TWO top Hampshire nurseries have scooped yet more golden glory at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Hillier Nurseries of Ampfield picked up its 58th successive gold medal with its Dove Garden created for this year's show by designer Andy McIndoe.

And Stephen Bailey of Lymington, a winner of more than 30 Chelsea golds in the last 50 years, was again in gold medal winning form with its eye-catching floral arrangement of alstromerias and pinks around Rafael's painting of Madonna and the Pinks.

The Hillier garden was designed in association with the Dove Clinic for integrated medicine and featured a centrepiece of two doves crafted by Andover sculptor Steve Kenyon surrounded by sectors integrating the four parts of a day.

Morning is given the fresh shades of lime green, yellow and pale blue; afternoon has the warmth of summer pinks, purples, lilacs and blues; the evening has the heat of a deep red sunset, purples and deep blues; with darker foliage and flowers providing the theme of night time.

It is Mr McIndoe's 15th Chelsea garden and he said: "It is always difficult to come up with something different each year, but we are delighted with the reaction our garden has received.

"But Chelsea is something which never really stops and it is about this time of the year that we begin thinking about our design for next year and preparing all the plant material for it."

An eye-catching newcomer was the passion flower Passiflora Eden, at the centre of a big launch this year.

"It is a more compact form of passion flower, is very prolific and we were able to work its lilac shades into both our morning and afternoon sectors," said Mr McIndoe.

The Stephen Bailey display was again arranged by Eric Palmer after being designed at the nursery at Lymington.

Mr Bailey said: "Our arrangement of the pinks around the painting has attracted a lot of attention and there are suggestions at this stage that it is in the running for the best floral arrangement award."

His nursery's Chelsea success comes just days after a gold at the big Harrogate Show in Yorkshire and Mr Bailey added: "The show season is just beginning and this has given us a flying start. We are hoping it will continue."

He will shortly be setting off for the Bath and West Show, and shows at Sandown, Manchester and the New Forest are all on the nursery's hectic summer programme.