A SPECIALIST gardening club exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show for the first time and won a coveted gold medal.
Cheshire Bonsai Society is celebrating phenomenal success after being hailed the best RHS exhibitor in the country last year.
After 23 years of exhibiting at the RHS Tatton Flower Show and spurred on by winning two of the RHS's highest accolades, the society was lured by the bright lights and glamour of RHS Chelsea.
Their debut exhibit achieved exceeded all their expectations, winning yet another gold medal.
TV crews captured their success and thousands of visitors from all over the world came to see their trees.
Matt Wood, shows co-ordinator, said: "This really is the cherry on the cake!
“After an eventful 10 months since Tatton, it's brilliant to have come home with the gold!
“We could never have done it without support from the membership of the society, in particular the members who came to help build the display.
“Frances Feldwick, Ray Feldwick, Colin Farrow, Simon Jones and myself worked extremely hard over two long days to build this immaculate display.
“It was also lovely to see many members making the journey down during the week to help talk to the public about our trees."
Experts were bowled over by their stunning exhibit.
In feedback, the judges described their display as ’12-point gold, completely faultless’ and was hailed ‘best nomenclature in the pavilion’.
The show stand featured trees owned and grown by members of the society, set out using traditional Japanese methods of displaying trees.
There were three Tokonoma displays and 10 display poles assembled in a very theatrical way.
Matt said: “Elizabeth Scott, who founded the society in 1987, and has been the rock on which the society has been built, was able to travel to London to bask in the glory and give her full unwavering support.”
The society now boasts 13 RHS gold medals.
Members were invited to the RHS awards ceremony in London last year and received two prestigious honours.
The society won the Holford Medal, awarded to the best exhibit of plants and/or flowers staged during the year by amateurs.
They were also named as winners of the Lawrence Medal, which is given to the best RHS display of the year.
Matt said: “Simon Jones, our resident Bonsai expert, deserves to be given credit for all his work over the years.
“He has led the development of the display, provided beautiful trees and guided members for decades to develop their trees to a showable standard.”
Cheshire Bonsai Society will be exhibiting some of their trees at RHS Tatton from July 19-23.
The society meets on the third Monday of each month at Little Budworth Village Hall at 7.30pm.
A club show is being held on June 19 and a workshop on July 17.
For more details visit cheshirebonsaisociety.co.uk
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