Floristry awards - Thursday 25Lansdowne Florists, from Bournemouth in Dorset, have won Best Floristry Exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. They were also awarded one of just two gold medals: the other was won by Sheila Betts Flowers, of Alton in Hampshire.  The floristry theme this year is 80 Glorious Years, celebrating the Queen's 80th birthday, and Lansdowne's exhibit uses alliums, arum lilies and sweet peas in shades of purple to create displays for five royal palaces. Today's floristry competition is the second of the show: in the first, which ended yesterday, best exhibit went to The Country Garden florists from Denbighshire in Wales.
 It's expected to be a busy day today, with the general public allowed in to see the gardens for the first time. Weather forecasters say some rain is expected, but not the torrential downpours of the last few days. The RHS has put up special viewing platforms outside show gardens on the Rock Garden Bank, which include Chris Beardshaw's Wormcast Garden and the GardenAfrica garden. Congestion outside the gardens in the last few days has made it particularly difficult to see them, but now crowds will now be filtered into slow and fast lanes to get past more easily. | | |
