First amateur bid to bloom at Chelsea
Home-grown talent will vie with designers from as far afield as Australia and Dubai to win the coveted title of best show garden at the world-renowned exhibition.
And for the first time in its century-long history, an amateur will compete with professionals for the award.
Sean Murray, a nurse from Ashington in Northumberland, claimed his spot on the main bloom-lined boulevard after winning the BBC’s Great Chelsea Garden Challenge.
Also hoping to get the royal seal of approval is designer Matt Keightley, 30, who has created a southern-African themed garden for Sentebale, a charity co-founded by Prince Harry, which helps poor children in the kingdom of Lesotho. Mr Keightley, who designed a garden for the Help for Heroes charity at last year’s show, said: “It is such a privilege being part of the show.
“I’m hoping the Queen will like it; that would be the icing on the cake.”
He was tasked with creating a garden inspired by the charity’s new children’s centre, and the garden promises to “transport” visitors in Chelsea, west London, “to the landscape of Lesotho in southern Africa”.
