Piece of 'Old Blighty' wins over garden lovers

STACY SQUIRES/The Press

BLOOMING GOOD: Kerryn Reynish, left, and Jordan Frizzell, with the Ellerslie Flower Show's people's choice award for the garden An Englishman's Retreat.

Relevant offers

A traditional English garden has won the hearts of Kiwis at the Ellerslie International Flower Show.

Rain and cold winds buffeted showgoers in Christchurch yesterday, but there was a place in the sun for An Englishman's Retreat, created by British designer Chris Beardshaw, which won the people's choice award.

The exhibition garden, which stretches across the shore of Victoria Lake in North Hagley Park and extends 64 metres into the showground, is the largest in the show's 15-year history.

Show managing director Dave Mee said the garden was a "pretty strong winner" by the end of public voting.

Outerspace Landscapes managing director Jordan Frizzell, whose company built Beardshaw's design, said he was "pretty ecstatic".

Twenty-five people had worked "from sunrise to sunset" to build the garden in the weeks before the show, spending more than 4000 hours working on the 636-square metre display, he said.

Although the highlight for most was the more than 10,000 plants in the display, Frizzell said the rest of the garden was equally important to its success.

The award announcement was the highlight of another wet and windy day, Mee said.

He did not have attendance estimates for the day, but said it "felt similar" to Thursday, when about 10,000 people visited.

- © Fairfax NZ News