Months of planning, Hundreds of manhours, 6 VIP Guests, 1 Jester, 1 Jellybean and 92 Bundles of Brancaster Reed - Press Day at Chelsea Flower Show for Flights of Fantasy

After months of planning, hundreds of man hours, a similar number of flowers and plants and 92 bundles of Norfolk reeds…press day finally arrived and after enjoying a substantial ‘sticky meal’ with our VIP guests at the famous Bill Wyman’s ‘Sticky Fingers Restaurant we were certainly ready for the big day.

We’d like to give a special mention to 10 year old Lauren Byrne. Flights of Fantasy supports the Wirral-based children’s charity The Jellybean Kids’ Appeal and Lauren, spending time on the children’s ward at the NHS Wirral University Teaching Hospital, entered our competition to name our Chelsea garden. Her suggestion of ‘The Jelly Jewel Garden’ was voted a hands-down winner and we were delighted to welcome Lauren, her mum and of course, Jellybean himself, to be our VIP guests, accompanied by Debbie Green, fundraising manager for the Jellybean Kids’ Appeal. The children found plenty to do in testing out the two playhouses, learning juggling tricks and balancing skills from Jonathan the Jester. Click here to visit the Jellybean Kids' Appeal website...

We also had more than our fair share of news scoops, with Flights’ founder and owner Russell entertaining Radio Norfolk’s breakfast and lunchtime listeners, whilst fame on the small screen was ours for the taking with film crews from the BBC and Sky News being unable to resist the magic of our Tudor Cottage and Tudor Fortress playhouses.

At midday we welcomed Sandy Worth and Col. Mike Bowles to the garden for a photo shoot to raise awareness for the brand new ‘Falklands’ Poppy – a new super poppy grown and launched by Sandy Worth’s Watermeadow Nursery. For each poppy a percentage is donated to the Falklands Foundation.

But happily, this year’s show was well worth our efforts and back home in rural Norfolk, we are raising a collective toast to another extremely successful exhibition. Our talented garden designers Jenny and Charlotte created a beautiful, Tudor inspired scheme complete with old English roses from Robert Mattock and once again, we were delighted to be one of just seven commercial exhibitors selected from over 250 to receive a coveted ‘Excellence in Presentation’ trophy.