Barnsdale Gardens receives silver gilt medal at Chelsea

Nick Hamilton and the Barnsdale Gardens team have won a silver-gilt medal at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.

Entitled ‘A Gardeners’ World’, Barnsdale’s special globe-shaped display was designed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the BBC’s Gardeners’ World TV programme.

Several items and plants in the display celebrate the famous and much-loved presenters of the programme, past and present.

Original anchorman Percy Thrower is represented by a sweet pea that bears his name and his trademark jacket, hung on a rake, looking for all the world as if it has been taken off for a spot of double digging.

Gardeners’ World Geoff is present in the form of a sweet pea and a rose, both of which were named after him, and also a novel pathway made from his iconic muddy-kneed jeans.

Nick said: “Barnsdale was created to house Gardeners’ World so we wanted to commemorate those 50 years of great gardening inspiration. But we also wanted to highlight the plants which can be found in so many UK gardens but which actually originate from all around the world.

“So visitors to the show can come and get a flavour of Barnsdale Gardens, a bit of a history lesson, and also find out where their favourite plants originally came from.”

You can meet Nick and the team at Chelsea on stand number GPF218. The show ends on Saturday when they will begin preparations for Gardeners’ World Live at Birmingham’s NEC in June.