The Road to Chatsworth
During 2015 I had heard rumours of a new Royal Horticultural Society to be held at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. I have always loved Chatsworth and have spent many happy hours there especially walking down by the river. It seemed foolish not to apply for the show. I registered my interested and then followed forms to fill in and designs to draw. It is not simply a matter of 'paying your money' as it were to attend an RHS show. Standards are high in a RHS Floral Marquee and you need to show that you are up to the task.
June 2016 soon came around and we arrived on site. I was a little in awe at actually being outside the Floral Marquee waiting to find our stand and not simply helping out or attending one of the many great shows the RHS organises.
The show opened on the Wednesday but we there unloading on the Friday before. Having never done a display before I had no idea of the time it was going to take us to put together our display. We needed to be ready for judging by 1pm on Tuesday. We got on really well and I was supported by a great team of friends and family. The weather wasn't pleasant as you can probably remember and Monday was torrential rain all day (I was so glad I wasn't outside).
Judging day came and so did the wind! We were just putting our final touches to the display when the call came to evacuate the whole site. With the doors open the marquees had become unsafe. They did manage to judge with the doors shut later in the afternoon.
We arrived early on Wednesday morning to find an A5 white envelope ready and waiting for us......excited I opened it to find a wonderful RHS Silver Medal. What a proud moment and worth all of the hard work. Blood, sweat and tears, literally.
