Sports Calendar

Claire Cowling, 33, a florist from Suffolk, tried on the hat and said: “This would be geat for Ascot. It is heavy but it feels very strong and sits comfortably on the head.”

Amanda Eldred, the florist who designed the hat, however failed to win a prize from the judges.

Florist of the year with the highest gold award scores went to Neil Whittaker, of Design Element floristry in Manchester. His flattish hat in shades of orange and pink made from orchids and hypericum berries drew breath from crowds on the opening day of the show to RHS members.

He said: “I created it in my shop and took extreme care about the need to balance the hat and to use sprays on the side to equalise the weight. It weighs about six pounds but if anyone wanted to buy one for Ascot I would make it lighter by using a different berry.”

The cost for such a decorative headpiece however is about £800.

It was another Queen, Elizabeth I, who is named as the inspiration for the Perfume Garden, which yesterday won a gold medal by RHS judges and selected for a top award as the most creative garden at the show.

The design by architect Laurie Chetwood with planting by Patrick Collins is the biggest garden at Chelsea covering 100 square metres.

It also boasts a 10 metre tall steel and glass apohtecary which swirls out of the garden like a column of incense. This is where rose petals, berries, seeds and cedar wood from the garden are ingested to create a fragrance once made for Elizabeth I.

The garden is an attempt to take visitors through the story of perfume from plant to bottle.

Mr Chetwood said: “We wanted to create a sensory garden and to get people into our garden to see and smell plants used to make perfume. It was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I that perfume arrived in the UK. She had been experimenting herself with a recipe using the fat of a young dog and crinkled rotten apples. But she later used more exotic plants imported from the Middle East and her favourite was a mixture of rose petals and musk.”

The meticulous planting includes white and pink dianthus which gives off a strong scent of cloves, purple fennel for its seeds, Pinus mugo, a dwarf piine species for its needles, iris and roses for their fragrance and elegant white cedars for their leaves which are also used in the perfume.

This Elizabeth I perfume has been bottled and is on sale for £25 at the show with proceeds to RHS charities. Production may continue especially if the entire garden is transferred to RHS Wisley.

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