Ōtepoti Dunedin's garden festival, reborn. A four-season celebration rooted in the southern soil.
Our Sponsors
Platinum Media Partner
Platinum Sponsor
Gold Sponsor for the Bloom Garden Party
Gold Sponsor for the Family Picnic Day
Gold Sponsor
Bronze Sponsor · Official Festival Photographer
Our Ambassador
"I'm thrilled to be the Ambassador for the Ōtepoti Garden Festival."
"Ōtepoti Dunedin is a magnet for visitors, an iconic garden destination, a botanic centre of excellence, with three NZGT Gardens of International Significance."
Sophie Barker
Mayor of Ōtepoti Dunedin & Festival Ambassador
The Festival
Otago is one of the last regions in New Zealand without an official garden festival. The former Dunedin Rhododendron Festival proved the appetite, nearly 7,000 people and 25-plus open gardens, and that appetite never went away. Garden Ōtepoti Dunedin picks up that heritage and grows it across the whole turning year. From the rhododendron dells and the country's oldest botanic garden to backyard plots and community gardens, this is a festival built on a simple truth: the South grows something extraordinary.
Dunedin Botanic Garden
The signature
Most festivals get one weekend a year. Otago gets four distinct experiences rolling out from spring 2026 onward.
Bloom · Celebration of Gardens
From 1–26 October
Open gardens, the Grand Casino Dunedin Bloom Garden Party, Rhododendron Day, Walks, Talks & Workshops and the Smith & Sons Family Picnic Day on Labour Day.
Explore Bloom Programme
Harvest · Food Resilience
March – May 2027
The season of the table, and of food resilience. Harvest feasts and the growers building a more self-reliant South.
Explore Autumn
Wintergarden · Renewal & Transformation
June – August 2028
Gardens after dark. Light, fire and stillness as the city marks Matariki and the southern sky returns to centre stage.
Explore Winter
Earth Rhythms · Conservation & Wellness
January – February 2029
Long days, slow living. Conservation, wellbeing and the rhythms of the land at the height of the southern summer.
Explore SummerA garden city
From heritage rhododendrons to spring drifts and high-summer borders, a glimpse of what Otago grows.
Otago Open Gardens
Otago Open Gardens is a self-booked garden tour of private and public gardens across the city. You buy in and book your own route over Labour Weekend, by region, by budget, on foot or by bike. Every garden is graded by our team of curators, respected local gardeners.
Our team of curators: Dunedin Botanic Garden's Dylan Norfield, Wylde Willow's Fran Rawling QSM, Hereweka Gardens' Peter Cooke & Anna Moore, the Otago Peninsula's Barbara & Gerry Wilkins, and Taste Nature's Clinton Chambers & Rodney McDonald.
The Curators
A panel of respected local gardeners visit and grade our open gardens. They give their time; in return we send visitors to their own gardens and businesses.
Taste Nature Organic Gardens
Rodney and Clinton bought their Waitati block in 2010, when it was grass, scrub, gorse and rocks. Rodney, a landscaper, has turned it into flower and food gardens and native plantings, built on organics, soil health, biodiversity and permaculture.
See the garden →
Doctor's Point Garden
Curator of all plant collections at Dunedin Botanic Garden, with five Chelsea Gold medals from his years exhibiting in the UK. His own NZGT 5-star garden holds over 1,500 species of rare trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants.
See the garden →
Clinton Chambers, Managing Director of Taste Nature, Founder and Chairperson of Taste Nature Social Enterprise and Founder of GO Dunedin festival
Our Story
The Taste Nature Charitable Trust was created to deliver Taste Nature's community outreach programs. Our goal is to extend the values and objectives of Taste Nature to our communities and to ensure the benefits of Good Food and Health is accessible to all.
We aim to:
Our Social Responsibility holds us to a set of legal, ethical, social and ecological standards. It is a form of business self-regulation to support greater public awareness of ethical and environmental issues. Under our Five Foundational Principles (People, Planet, Profit, Integrity, Leadership) we strive for social change in the areas of education, health and Conscious Consumerism.
Friends of Ōtepoti
As GO Ōtepoti grows into a year-round festival, Friends will get unlimited entry, members' pricing and the warm feeling of funding the kaupapa. Membership opens as we scale — register your interest and you'll be first in.
Annual · price TBC
Annual · price TBC
Annual · price TBC
Garden Shop
Heirloom and heritage varieties, chosen and grown for the southern climate. Buy a packet, fund the kaupapa, keep rare plants in circulation.
A southern-adapted mix of cottage-garden classics.
Vegetables that thrive in the cooler South, saved season to season.
Membership, seeds and small joys for the grower in your life.
Stay in the loop
Subscribe to the newsletter and stay informed about the festival and garden community events.
Your Ōtepoti Dunedin gardening hub · latest events · gardening club info · deals on gardening supplies.
Enter your email and hit Subscribe, it opens a quick message to us and we'll add you. No spam, just seasons.
