For anyone interested (and for the Posterity that has, as George Bernard Shaw pointed out, no vote) I am putting up two illustrated articles that between them tell much of the story of my efforts at these two shows.

On the eve of the Chelsea Flower Show Saga magazine published a feature article about me which is here: Chelsea Flower Show, Saga Magazine, Anthony Samuelson.

For the Hampton Court Flower Show my sponsor Prudential Insurance produced a brochure. which is here: Hampton Court Flower Show, Anthony Samuelson, Prudential brochure

Click on thumbnail images (left) to see larger versions.

Both the Saga magazine article and the Prudential’s brochure for Hampton Court benefit from the independently-minded insights of the brilliant writer James Alexander-Sinclair. He has a web site devoted to garden and landscape design that can be found here. James sent me a very amusing Christmas card (the digital sort) that is here: 08-ostriches-chirping.mp3 James says that he thinks it might be festive Ostriches singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing, but it could just as easily be a cover of Shakin’ Stevens’ Blue Christmas.

Whenever I was asked whether I would do another flower show and I always replied: No. I said that 2007 would be my one and only year. This remains the case. There will, however, be a book all about my experiences in the world of gardening in due course.

I could not be doing gardens at Chelsea and Hampton Court were it not for the fact that I have been able to take out a brilliant life time mortgage with the Prudential. Life time mortgages are not for everyone but they are certainly the ticket for an old fellow such as myself who has lived in a big old listed house for decades, bought it for the price of a couple of dozen Mars Bars (the old big sort) and has so much stuff that downsizing would be the equivalent of being stuffed into an iron maiden for months on end watching it happening outside.

Read the rest of this entry »

Statement to the Press issued 2 July 2007

On Thursday 28 June 2007 I instructed solicitors acting on my behalf to return to the Royal Horticultural Society the card announcing the award of a Silver-Gilt medal in the Flora range which, following judging, was placed on my exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show 2007. The letter requested that all references to the award in the Society’s records be expunged. I have no reason to proud of the award.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Royal Horticultural Society asks all successful applicants to fill in a questionnaire giving details of their horticultural backgound and the garden which they will be staging at the show. Well - it was their idea!

How did you get into horticulture? Did you start and build up your own business or are you a career changer? How and why did you get involved in garden design?

Read the rest of this entry »

Two News Releases have now been issued and will be found on this page, the most recent at the top.

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release 15 March 2007

Objets Trouvés at The Chelsea Flower Show 2007

The roof garden designed by 77 year old novice gardener Tony Samuelson for this year’s Chelsea Flower Show will turn more than a few heads when the show opens on 22 May 2007. Chelsea is about design and all things horticultural but most of all it’s about plants and the plants on this garden are growing out of all manner of rare, beautiful, common and utilitarian objects that Tony Samuelson has collected over the course of his exciting life.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday 14 March 2007

NOTE: LINKS WILL BE ADDED SHORTLY. SEE CAST LIST PAGE FOR CODE NAME INFORMATION.

I spent the weekend drafting the catalogue entry for the Chelsea show, getting up a sponsorship proposal for Chelsea (probably too late) and drafting the Home page for this web site (may be too long and too many links). Decisions decisions decisions. One is not to mention most members of my family by name until we see how all this plays out. So with Nc-1’s help I assign a code name to everyone with a place on the family tree. It turns out that there are 70 of us. Everyone is ranked by age so with Nc-1’s list comes everyone’s birthdays which I shall continue not to remember. Nc-1 is my eldest niece.

Read the rest of this entry »