The central theme, Beautiful Innovation, celebrates the past successes of the nation's capital.

Adelina La Vita, Floriade's marketing and communications manager, said the theme of Beautiful Innovation would be seen throughout the festival.

''We're essentially celebrating all the innovations the nation's capital has produced, especially through our unique identifiers of the national attractions,'' she said.

''We've linked it in to the philosophy of Walter Burley Griffin's design of Canberra using geometry as the link throughout all of the garden beds.''

Andrew Forster, head gardener of Floriade for the past 16 years, said one of the most impressive features of the festival was the Canberra garden bed, which represented the geography of the region.

The garden beds will be shaped into everything from a DNA ribbon, representing Questacon, to an interlocking puzzle, representing the National Museum of Australia and our multicultural history.

As in previous years, each week of Floriade will have a distinct theme.

''All of the themes are wrapped up in the idea of innovation and we hope to present an amazing amount of entertainment and programming along those sub-themes,'' Ms La Vita said.

The themes for the four weeks of Floriade are Smart Living, Future Style, Invention and Contemporary Cultures.

Ms La Vita said last year, more than 442,000 people attended Floriade and organisers were hoping to get at least that many for this year's event.

■ Floriade begins September 14 and will run until October 13. floriadeaustralia.com.