’50 Shades of Gold’ Garden wins Gold at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Capel Manor College is delighted to achieve a prestigious Gold award for their unique ‘Fifty Shades of Gold’ exhibit and a Silver award for their ‘Wild Garden’ floral arch display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The ‘50 Shades of Gold’ garden was designed to celebrate Capel Manor College’s 50th Golden Anniversary, exploring the science behind the colour yellow, why it evolved in the plant world and what it means to gardeners and plant breeders. The exhibit tells the story of the science and natural history though 50 different plants with gold leaves or gold flowers that express some of the richness and variety of gold in the natural world and in our gardens.

National Garden Centre and Plant Sales Manager at Capel Manor College, Julie Dowbiggin, led a team of apprentices and gardeners to Gold with the beautiful and inspiring ‘50 Shades of Gold’ garden. Julie said: “Winning gold on our 50th year is wonderful, we’re thrilled! To showcase the College’s 50 year golden history, we decided to look at yellow plants and pigments in the plant kingdom. The exhibit has been well received by the show visitors as well as the judge and our garden is proving successful for the College with the potential recruitment of new students and new visitors to our lovely gardens in Enfield.”

In addition, Capel’s Level 4 Higher Diploma Floristry students received Silver in the RHS Chelsea Future Florist Competition, for their stunning ‘Wild Garden’ floral arch display. It is the first ever time the students had competed and they were asked to submit design ideas for this year’s show as part of an internal college competition. Their brief: to create a floral wedding arch for a spring wedding. The final design of a ‘Wild Garden’ arch was inspired by nature, using a woodland theme with blue, lilac, purple and white flowers and foliage.

Chair of the Capel Manor Governing Body, Roger McClure, explains: “Winning Gold and Silver awards at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a brilliant success for the College and a result of a long period of planning and hard work by a team of staff and students. I’d like to extend a special thank you to all those directly involved. As a College, we’re delighted to continue showcasing the incredible talent of our students at prestigious events such as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.”

Principal, Malcolm Goodwin added: “This success is a credit to the whole College. The students and staff have put in an incredible amount of time, effort, passion and skill into their winning entries and richly deserve this recognition. It goes to show that embarking on a new career in Floristry, Horticulture or any of the subjects we teach can not only be rewarding but bring success at the highest levels.”

The ’50 Shades of Gold’ exhibit and ‘Wild Garden’ floral arch display will remain at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, until 26 May 2018.

If you can’t make the Chelsea event, you can visit Capel Manor Gardens in Bullsmoor Lane, Enfield where the College intends to create a permanent display garden based on the winning design for all to see as part of its 50th Golden Anniversary celebrations planned for later in the year.