LAUNCESTON is the

location for the development of the 20 foot flower arrangement to be on display in the Grand Pavilion at Chelsea Flower Show this month.

National Association of Flower Arrangement

Societies is comprised of 21 areas covering the whole of the UK. These areas are made up of almost 1,300 clubs and nearly 75,000 members. Each year a different area is invited to stage the exhibit in the Grand Pavilion at Chelsea Flower Show and this year the NAFAS exhibit will be done by Devon and Cornwall area.

The designer is Norma Harris who lives in Launceston and who is a hugely experienced floral designer and the title of her piece is 'When you garden from a dream'.

When speaking of what inspired her, Norma said: "Travelling west on the A30, some four miles on the Devon side of the border with Cornwall, there is a group trees. Growing in a rough circle, these trees are the 'nearly home' moment for those of us who live in Cornwall and the 'nearly there' sign for the thousands of people travelling down to spend their holidays in the West Country.

"There are other such tree circles, but ours is so very special because of its position. On high ground, silhouetted against the skyline with the rays of the setting sun shining between the tall, bare, slender trunks, it is magical."

Norma continued: "Occasionally, caught at the right time on a summer's evening there is a sort of hazy quality which diffuses the evening light and creates a dreamlike feeling and, for that moment, the world is an enchanted place.

"Flower arrangers have beautiful gardens. They have an eye for design and this affects both the planting and the layout of their gardens. We decided to create a place where anything and everything 'grows' regardless of the seasons. Precious plants, both real and imagined shelter under tall 'arranged' trees and one can glimpse further delights between the tree trunks. Translucent materials add light and possibly touches of the surreal to the design and the soft pastel colours are interspersed with flashes of brighter hues."

She added: "It is a timeless place — a wonderland perhaps where fruits and flowers mingle, cascading from trees and carpeting the ground. Alice would have felt at home here. Dreams take things that we know and shift them into a different perspective so when you garden from a dream..."

The team are completing a mock-up of the sculpture in a warehouse on the Pennygillam Industrial Estate, Launceston. The 20 foot display will then be dismantled and, two van loads later, re-built again in the Grand Pavilion in time for the beginning of the Chelsea Flower Show which starts on May 25 and runs until May 29.

The team will be travelling up to Chelsea in the very near future and it will take them around four or five days to set up the exhibit. The project has been in the development for two years and the mechanics of the exhibition was started six months ago.

The exhibit is currently in working progress and the finer points are now being completed, ten per cent of the flowers have been used on the mock-up to allow the group to picture how the final product will look. The exhibit is both a lengthy and costly project as it was explained to the 'Post' that the flowers will cost around £6,000, but the entire process will be about £35,000. This has been funded from the NAFAS and 18 months' worth of fundraising that the team has carried out prior to the project, including demonstrations and individualfundraising from members.

The National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies is very proud to have won more than 45 medals at Chelsea Flower Show over the years, including many gold medals, as for last years design. Hopes are high this year that the exhibit will once again win the highest accolade the flower world has to offer.