Este in Bloom, April 18th My Meeting on Natural Plant Defense

Final preparations are underway in the city of Este (Padua) for the famous floricultural exhibition taking place next weekend: from April 17 to 19, 2026, the city at the foot of the Euganean Hills will host the XXIII edition of Este in Bloom. This gardening event transforms the Gardens of the Carrarese Castle, Piazza Maggiore, and the streets of the historic center into a vast, dispersed garden every year. Following the success of last year's edition, the event remains a must-attend occasion with my meeting on April 18.

• Meeting titled “Natural Defense of Our Plants with Organic Products” at the Rose Hall, Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 PM.

• Children's Workshop “Let’s Make Seed Bombs” at the Ex Church of S. Rocco, Via Monache 5,

Saturday, April 18: Session 1 from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM – Session 2 from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM

The program is truly rich in events, exhibitions, and initiatives, with the common thread chosen for the 2026 edition being The Gardens of Beatrice, a tribute to the 800th anniversary of the death of Beatrice I d’Este, Blessed Beatrice, a symbol of harmony, sensitivity, and spirituality.
The Gardens of the Carrarese Castle will host three days of floricultural exhibitions, welcoming 105 exhibitors across a total of 2300 square meters of exhibition space. Among these, 6 companies will participate for the first time, further expanding the variety of flowers and plants available.
The historic center, which the event will extend into, as usual, on Sunday, April 19, is also seeing a significant increase in attendance, with a doubling of floricultural operators.
The symbolic heart of the event, alongside the Gardens of the Castle, will be Piazza Maggiore, which for the 2026 edition will transform into a garden that unites nature and urban space, with a setup curated by Vivaio Central Park, designed by Mario Mariani and Matteo Boccardo, in collaboration with Amorfini Garden and Davide Boschetti.
The Piazza of Este in Bloom 2026 will guide visitors through a slow and conscious experience of personal rediscovery, featuring green installations and artistic proposals that will interact with the city's historical architecture, through the illusion of plants and vegetation growing from within the square itself.

Alongside the floricultural exhibition, the festival offers a comprehensive cultural program, which, alongside some important new features, will also see the return of speakers already appreciated in previous editions, ensuring continuity and quality of content. Some of the meetings, in the form of musical conversations, will be curated by Wigwam Club Historical Gardens of Venice, coordinated by president Mariagrazia Dammicco with clarinet improvisations by Oreste Sabadin. All conferences will be held in the Rose Hall, at the former Cattle Market of the Gardens of the Castle.

Among the guests, the name of Alessandra Viola, journalist, screenwriter, and author, stands out, who will present her “Ask a Plant. How Seeds, Trees, and Flowers Teach Us to Be Happy”, published by Laterza. The author, on Saturday, April 18 at 5:30 PM, will guide the audience on a journey to discover the teachings passed down by plants, to learn from them how to feel part of the whole and be happy, with real botanical exercises that reconnect us to feeling “in network” with other living beings. The conversation will be led by journalist Mariagrazia Dammicco with clarinet improvisations by Oreste Sabadin.

Then, on Sunday, April 19 at 10:00 AM, Dr. Sabina Magro will offer an overview of the history of Blessed Beatrice I d’Este and Villa Beatrice, the Benedictine monastery she founded, now transformed into a museum that will be renewed from May, allowing visitors an immersive and multimedia experience. This event is part of a broader calendar of meetings dedicated to the anniversary of the death of Blessed Beatrice I, curated by the Province of Padua.

This year, Isabella Dalla Ragione, agronomist and president of the Archeologia Arborea foundation, which focuses on the concrete safeguarding of biodiversity, will also return to speak about the “Monastic Gardens of the Middle Ages between Symbols, Food, and Medicine.” Her meeting is scheduled for Sunday, April 19 at 11:30 AM.

In closing, on Sunday, April 19 at 5:00 PM, Marco Munaro and Felice Gambarin will present the joint intervention “Poetry Art Nature. A Illustrated Herbarium between Art and Poetry.” In their meeting, the poems of Marco Munaro will be combined with images from masterpieces of ancient and modern art, to highlight the essence of nature, poison, and cure, through art and the evocation of ancient myths.

The event, thanks also to the collaboration with local Entities and Associations, will feature around 50 collateral events, including workshops and laboratories, meetings with experts, guided tours of city monuments, exhibitions, and displays.
Among these, the exhibition project “Espero” curated by Contemporary Art by Davide Gemmo, Irene Stellin, and Bonghi, an event-exhibition aimed at networking between young talents and local realities, with numerous related initiatives, some dedicated to local schools. The exhibition will take place in the Fish Market Hall, from April 3 to 13.
The Fish Market Hall will then host the G. B. Ferrari Artistic High School, with “The Gardens of Beatrice – The Atlas of the Rives,” from April 16 to 19. The young artists from G. B. Ferrari will set up the hall with original works, bringing visitors into the hortus conclusus typical of the times of Beatrice I d’Este.

See you at Este in Bloom, an unmissable free entry event, Francesco Diliddo.