South African botanist Leon Kluge and team wins gold at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The South African team led by botanist and landscape designer, Leon Kluge, from Franschhoek, has won Gold at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show hosted in London.  

This year’s win said, Leon, who teamed up with artist Tristan Woudberg for their exhibition featuring South African fynbos, was unexpected. “You know one can’t predict winning gold as there are so many elements looked at and points given to things out of your control, so we were very surprised.”

Being awarded gold and the prestigious Lawrence medal (awarded to the best exhibition of all the RHS shows during the year, and a first to South Africa) said Mr Kluge is an outstanding achievement and an absolute highlight for the team. “Professionally it’s the highest accolade in botany exhibitions and not easy to get, it was a huge surprise, and we didn’t expect it all,” he said.

For him personally it's the fulfilment of one of his aspirations. “It’s an achievement that I’ve always strived for and never thought I would get,” he said.

The award brings with it much more recognition on world landscape stages for Mr Kluge and the South African team, recognition he said, which elevates them to the top tiers in terms of global botany circles.

This year the SA team’s exhibition featured more than 25 000 stems of fynbos and many other unique design features and additions. Inspired by the Indian and Atlantic oceans and the depiction of the Canyon between the mountains, where a rich and splendid display of biodiversity exists, Mr Kluge said the goal was to boldly bring this picture to life.

One of his favourite features to this year’s creation, he said is the incorporation of the water element. They recreated the Cape water streams, and, in this design, they wanted to use something more organic to colour the water and this is when the original idea to use rooibos tea came about.

A drink that proved to be quite popular among the local foxes at the flower show. Furry visitors, said Mr Kluge who, although interesting, gave the team extra work in tiding up the exhibition after their nocturnal visits and drinking excursions at the rooibos-coloured Cape water streams.

He expressed appreciation for this year’s team, who he said, each brought with them a unique skillset and played a significant role in the team’s success.

“The team changes every year, so it’s not the same people, but each one brings their own special skill, and everyone works so hard to bring all the elements together, but we were in perfect sync, blended well together, and at the end we were very happy with our display,” he said.

The South African display drew the interest and attention from people all over the world, said Mr Kluge, but it was the emotional reaction to the sight, smell and presence of the Cape landscape that the display evoked from South Africans living abroad, that stood out. He said: “South Africans living abroad had a big emotional reaction to our display; that was quite special.”

Locals can later this year in Stanford see an almost exact replica of the 2025 RHS Flower Show’s winning exhibition.

“What’s important to me is bringing back the exhibition to South Africa, to have people see it on home soil and what I’m most excited about is for the farmers, the workers and their children to see the flowers and see what they meant for the exhibition and South Africa in real-life.”

This year’s goal in designing their creation, he said was to reduce the use of exotic plants and flowers, and to include more rare plants bordering on extinction. One of these inclusions were the Sandersonias, also known as Chinese lanterns, which Mr Kluge hopes with the recent exposure will be pushed back into the gardening sphere.

In a press statement the South African Floral Kingdom Abroad (SAFKA) applauds the 2025 exhibition. “In what can only be described as one of the most monumental displays of South African flora ever displayed abroad, designer Leon Kluge and artist-gardener Tristan Woudberg led a team of passionate volunteers who painstakingly prepared and arranged up to 25 000 stems of fynbos,” the body said.

The Grootbos Private Nature Reserve said in a statement: “Four Grootbos staff ambassadors joined Leon and Tristan’s creative build-team in London to pull off this artistic floral exhibit and they will build it all over again in the village of Stanford for all of SouthAfrica to enjoy.

“All funds generated from the replica flower exhibit will be donated to Grootbos Foundation, a registered non profit company which delivers ongoing fynbos landscape conservation and youth development programmes in the region and towns surrounding Grootbos Private Nature Reserve.”

The exhibition at the Stanford Flower Festival will take place from Wednesday September 10 to Wednesday September 24, in Stanford and tickets are sold on Webtickets or at Pick ‘n Pay.

“The installation at the festival will probably be better than the one at the Chelsea Flower Show. It truly is unlike any other garden, as all of our plants and flowers used are still alive and growing in the mountains in the Cape; so, people can expect to see a unique South African offering,” said Mr Kluge.