on October 30. Access to the festival grounds will be via the Lucas Avenue gate situated above Rhodes University’s Eden Grove building.

(Photo courtesy of Grahamstown Flower Festival)