The Australian Garden presented by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne has won a prestigious gold medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show May 24-28 2011.

Designed by award-winning landscape designer Jim Fogarty, the garden depicts the arid outback of Australia, characterised by the absence of water, and then the gradually increasing presence of water in landscapes during an imaginary journey to the wetter, urban east coast.

“It has been nearly a two year project which has involved meticulous planning. Our garden is packed purely with Australian native, rare and unusual species and we’re delighted to be educating people about the range of colours, plants and stories of Australia.”

Almost 2,000 shrubs and trees have been hand-selected for the project, including rare and threatened seeds shipped from RBG Melbourne to the UK where they have been grown for the Show Garden.  The seeds were collected as part of the Victorian Conservation Seedbank, an international partnership with the Millennium Seed Bank Project, led by RBG Kew.

Award winning designer Jim Fogarty said: “We are so proud and happy to have received a gold medal today at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2011, the most prestigious garden show in the world.

Dr Philip Moors, Director and Chief Executive of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne said: “We’re honoured to accept the gold award at Chelsea. The reaction from visitors to the show has been universally complimentary and we’ve been inspired by the enthusiasm and interest in our plants and gardens. This is a tremendous accolade for Australian horticulture and design.”

‘The Australian Garden’, sponsored by Macquarie Group, is based on the multi award-winning Australian Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, a division of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne in Victoria.

Dr Philip Moors further comments, “We would not be here without the generous support of the Victorian government, our sponsors and our donors.”

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is regarded as the pinnacle of excellence for landscape design and horticultural display.  Over 157,000 people attend this prestigious annual show, as well as cohorts of the international media.