Bermuda garden at Chelsea Flower Show wins bronze

The Fairmont Hamilton Princess today announces that the “Bermuda Double Fantasy Garden,” has won a bronze medal in the Chelsea Flower Show.

Award-winning floral artist and architect, Nicky Gurret, created a garden to reflect the best that Bermuda has to offer, from the island’s verdant landscapes to the unique pink sand beaches. The display also plays homage to The Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel, which will celebrate its 130th anniversary next year, and Princess Louise, after whom the hotel was named as she often visited the island on winter retreats and called Bermuda a place of “eternal spring.”  The garden also honoured John Lennon, who visited Bermuda in 1980 after which he created his last album called “Double Fantasy,” after which the Bermuda garden at the Chelsea Flower Show is named.

At the show on Monday, Ms Gurret was dressed as Princess Louise, painting at her easel and cutting a cake to celebrate The Fairmont Hamilton Princess’ 130 years of hospitality in Bermuda.

The garden incorporated a pink beach, a drift wood bench and a sculpture. It was a symmetrical design with a yin yang concept. Ms Gurret’s vision is that two different but influential people can come together to create one whole, which took inspiration from John Lennon’s album, “Double Fantasy,” named after the freesia he saw during a walk in the Bermuda Botanical Gardens.

Ms Gurret draws her inspiration from Bermuda’s rich and vibrant flora and fauna, which inspired her to work with nature. Visitors to the show have been able to experience plants typically found in Bermuda, such as the hibiscus, the Bermuda Easter lily and palm trees.

Her career as an architect helps Ms Gurret to create structural gardens and floral arrangements, which flow with the use of nature’s lines and curves.

Ms Gurret obtained a license to exhibit a copy of a watercolour that Princess Louise painted while in Bermuda in 1883. The replica of the watercolour was placed on the easel Ms Gurret has placed in garden.

Ms Gurret has exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show four times in the past: three times in floral arranging and once in creating a garden for The Grand Pavilion. On each occasion, her displays have won medals. In 2005, Ms. Gurret was awarded a bronze media for ‘A Glimpse of Paradise’ display. In 2007, her second exhibit, ‘Floral Profusion, achieved a silver medal. The2009 entry won a silver gilt with a structural floral design titled, ‘Thoroughly Modern.’ Her most recent exhibit received a silver medal in 2011, which was a garden design called, “The Bermuda Honeymoon Garden,” which she created in collaboration with the Department of Parks.

She has won several other floral design awards, such as first place at the NAFAS National Show in Bournemouth for her flower arrangement titled, ‘On a Wing,’ as well as winning the Bermuda NAFAS cup on several occasions at the annual Bermuda exhibition. Ms. Gurret has exhibited numerous times in The World Association of Flower Arrangers (WAFA), which takes place every four years and this year will take place in Dublin, Ireland in June, where Ms. Gurret will exhibit.