Chelsea gold & best in show

Tavistock resident Amanda Randell-Cox was recently awarded ‘Gold’ and ‘Best in show’ at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show in the Floristry: Floral Window category. This is the second time Amanda has received a gold award at Chelsea and she is absolutely delighted. She is one of the few British Master Florists in the country, and through her company Flowers et al, she creates beautiful and unique wedding flowers; she is also a tutor at the British Academy of Floral Art in Exeter.

As the flower show was cancelled last year, Amanda’s winning design has been two years in the planning. Her inspiration came from Hotel Endsleigh and its 100 acres of enchanting gardens and woods created by Humphry Repton. She has worked with the hotel for the last 21 years, arranging flowers gathered from the gardens, and giving classes. The judging criteria changed for this year’s flower show and Floristry and Floral Design was divided into themes under an overall concept of ‘Our World’. Amanda chose to exhibit in ‘British Blooms’, a theme highlighting the environmental benefits of buying UK-produced blooms. She wanted her design to reflect the old forms of traditional floristry and so her zinc container is a replica of the hallway container at the hotel - although with the addition of an old washing up bowl to ensure it was watertight! All of the flowers and foliage used in her exhibit were grown in the Hotel Endsleigh gardens, such as wonderful dahlias, penstemons and zinnias, as well as the more intriguingly named cup and saucer vine, toad lily and smoke bush - while the feathers represent the multitude of pheasants roaming the grounds. All the materials used are environmentally-friendly, from the reels of florist’s wire to create the hovering birds with tails of miscanthus, to the green paint of the backdrop, which depicts the tunnels through the woods and is also the colour of the hotel sitting room.

Amanda said: “I haven’t stopped since I came back, but receiving Gold and Best in show was the most incredible experience and I had an amazing time. This was the first and last time Chelsea will take place in September and so the show was a very special autumnal one, with new growers showing autumnal jewels and a different group of trade stands representing clever upcycled/recycled items. There was an atmosphere unlike any other show and I felt enormous joy to have been a part of this unique event.”

For more information about Amanda’s work visit flowersetal.co.uk