Chelsea Flower Show: Kerry gardener’s ‘dreams come true’ with gold medal and award

A former AIB banker-turned-gardener says he feels “like a five-year-old getting presents” after winning a major award as well as a prestigious gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in London.

Billy Alexander of Kells Bay House and Gardens in Cahersiveen on the Ring of Kerry arrived this morning into his exhibit at the show to find a coveted gold medal from Britain’s Royal Horticulture Society (RHS) sitting on his stand.

Then at about 11 o’clock today, he found out his fern garden had also beaten off about 50 other contenders to win the award for best exhibit in the Great Pavilion at the flower show, which runs all week in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in west London.

“It is a dream come true,” Mr Alexander told The Irish Times, shortly after finding out that his garden had won the overall award in his section.

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“A BBC camera crew came along and said to me that they needed to film a headshot of me. I said: ‘Okay, so do you want me to say anything?’ They said no and I thought: ‘This is a bit strange.’ And then the president of the RHS came along beside me and whispered in my ear that we had won the Pavilion award.”

[ Collecting ferns was like an addiction, I just kept collecting ]

Mr Alexander’s entry to the flower show is a garden inspired by the bogs of west Kerry, and includes rare and native ferns and a stone wall typical of the region. He says it was shipped from Kerry to London, via Holyhead, about eight days ago in a 40-foot lorry.

“We had to deal with Brexit paperwork and all the complications of that. Everything came in on the lorry in one go – rocks, moss, the wall and all the plants,” he said.

“I started on the garden and after I finished it, I just pottered around here for the last two days.”

The newly-crowned King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the flower show and Mr Alexander says the queen came over to speak to him.

“We spoke about tree ferns and her garden in Wiltshire. We had a grand old chat. I’ve also met Charles on several occasions through horticulture. He has bough a few of my ferns.”

This year’s gold medal is Mr Alexander’s second at the Chelsea Flower Show, where he also won one in 2021. He also won a gold medal from the RHS at the Hampton Court show the same year.

[ Irish horticulturist wins gold at Chelsea flower Show ]

“It’s not an ego thing. It’s just a great honour, especially winning the best exhibit award with a fern garden. Generally, floral displays can ben seen as more spectacular. On a personal level, it’s a fulfilment of what you believe in,” he said.

Mr Alexander says he used to work in “middle management” in AIB before turning to horticulture. He bought Kells Bay in 2006 during the Celtic Tiger when “mere mortals could borrow large sums, and that’s what I did”. As well as a vast garden, it also includes an 11-bedroom guest house.

He says the business was his hard during the crash between 2008 and 2010. “Essentially, I had no business. Then I took a package from AIB about 11 years ago and everything we have achieved has happened since then,” he said.

He said winning the gold medal and the award will boost his profile further in the horticulture world. “Paddy Harrington can win a major in the golf. In gardening, this is the equivalent for me.”