Push for London win

By Paul Pickering
A THREE metre fish tank imbedded in a wall of bluestone will be the centrepiece of Monbulk nurseryman Wes Fleming’s tilt at a third consecutive Chelsea Flower Show gold medal.
On Thursday, the enormous tank was loaded into one of three shipping containers of materials that will begin their journey to London later this month.
Other contents included a massive steel pergola, timber bollards, sculptures, lighting, tools and a power generator.
After claiming the Best in Show title in 2005 and 2006, Mr Fleming and his 20-man team are again shaping as the Australian thorn among the English roses.
Fleming’s Nurseries’s 2007 incarnation of the Australian garden was conceived by landscape designer Mark Browning.
Mr Browning said that this year’s garden would have a distinctly Melbourne feel to it, featuring a raised platform of Port Fairy bluestone as an open, secluded living space.
The platform will be covered by a triangular steel pergola, surrounded by water and lined with groves of towering Himalayan white-barked birches and weeping purple beeches.
“Dark and moody some people have called it,” he said.
“I think mystical might be a better term.”
While Mr Browning was sure that the team would enjoy the English hospitality, he was well aware of the magnitude of the job ahead.
“There’s a bit of partying in there but we have to be pretty serious about it,” he said. “We’ve got 16 days to build a garden that you’d usually spend four months on.”
The team leaves for London in early May, with the flower show beginning on 22 May.