gold medal at chelsea flower show

I wish i were there earlier to help with the making of the tand of Flora Toscana at the Chelsea Flower show , but was had my talk on the name of old roses: umili rose aristocratiche ( humble aristocratic roses., sex, strong women, politics and homosexuality at the great old roses nurseries I landed in Standsted took the bus,and headed to Victoria Station. i decided to improvise a visit to Roger Philips, plant guru and writer of many bibles of the gardening world. we met already, so he was not completely upset by my Continental, improvisation. I introduced myself I am ... sorry to be so rude, but come from the Continent, and we went to visit the garden with my trolley... I adore him and his garden, saw beautiful specimens, helped him to indrntify Caire Jacquier which Peter Beales sold him as alister stella gray. well this garden is a dream, and will speak about it lately.
       I arrived in Kennington at my friend s Georgian house near a Charlie Chaplin s blue tag house. Marino Fantig is an extremely talented interior designer, and whatever he does is magic and gorgeous. The day after I go to meet Blogger Simonetta Chiarugi and she wanted to see Canaletto s exibition, which was nice and  got interrested in female artist from that period Rosalba Carriera which I knew due to a rose  bearing her name bred by Davide Dalla Libera,owner of the Novaspina nursery.He was working previously at  the old rose nursery La Campanella. But I was surprised by this link between London and Veneto and friuli, the regions where i work and live. After that,I  was invited by the great emerging  garden designer Matteo La Civita,   who helped Flora Toscana to win the gold medal at Chelsea for the botanical display .(i helped in his magnificent garden in Gradisca not too far from where i livel.I have a total admiration for his garden and his designs  

    Apart from his great designs he is responsible for the Flora Toscana s stand at the Chelsea Flower show. We met with the staff of Flora Toscana, so could get to know people I would work the next following days . I met Alessandro Martini great plantsman, and responsible of the plants in show and anchorman of Flora Toscana.
Every stand was supposed to have a celebrities, some had Joan Collins, we had Alessandro Martini, an advanced amateur bodybuilder ( now he is competing in Lithuania i think as the best italian advanced amateur ) who was  dressed as a caveman ( meaning almost completely undressed) with a unflated dinosaur( since proteaceas  were  evolving during the time of the dinosaurs,the theme was very well chosen)
 Alessandro became an immediate star of the show. Yes Chelsea is not only about plants, but it is about the glam, the pop, and obviously the gay. So a tuscan tanned greek god full of ripened muscles, will always shine at Chelsea. I met also the sweetest girl on earth, Simona Lo Fidi, and Lorenzo( shame I did not manage to meet the other 2 members of the team luigi Leoni and Lorenzo from flora a toscana )  Alessandro apart from his extraordinary physique is really a nice guy with a big heart, so was very happy to get to know him better, especially because he was flying back to Italy. But a lot of newspapers were talking about him, so it was almost as if he were still there with us. There was a cover of the Telegraph and many more.... The theme was the dinosaur because the stand is about  the Protea family, plants which are very ancient and supposedly grew while Dinosaurs were still alive.It is a good example of a Gondwanan family, with species occurring on virtually every land mass considered a remnant of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, except antartica .
The family and subfamilies are thought to have diversified well before the fragmentation of Gondwana, implying all of them are well over 90 million years old. Evidence for this includes an abundance of proteaceous pollen found in the  Cretaceous coal deposits of the New Zealand. It is thought to have achieved its present distribution largely by  continental drifts rather than dispersal across ocean gaps. Proteaceas are mainly known to be either southafrican or Australian, and either South African people and Australian people were very emotional while seeing our stand, they felt at home , observing the b eautuful display of Proteas and Banksias. Proteaceas are well named, by Linnaeus from the greek god , who used to change form. This family is not only spread around the world ( even in central and south america), but the shapes are very different and strange and have a very alien and tropical appearance and relatively cold hardy if the right conditions are met. With ericaceous soil and an excellent drainage they can survive till minus five degrees celsius and the Telopea( which was very much used in the art and craft movement in australia) can withstand minus 10 degrees celsius. Plus some proteaceas can be used for solar filters and in medicine and Macadamia nut plant belong the family. Proteas are the nationl flowers of Southafrica and you can see them depicted on their currency. People were very surprised by the fact you could grow them in Uk but from london upwards they can grown in a pot in the same way as Citrus.
    We had extraordinary pots coming from Impruneta, the world s best place for high quality pots, and the plants of leucadendrons, leucospermums, proteas, looked stunning on the display. No wonder they won the gold Medal, but with too geniuses like Matteo La Civita and Maurizio Usai, no wonder... . To win a gold medal at chelsea flower show is a life achievement, since Chelsea Flower Show judges are very anal about every single detail, and only the best will be considered. So i was very proud to be in that team, to see celebrities and the greatest nurseries and designers and meet at lunch and to chat with them---
at Chelsea flower show it is not possible to sell plants till the last day at 4 pm, but plants could be reserved. And from 4pm , people start to get insane, and things and displays are broken, a lot of plants are sold some are composted and you really see how people get mad.....
     
       

  pictures are mine expect the pictures from n 3 till 7 where you see Alessandro and Matteo and are taken from flora toscana s website.
 pict number one shows a serrruria x florida carmen , number 2 protea cynaroides little prince , number 3 protea susannae and leucospermumyellow carnival, number 8 me usurping Matteo s , Maurizio s alessandro s and floratoscana s gold medal, but worked a lot and sold a lot opf proteas so ... picture n 8 protea susannae and leucospermum yellow carnival