HAMPSHIRE'S gardeners are blooming marvellous. That's the verdict from the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show this week after growers across the region scooped top prizes in the world's most famous horticultural event.

Picking up gold medals for their Floral Marquee displays were Southampton based Hampshire Carnivorous Plants and Romsey's Hillier Nurseries Ltd. Members of Otterbourne Flower and Garden Club also scooped the gold medal prize for their fantastic flower arranging techniques.

The Hillier exhibit took around ten days to build using 25 staff from the garden centre. It is Hillier's 59th gold medal win at the show and involved shipping about 3,000 individual plants from Romsey in time to exhibit at the show.

Hillier Garden Centre manager Tim Mason said: "We are very pleased and happy. It is a garden which is based on music featuring three composers. We are already planning our show for next year."

Other Hampshire winners were Sparsholt College in Winchester who picked up a silver medal in the "Educational Scientific" category and Steven Bailey Ltd in Lymington who also won a silver medal in the Floral Marquee category.

Bob Sweet the Royal Horticultural Society's head of shows development said: "The standard of the gardens at this show is exceptionally high and winning an RHS gold medal is a very difficult thing to achieve for a garden designer.

"It is interesting that veteran garden designers still find it challenging to achieve gold medal standard."