Sri Lankan company Borneo Exotics struck gold again this week, winning their third consecutive Gold Medal at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in London. Having won gold medals in 2006 and 2007, Borneo Exotics returned this year with a larger more elaborate exhibit of ‘Tropical pitcher plants in a natural setting’. The gold medal was awarded by a unanimous vote of the judges reportedly achieving an overall judging score of 98%.
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| Diana Williams with the certificate for the gold medal in front of the new hybrid Nepenthes x Bill Bailey |
The exhibit showcases a wide range of Nepenthes, commonly known as ‘Tropical Pitcher Plants’ which are a genus of carnivorous plant found across South East Asia. The exhibit illustrated the enormous diversity in size and form found within the genus, from the delicately small to the monstrously huge Nepenthes truncata which sometimes dines on rats, as well as showing some extremely rare varieties that are nearing extinction and even one now believed to be extinct in the wild.
Nepenthes are fragile slow-growing plants and many species are severely threatened by habitat destruction. Most species in cultivation today have been introduced by Borneo Exotics who are the world's leading producers of Nepenthes. The plants on the exhibit were produced from a sustainable artificial propagation and breeding programme going back over 25 years.
Using modern tissue culture techniques, an infinite quantity of plants can be produced from just a single seed, making the plants commercially available at reasonable prices and thus making illegal poaching from wild populations unviable.
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 the 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. The entertainer currently on tour in Scotland took the time to come to the Chelsea Flower Show to accept the honour.
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| Stunning display: An overall view of the winning exhibit |
Borneo Exotics’ Directors Robert Cantley and Diana Williams were justifiably elated at their win and paid tribute to the efforts of their Sri Lankan staff and the many government agencies that have supported them. “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, to grow the finest plants the world has ever seen.”
Sri Lanka scored a double gold at the Chelsea Flower Show as the British Orchid Society was sponsored this year by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and won a Gold Medal 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. |
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