Award winning Chelsea Flower Show
exhibit comes home

See ‘The Heat Is On' exhibit at:

• The Sherwood Garden Centre, Port Elizabeth (17 to 26 October)

The Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden's double international award winning exhibit is on its way to the Eastern Cape.

Come along and see - first hand - the topical display that scooped a gold medal at the 2008 Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show in London, and walked away with the Presidents Most Creative Award – a brand new award which was given by the RHS President Peter Buckley.

Coordinated by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) – the official custodians of the National Botanical Garden's system, and sponsored by First National Bank (FNB), the exhibit is aptly titled “The Heat Is On”. It displays the dramatic effects of climate change on our unique fynbos biosphere, and shows visitors that some of nature's warning signs, which indicate that the impacts of climate change on the South African flora, are already upon us.

In designing the stand, David Davidson and Ray Hudson have created a naturalistic landscape, where two contrasting floristic scenarios are presented. On the one side is a scene rich in diverse and unusual plant species featuring the fynbos community of proteas, ericas, restios and associated indigenous plants. On the other side is a hotter and drier scene where water resources are depleted and the impacts of climate change are evident.

In her keynote address at the opening ceremony, Dr Tanya Abrahamse CEO of SANBI said: “I am thrilled to welcome our breathtaking exhibit home and to share the pride and joy that we felt when we received our awards at Chelsea. Our exhibit did not only captivate the judging panel, it also attracted thousands of visitors including the Princess Royal, Prince Edward and the Duke of Gloucester. I therefore have no doubt that as it does its ‘lap of honour' around the country the South African public will marvel at its striking beauty and ingenuity, and take heed of the very real ‘climate change message' that it so uniquely portrays”.

Read more about the 2008 Chelsea Exhibit