CHRIS

Lecturer, Garden Designer

Chris Bird has a long history of designing gardens for RHS Chelsea and his track record includes nine Gold medals and six Best in Category awards. Chris’s 2021 entry, The Natural Kalendar, won a Silver-Gilt medal, this exciting accolade marked Sparsholt College’s fourth Silver-Gilt medal, adding to the impressive collection held by the College. As a Lecturer at Sparsholt College he works closely with Plant Heritage, the RHS and the National Trust. Chris has co-ordinated the college’s displays for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show since 1998.

NINA

Student – Construction Team leader

I’m excited to meet professionals in the industry as well as hopefully some celebrities! 

As Construction Team Leader I’ve been very involved with building and painting our bright burgundy shed as well as planning elements such as our windows, which are a key feature for our design. The stained-glass windows originally came from a chapel near Dover.” 

 

LARA

Student – Construction Team

“I’m very excited about going to RHS Chelsea, I think it’s a great privilege and a once in a lifetime opportunity. I think the design is very beautiful. The aim of the garden is to be a calming and relaxing place and we’ve all put in our favourite plants which relax us. 

We’ve just finished building our shed which was great – I’d never done it before so it was a new challenge for me.” 

 

JESSICA

Student – Plant Team Leader

“I’m responsible for making sure all the plants are where they should be and in the condition that we want them to be for the show. We’re currently growing a lot of plants, most of them from seed – at the moment we have just over a thousand plants ready to go.  

One of the big points about the garden is that we’re talking about wellbeing and plants that mean something to people – there are lots of personal plants in this garden and I’d like to know what other people’s are from the show. It’s great to be supporting Maggie’s in Southampton, I think the work they do is really important.”   

DOMINIKA

Student – Graphics Team

“I’m really excited to go to RHS Chelsea to meet so many people and see all the amazing garden design ideas. A big part for me is the inspiration – in my free time I do a lot of art and natural things really inspire me. 

As an immigrant I’d love to introduce people who are foreign like me to more professional aspects of horticulture and hopefully inspire them to go into a career in horticulture as well.” 

 

JOE

Student 

“The opportunity to go to RHS Chelsea is incredible, to be able to be part of something as prestigious as this in horticulture is going to be a great boost to me in my future career.”