Creation of a Gold medal Winning Display

[palmtreesforpleasure]

It takes a year in Planning, test structures, put them up, pulled down, thrown away and then started again and lots effort from many people.

There I was , with my wife Denise, along with Host Paco Marti (Spanish IPS director) at a Paella in Valencia put on for Denise and I by the very hospitable members of the Spanish Palm Society, sun shining, lots of satisfied stomachs ahh life is good.

Suddenly the phone rings from London, It is Wes Field from Plantation 2000 in Queensland (Cycad advisor, propagator for Nong Nooch tropical gardens) Where are you? will you be in London in 36 hours time? yes we said, good he says, need you in Chelsea to unload boxes and help unpack, be there at 8am and by the way , find some steel capped boots. Hmm if you want to help!! good bloke is Wes.

Luckily we were arriving back at our sons the next afternoon who happens to live on the outskirts of Lomdon , got the boots at 16.55!!

Next morning, i met a cold , happy Wes waiting for me at the gate at 8 am.. Once through the gate we went inside (luckily, it was very cold) the temporary building the Chelsea flower show uses for display of temperature displays.

Inside we got a cheerful welcome from Aussie's Cheryl and Emma who advise Nong Nooch on their bromeliads, Next warm welcome was from Kampon (the cheerful creator and owner of Nong Nooch Tropical gardens) and the well respected Anders Lindstrom who manages the collection of plants there. It was to be a good day.

The 40ft container arrived and work began. Wes opened it and we nearly got knocked over by the fumigation fumes. Once the container was aired Wes and his team of thais began unloading,

Lampon, Cheryl and myself began unpacking hundred and hundreds of packages, Emma kept filling up the skips with packing material, with help from Wes in the afternoon once he had finished unloading. A team of 6 hard working ThaI's from Nong Nooch assembled the display, piece by piece, a very precise, fiddly job. Kampon and Anders kept us all organised, including keeping moral high, lots of satisfying hard work with lots of laughs in between, a good day had by all AND many tired people. Thanks for the invite Wes.

For all the days before the shows opening the clever flower arrangers arrived from Thailand with 40,000 orchids along with many other plants to arrange, The detail in their craftsmanship cannot be appreciated in the photo's unfortunately, You need to be standing there and take it all in to really appreciate the effort they went to and you still cannot work out how they do some of it.

Here are the pictures of that first day followed by pictures in the next post of it all completed for the show.

Cheryl with parcels

A happy Kampon and Anders

A busy Emma

A tired Wes and Cheryl day End

regards

Colin

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Here are the pictures of the completed display

each day any damaged or decaying flower is replaced to keep the display looking fresh.

Wes's last shift at the show, he does look happy, doesn't he :-)

The Gold Medal

enjoy

regards

colin

[Kev Spence]

Hi Colin, fantastic displays of orchids, alot of hard work but the end results are amazing.

Jackie Spence.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Whoa Colin you are even busier when on holidays abroard !

very nice display and a different kettle of fish to the pacsoa set up for sure !

Troy

[Walter John]

Thanks for posting Col, looks mighty cold.

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Hi Jackie,

Thank you and Kev for yesterdays hospitality. Saw on the edge forum that you have planted the Cycas revoluta already.

You would both enjoy the Chelsea flower show, can recommend you get tickets next year.

Hi Troy

have more posts to do on palms, got to find some time, still travelling around, It was nice to finally meet Kev and Jackie, i believe i have to replace a palm for you both :-)

Hi Wal,

It was B.....y cold, but a good time had by all, Cheryl, Emma and and Wes, along with many others worked hard, they deserve a rest now. I was lucky i only did a day, say Hi Donna

hope all your palms are thriving

will catch up soon

regards

Colin

[GTClover]

Stunning!

[Cindy Adair]

I would certainly have enjoyed being there and helping in any capacity.

An amazing display of beauty, hard work and creativity and also good to see the now familiar faces from Nong Nooch again!

Thanks, Colin!

[bgl]

Colin,

What an incredible opportunity to have been part of this! And that display is certainly stunning! Congratulations to Kampon and Anders and Nong Nooch and everybody who helped in the process! Winning the gold medal - again - is quite the feat!

Bo-Göran

[MattyB]

Woah! That's amazing! They brought all those flowers from Thailand too? How do they keep them alive?

[Jeff Searle]

I sincerely (would) expect nothing less. Congrats!