As some of you may recall, one of my ventures is in garden design and two years ago we successfully took part in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show, one of the most important garden and flower shows in the world.
After a year off, we were honoured to be selected to take part again. Here are some snaps from our participation earlier this year.
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It of course starts off with barren plots of land, and during an incredibly hectic couple of weeks – 32 designers from around the world build garden creations that look like they’ve been there for years.
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I don’t usually get that down and dirty, but as you can see I wanted to prove the versatility of a Big Pilot watch – not just for aviators… but for gardeners too! =P
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Well, won’t bore you too much with the build-up. Let's just say it's a fairly outrageous amount of effort and pressure. Even 48 hours before the show opened some of our star flowers weren't blooming so we had to send team members as far afield as Germany and Spain to hand-carry perfect specimens back!
But let’s cut to the chase and see some highlights from the show:
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And here was our entry finished. There are no straight lines in nature, so we approach gardens with organic / futuristic shapes. In this instance, the marble like surface shimmers in the sun (hard to tell though in photos...)
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](The colour palette of the flowers is taken from Buddhist art and ritual, and with the sun in the right place there was lovely silhouette of the trees (native to China) and the plants against the white backdrop.
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The Chelsea Flower Show is regularly attended by all sorts of VIPs.
We were very fortunate to have most of the Royal family, several ambassadors, celebrities and all sorts of important people personally spend time in our garden.
But perhaps more meaningful was visits from friends, including fellow IWC forum friends.
Here is a snap with Ralph (who with his wife Maureen are fans of the show):
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(yes my watch was set fast and forgot to correct the date...)
And it was also superb to have Andrew and Michèle come all the way from Basel to show their support:
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Overall it was another great and successful show for us (we were delighted to receive a medal).
What was really special was the very many tens of thousands of people who appreciated and admired our creation:
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But it wasn’t just the public that enjoyed our garden, many critics seem to be quite taken by it too:
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Thanks for looking!
Regards,
Thang
