Garden for gold

By Tania Martin
RISING from the ashes, Flemings Nurseries’ Wes Fleming is aiming for gold once again at this year’s world famous Chelsea Flower Show in London.
His team’s show garden has been more than two years in the making and he has his “fingers-crossed” for the ultimate prize – Best in Show.
Mr Fleming said it had been a long, hard road to Chelsea.
The team had to cancel its plans last year following the Black Saturday fires, after Flemings’ major growing location in Taggerty was destroyed.
“Our priorities changed very quickly,” Mr Fleming said.
Mr Fleming said being a company that in the past had heavily supported and promoted the horticultural industry, it had to change its priorities to concentrate on the organisation and its workers.
“We employ just under 100 people and we needed to make sure that we all still had a job,” he said.
This meant despite months of planning, the annual Chelsea trip had to be canned.
Mr Fleming said the planting site at Taggerty was a huge loss, with a vast amount of uninsured and advanced trees going up in smoke.
Despite the huge setback, Mr Fleming said the company was doing really well, setting up a new planting area in Monbulk.
“We had to tighten our belts and focus more inwardly on reducing our costs because we didn’t have anything to sell,” he said.
This year will be Flemings’ fifth year at the prestigious show but the major prize, Best in Show remains elusive.
In previous years they have won three gold medals and two silver gilts for the Best Show Garden.
“We get closer every year, but it’s going to be very hard for an Australian garden to pull off Best in Show because the difference is when the English think garden they look at aesthetics, but we think usable space,” Mr Fleming said.
“Our gardens are heavily dominated by usable space – we are not quite pretty enough most of the time.”
But despite the differences, Mr Fleming is confident this year’s design is a ‘cracker’.
“It’s built to perfection but what it comes down to is how it’s perceived,” he said.
Mr Fleming said many wondered why he took a team to Chelsea every year, because it’s not about selling plants for the business.
“The main reason I set up this program initially was because the only positive news story we get in horticulture is Chelsea,” Mr Fleming said.
“It has put our industry on the map on a world stage and not seen as just a cottage industry,” Mr Fleming said.
This year the Flemings team are putting together an ‘urban jungle’ inspired garden.
Landscaper Scott Wynd has been working on the design for more than two years, after the trip was cancelled last year.
The design aims to unite the love that Australians have for outdoor living with modern architecture and green space.
It features a swimming pool and spas as well as a sunken lounge, functional kitchen area and a room protected from the elements in a stylish living space that offers the comforts of home in the seclusion of a lush garden.
The results will be released today, 25 May at 9am.