Kim Helfrich
South Africa will be going for gold – yet again – at the Chelsea Flower Show in London next month.
The South African exhibit, created by a team from the SA National Biodiversity Institute’s Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, has over the years garnered no fewer than 31 gold medals, two silver gilt medals, three silver medals and a number of special awards at what is regarded as the Olympics of flower shows.
This year will be the 37th time South Africa shows off its flora and, as always, exhibit designers have come up with a fresh look at the country’s diverse floral heritage.
“Tourism is a major focus of the Chelsea show and the Kirstenbosch exhibit has directly led to more people visiting South Africa.
This year we plan to spread the panorama that is South Africa even wider to make travellers more aware of what South Africa has to offer in terms of both its natural and cultural heritage,” said David Davidson, co-designer of the exhibit with Ray Hudson.
The SA exhibit at Chelsea, which starts on May 22, will take the visitor on a journey across the country and offer insight into different destinations.
“Just as nature has inspired this year”s exhibit so has the country’s cultural diversity. We have created a combination of rich botanical biodiversity and iconic architectural elements giving Chelsea visitors an intriguing glimpse of our land.
“Rather like the diary of a traveller, the exhibit documents scenic attractions, botanical and cultural, of the south-western Cape coast and interior (the fynbos biome) extending into Namaqualand and the semi-arid Karoo (succulent Karoo biome) and on to KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga (grassland biome),” Davidson said.
Artworks will form framed backdrops with the flora of various biomes brought to life in accompanying landscape displays. These will be interspersed with cut-outs, similar to a pop-up storybook, illustrating architectural and cultural elements from each location.
The roads travelled by the exhibit take in a Cape Dutch manor house, a fisherman’s cottage, a rough Karoo farm track and a traditional Ndebele archway, among others.
This year the Kirstenbosch team have not had to worry about funding for the exhibit with the SA Gold Coin Exchange continuing as the major sponsor.
Without intervention from the coin and medal dealer, along with the Western Cape provincial government, South Africa would not have been represented last year at Chelsea.
The sponsors” faith was rewarded with a gold medal and hopes are high Kirstenbosch will this year bring home more gold, setting an example for the Games in London in July.
kimh@thenewage.co.za
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Article source: http://www.thenewage.co.za/49180-1009-53-SA_pulls_out_stops_for_more_Chelsea_gold