Dawn Fleming's Chelsea Flower Show Experience

I was fascinated by the colour of these flowers waiting to be arranged.

Aren't they gorgeous

A new introduction I believe.

Yes, I like this one.

There is no way I am going to show you my lack of knowledge by saying 'I think this is a ....".

Yes, this is a strange one to put in here, but I feel it will give you some idea of how painstakingly careful the exhibitors are with their flowers. Each Iris bloom was wrapped in tissue for transporting.

This Show Garden was very photogenic. And I loved watching the exhibitors use fine scissors or secateurs to carefully do the final trim around the head and face.

A fascinating garden light.

Acer (Maple). Oh yes, now we come to the bonsai. I love them and plan to try my hand at this 'one day'.

Acer

Yes I can do that, I hope. Wisteria

Acer. I love maples when they are grown in a forest. Imagine this approach with birch.

Acer

I'm guessing but I think this is a Fagus sylvatica

Another Fagus sylvatica (I think).

Morus alba - the white mulberry.

The fruit of the white mulberry.

This exhibit impressed me and I found myself drawn back to it several times over the build-up. The sand sculpture was magnificent; so painstakingly done only to be destroyed after five days. This exhibit (which won a major prize) was put on by a regional area of the UK and depicted many aspects of the local area.

I overheard the sculptress telling a spectator 'they use glue to hold the sand together'.

This is nothing like one of my sand castles.

This is another angle of the 'sand castle' exhibit. The fruit shapes were completely covered with flowers.

A delightful stand.

I could have taken heaps of photographs of cacti

Part of a very finely detailed stand, which I believe, had wonderful design qualities.

I really enjoy taking photographs of flower close-ups and the need for a tripod is evident and red is such a difficult colour to photograph, but I like it.

Remember this was in the set-up stages when the stands hadn't been 'polished or fine tuned' yet.

Very colourful

Clematis. A strong fashion colour of flowers of the last two years at Chelsea has been purple and burgundy working together.

Another exhibit I found myself returning to photograph time and time again. The hyacinths were perfect and very colourful.

A lovely exhibit, still in the Great Pavilion.

This Show Garden was awarded 'Best in Show 2006' at Chelsea this year. As you can tell it was very hard to photograph from ground level. Notice the purple and burgundy fashion colours. Rightly or wrongly, I'm calling this style 'meadow planting' which designers of the last two years have featured in their show garden designs. A wonderful example of this style was the design by Julian Dowle in 2005, which was awarded 'Best in Show 2005'.

The sweet peas in buckets. Ahh the sweet peas, I love them.
This photo depicts what I see when I first enter the Great Pavilion during the build-up stages. Flowers everywhere in buckets, on racks, in boxes with the exhibitors scrambling to get themselves organised. I always look for the sweet pea stand.

I wish now that I had photographed every cultivar

Not like the ones mum used to grow.

There were some wonderful examples of carnivorous plants. Especially the ones that remind me of Sherlock Holmes' pipe.

We are still in the Great Pavilion. Isn't this a lovely way to grow a Laburnum 'Vossi'.

Beautiful dressing of a balcony. They don't miss anything at Chelsea.

Look what they have done with garlic. (I hesitate to write this because I'm not sure). Aren't they wonderful? Sorry, it is a bit blurry, I didn't take my tripod to London.

A Show Garden by one of the major towns in England. That feature is glass with what I thought was either an aluminium or stainless steel backdrop.

Yes, the strawberries. These would have to be the most pampered strawberries in the world. Each year we see them arrive all packed up with straw around their necks like a collar. Obviously this is for protection in the transporting but I also think it is to train them to hang down. Very effective and the aroma when passing by is pretty nice.

Part of the action on Media Day. You will recognise Felicity Kendall from the ABC program 'Rosemary and Thyme'.

I was pushed for room here; the aisle was crowed with people looking at the actor in the previous photo.
The daffodil exhibit with 83 different cultivars on display. There's a story here. I passed this stand earlier in the day and the shelves were completely bare, but there were three exhibitors set up in the aisle, painstakingly arranging the vases. I passed again in what must have been 4 hours later and they only had two vases in position on the shelves. I can only assume they worked all night to finish it before the judging (which I know some of them do).

The moment of being presented with a Gold Medal, my one and a half minutes of fame. The rest of the team were off waiting for the result to be pinned to the board so they could make the grand entrance. Not for me. I felt it was rude to do this so I stayed behind and accepted it on behalf of the team. The camera lady with me is Nia from the Foxtel Lifestyle programme.

Yes this is what all the fuss is about, a Gold Medal from the Chelsea Flower Show.

The crowd looking back from the kitchen.

The waterfall that went through the glass table was a very popular concept with the on lookers. The glass was etched with quotations which would make an excellent conversation starter during a barbecue.

Another very effective waterfall near the kitchen

Don and I got there in time to check out that our son Wes really was working. The planting was going on very well.

We were very honoured to have a visit from several members of the Royal Family.
HRH Prince Andrew talking to garden designer Dean Herald and Wes Fleming.
Prince Andrew had just asked Dean to explain to him the concept of our Australian Garden.

HRH Princess Michael of Kent visited our Australian Garden and was particularly taken with the Xanthorrhoeas

The Xanthorrhoeas were very popular and made a striking contrast with the classical lines of the fireplace and kitchen.

After The Queen left our Australian Garden we were all very excited and were preparing a toast (in her absence) and suddenly we turned around and there was HRH The Duke of Edinburgh standing there. We got a bit of a shock but were delighted to also show him around the garden.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth

Isn't this a special plant.

I love this photograph. I just happened to be right on hand when the sun shone for a few minutes, the only time during the entire week.

We hard-bitten Aussies were so thrilled to have The Queen visit our garden, we couldn't resist a toast to celebrate the occasion.

We took over a didgeridoo player aptly named Didgeri Stu and the sounds emanating form the garden were wonderful with people gathered each time he played. The RHS had to restrict the times he could play because it was affecting the movement of the crowd.

It was difficult to get an overall photograph of the garden. This photograph features the Xanthoreah Don presented to the Queen.

Dean's design featured a sunken area in front of the fireplace. It was a lovely area.

Wes and Dean celebrating the Gold Medal.

Don and I were all dressed up and waiting for the visit from The Queen.

Don was delighted to meet HRH Princess Anne.

Don was preparing to present the Xanthorrhoea to the Queen.

I love this photograph. They call it 'capturing the moment'.

Wes in his work uniform, preparing the Xanthorrhoea that was presented to the Queen.