The biennial Singapore Garden Festival (SGF) is one of the world’s leading garden shows, attracting award-winning landscape and garden designers, florists and horticulturalists from all over the world.
The July 2026 event marks the festival’s 10th anniversary and will be a celebration of two decades of horticultural excellence, floral artistry and green ingenuity in the extraordinary setting of Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay. Recognising that Asia’s premier flower show is still an undiscovered gem for many garden lovers in the UK, independent tour operator ECT Travel has curated an eight-day/seven-night holiday to the world’s greenest city that begins with two full days at this inspiring show.
Cutting Edge Show Gardens
Known as ‘The Chelsea of Asia’, this nine-day extravaganza demonstrates the very best in tropical gardening. The programme is always kept a closely guarded secret, but the 2026 edition will once again see the world’s leading garden designers competing for the prestigious Best of Show Designers’ Gardens. Expect to see a compelling mix of returning champions such as Eliam and Andy Eng, who clinched Gold and Best Construction Award in 2024, and American designers Mark and Emily Cook who were awarded Best of the Show.
‘The gold medal winning gardens certainly would have been awarded gold at the Chelsea Flower Show,’ Bob Sweet, UK Judge for SGF
Sensational Floral Displays
Alongside the gardens, SGF also celebrates the art of floral design. The Floral Windows to the World Championship sees award winning florists from around the world compete for this prestigious crown. The 2026 Championship will feature up to 18 international competitors each representing different countries, in a three-stage competition running from 4th – 6th July 2026 and culminating in a Grand Final featuring the top five competitors at an exclusive ticketed dinner event where the Grand Champion will be crowned. The 2026 names have yet to be announced but the innovation, craftsmanship and botanical artistry on display at this contest never fails to amaze and inspire – 2024’s champion, Estonian designer Ahti Lyra, creations were inspired by the wild forests, rye bread and smoke saunas of his native country.
‘The Singapore Garden Festival is so much more than a garden show. I’ve taken two world flower experts there over the years and they were both absolutely blown away by it,’ Alison Bradley, Head Judge Floral Design at Singapore Garden Festival 2024 & Co Founder of Floral Fundamentals
Singapore: A City in a Garden
ECT Travel’s holiday is also an opportunity to discover one of the greenest cities in the world. Our itinerary includes:
A return visit to Gardens by the Bay, one of the top ten indoor gardens in the world, to visit the Flower Dome with its ever-changing floral displays; the mysterious mountain world of the Cloud Forest and, of course, the towering vertical garden, Supertree Grove. Those with a head for heights may like to stroll along the 22m high Skyway built in these iconic ‘trees’ and enjoy panoramic views of the Gardens and Marina Bay skyline.
A morning at Singapore Botanic Gardens. This 160-year-old garden is the first – and only – UNESCO World Heritage listed tropical botanic garden and is a unique example of the informal English Landscape Movement style in an equatorial climate. Among the gems here is The National Orchid Garden, home to a collection of 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids, making it the largest display of tropical orchids in the world.
Research and development lie at the heart of the Orchid Garden, but it is also a fascinating and beautiful place to visit. The Tan Hoon Siang Mist House, which has been upgraded to mimic a paleotropical garden at an altitude of 650 to 1000m, supports a selection of unique, rare, or award-winning hybrids including the rare Lady’s Slipper orchid (Paphiopedilum).
Endangered varieties found in cool forests above 1000m thrive in the Sembcorp Cool House. Approximately 1000 orchid species and hybrids grow here, including Cymbidiums (Boat orchids), Dendrochilums, and Cyrtochilums, as well as collections of carnivorous plants, and begonias with shimmering leaves that help them thrive in areas with low light levels.
Then there’s the VIP Orchid Garden filled with extraordinary hybrids named after some of the world’s most celebrated personalities. If you have ever wondered what Paravanda ‘Nelson Mandela’ or Dendrobium ‘Jackie Chan’, look like, this is the place to come!
And because we know every holiday needs a foodie treat or two, we also treat our guests to afternoon tea at the famous Raffles Hotel and a street food experience with a Singapore local.
For more details visit https://www.ecttravel.com/tours/singapore-garden-festival-2026-holiday
