Cape Town - South Africa is ready to take its green fingers to the world stage once again this year, when the annual Chelsea Flower Show takes place from May 22 to 26.
The team from South Africa will be among 10 show gardens and 16 smaller gardens from some of the top designers and landscapers in the world.
The Cape Argus caught a glimpse of the South African entry to the prestigious show, which features strong indigenous design tones.
There are a few changes to the overall show that attendees can look forward to.
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There’s a reinvention of the Fresh Gardens category. This will now be known as Space to Grow, for gardens that offer “take-home ideas and messages”. There are eight Space to Grow gardens this year.
South Africa will also be showcased by designer Jonathan Snow, who was behind the Trailfinders South African Wine Estate display, which features a Cape Dutch veranda. “The winelands of South Africa’s Western Cape are instantly recognisable and strikingly beautiful,” the entry reads.
“In this garden is a snapshot of a traditional South African wine estate. A charming Cape Dutch homestead with its pretty veranda, leading down some steps into a formal, romantic garden, and then through a gate to a vineyard, provide the backdrop to a representation of that country’s wild and beautiful fynbos landscape.
“Plants of the fynbos including agapanthus, gladioli, kniphofias and pelargoniums are shown growing in their natural environment among an evergreen, leathery-leaved, Mediterranean-type shrubland, with occasional splashes of bright colours and exotic-looking flowers. In contrast, the manicured domestic garden contains calmer, softer tones with fresher, green foliage. Representing an area of recently burnt fynbos, bright bulbs, seedlings and fresh grasses can be seen growing among the blackened remains of older vegetation.”