Garden by Fleming's Nurseries takes home best in show with glamorous interpretation of sustainable design
The roar may not quite have been audible back home in Victoria, but the rest of the showground could be in little doubt who was victorious. For the first time in 100 years, a garden design team from Australia has walked away with the top accolade at the Chelsea flower show.
The garden by Fleming's Nurseries is a glamorous interpretation of the theme of sustainable design, where floodwater management comes not from industrial-style tanks or humdrum drainpipes but waterfalls flowing from a rock gorge into a billabong which doubles as a natural swimming pool – one of the build team lost no time in stripping off and diving in to celebrate the win. Perched above the gorge is a studio made of reclaimed timber cut into petal shapes to create an abstract flower shape inspired by Australia's waratah flower. The garden's designer, Australian Phillip Johnson, has achieved the top accolade on his first attempt at the show. But there won't be the prospect of a repeat performance, as sponsors Trailfinders have declared this their final year at Chelsea.
The head of Fleming's, Wes Fleming, said: "I have dreamed of this moment since I was a little boy growing up on the nursery with Mum and Dad regaling tales of the Chelsea flower show. I've been chasing this honour for my whole adult life so to have been awarded not only a coveted gold medal but a best in show at the world's most highly regarded horticultural event is a moment no words can describe. This is the ninth and final garden to ever be presented by Fleming's Nurseries so to go out on such a high is just incredible."
If there was any bitterness from the British designers, they hid it well. The best in show winner two years in a row, Cleve West, congratulated Fleming's on Twitter, adding: "You're gonna need a bigger brewery."
The winner in the fresh gardens category, for smaller, often more conceptual designs, was won by After the Fire, designed by James Basson for Scape Design, while the Japanese Ishihara Kazuyuki Design Laboratory won best artisan garden for their garden based on a traditional tatami room.
Meanwhile Chelsea plant of the year went to the not-so-snappily-named Mahonia eurybrachteata subsp. ganpinensis "Soft Caress", the first oregon grape to have spine-free leaves. Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 minutes ago. ~Chelsea Headlines on One News Page [United Kingdom]~
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