26th May 2010

Sri Lankan Company Achieves Third Consecutive Gold Medal at the World’s Most Prestigious Flower Show

Sri Lankan Company Borneo Exotics have been awarded their third consecutive Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in London. After winning Gold Medals in 2006 and 2007, Borneo Exotics took a well earned rest and declined invitations from the Royal Horticultural Society to exhibit in the following two years. This year they returned and staged a larger more elaborate exhibit than ever before. The Gold Medal was awarded by unanimous vote of the panel of judges with a wide margin and reportedly achieved an overall judging score of 98%.

This triumph is not only for Borneo Exotics but has provided an enormous amount of deserved positive press and good will towards Sri Lanka. Too often portrayed in a negative light by the world media, a major event such as Chelsea, promotes horticulture, which is a field of beauty, grace and harmony, far removed from the often ugly journalism that much of the worlds press seem to thrive on. Sri Lanka can not only compete with the best that that world has to offer in the field of horticulture but can rise to supreme standards of excellence. There are many companies which have exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show for 20 years and more and have never achieved a coveted Gold Medal. A Chelsea Gold is well known to be the most difficult to achieve horticultural award in the world.

Robert Cantley and Diana Williams, Borneo Exotics’ Directors had this to say: “Although we are a foreign owned company, we chose Sri Lanka for this business 14 years ago partly because of the climate but most of all for the people. It is our wonderful Sri Lankan staff, who give their very best, with supreme dedication, every single day, in order to grow the finest plants the world has ever seen. Over the years as our plants have grown, our business has grown and our staff have also developed and grown in their capabilities. This is no exaggeration and we are extremely proud them. Sri Lanka is our adopted home and many of our staff have been with us for over a decade and have become like family to us. We wish to thank each and every one of them for their willingness to go that extra mile time and again in producing these plants, all of which have been produced from seed in Sri Lanka and many of which have taken over 14 years to grow. Many Government Departments have also given professional and invaluable assistance over the years and we particularly wish to thank the Departments of Agriculture and Wildlife, the BOI, Customs and other Departments and individuals too numerous to mention. We tell everyone we meet that they should look to Sri Lanka as a place to visit and perhaps invest in. The warmth and hospitality of the people is wonderful. They should go and take a look, take a vacation there and see the beauty and potential that can be seen in so many facets of Sri Lanka.”

Borneo Exotics launched several new hybrids at the show, all of which were created in their Sri Lankan nurseries. Two of the new creations were selected by the Royal Horticultural Society as being amongst the best 20 new plant introductions seen in the United Kingdom over the past year. These newly created hybrids were put on a special exhibit at the entrance to Great Pavilion. One of the new hybrids, ‘Nepenthes x Bill Bailey’ was named after the much loved UK musician/comedian in recognition of his many charitable works in the field of animal and plant conservation. Bill Bailey took time away from his current tour in Scotland to come to the Chelsea Flower Show to accept the honour and gave many interviews to press from all over the world, stressing conservation work undertaken by Borneo Exotics and adding to the many television and radio reports being aired now which portray Sri Lanka in a just and positive light.

This event was actually a double Gold for Sri Lanka as the British Orchid Society was sponsored this year by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and they are delighted at having won a Gold Medal at the show  with a fabulous array of orchids, also incorporating Sri Lankan statues as part of the theme. Their exhibit was coincidentally adjacent to Borneo Exotics amongst the 300 exhibits at Chelsea this year and enabled the two exhibitors to form a double act to help promote tourism to Sri Lanka.

 More information and high resolution photographs are available at: www.borneoexotics.com/Chelsea2010.aspx