Medwyn Williams

Last updated

Medwyn Williams MBE FNVS is a Welsh vegetable gardener, 11 times winner of the gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Born Richard Medwyn Williams in the village of Paradwys, the son of a farm worker and his family moved to Llangristiolus when he was a year old. Aged 8, his father helped him grow radish, mustard and cress in a one-yard plot. After this he helped his father grow various vegetables for garden shows in the Isle of Anglesey, where his father was known for growing long carrots.

Williams became a council official, and in his late 20s entered a "six of a kind" novice class at the Anglesey County Show in 1969. He then joined the National Vegetable Society at the Shrewsbury Flower Show, which led to his competing at most of the National Vegetable Society Championships. Invited by the Chief Executive of the Royal Welsh Show to stage a 15 ft exhibit there, Williams and his father won the large gold medal six years in a row.

After presenting for S4C at the Chelsea Flower Show, Williams decided that he wanted to show at Chelsea. [1] Having to prove himself to the Royal Horticultural Society as being of sufficient quality, he was asked to stage his first RHS exhibit at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Williams and his father won a gold medal on their first attempt, a cut glass vase for the best new competitor, and the Tudor Rose Award which is presented annually to the RHS by the Guild of embroiderers at Hampton Court Palace for the best display at Hampton Court.

Asked the following year, 1996, to exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show, he grew his exhibits in the research establishment of the University of Wales, Bangor at Penyffridd, where he rents an 80 ft x 60 ft heated greenhouse, a totally cold 120 x 70 ft one, and has use of a small cold store to hold some vegetables back. [1] Williams won 10 consecutive annual Gold medals at Chelsea, an accomplishment that had never been done before with vegetables. He won the President’s Award, 9 Gordon Lennox Trophies for the best vegetable of the year, and 2 Lawrence medals for the Best Horticultural display of the year.

After retiring from competition in 2005 to concentrate on his developing seed business, Williams has displayed internationally, including in Cincinnati, Ohio in April 2006, and lectured, including in Seattle. [1] After his son and grandson joined the seed business in 2009, Williams displayed at the 2010 Chelsea Flower Show, again winning the President’s Award. [2]

Related Research Articles

Royal Horticultural Society Registered charity in the UK which promotes gardening and horticulture

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.

Chelsea Flower Show The UKs leading annual garden show (Royal Horticultural Society)

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London. Held at Chelsea since 1912, it is the most famous flower and landscape gardens show in the United Kingdom, and perhaps in the world. The show is attended by members of the British Royal Family and attracts visitors from all continents.

Diarmuid Gavin Irish garden designer and television personality

Diarmuid Gavin is an Irish garden designer and television personality. He has presented gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show on nine occasions from 1995 to 2016, winning a number od medals, including gold in 2011. He has also authored or co-authored at least ten gardening-related books.

Hampton Court Garden Festival

The Hampton Court Garden Festival is the largest flower show in the world. The show is held in early July. The show is run by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) at Hampton Court Palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The show features show gardens, floral marquees and pavilions, talks and demonstrations. Erected on the north and south sides of the Long Water in Hampton Court Park, it is the second major national show after the Chelsea Flower Show but has a different character, focusing more on environmental issues, growing your own food and vegetables and cookery, as well as selling gardening accessories, plants and flowers.

Tatton Park Flower Show

RHS Flower Show Tatton Park held at Tatton Park, near Knutsford, Cheshire, first began in 1999 by the Royal Horticultural Society. The show houses the RHS National Flower Bed Competition, Young Designer of the Year Award and a wide range of inspirational show gardens, smaller 'Back to Back' gardens, visionary gardens and a number of marquees displaying prize plants and flora exhibits. Other key features of the show are the floral marquee and plant plaza, the arts and heritage pavilion, and the floral design studio.

Carol Klein

Carol Klein is an English gardening expert, who also works as a television presenter and newspaper columnist.

Hadlow College

Hadlow College is a further and higher education college in Hadlow, Kent with a satellite site in Greenwich. The curriculum primarily covers land-based subjects including Agriculture, Horticulture, Conservation and Wildlife Management, Animal Management, Fisheries Management, Equine Studies and Floristry. Additionally, intermediate and advanced apprenticeships are offered in Golf Greenkeeping, Sports Turf, Agriculture, Horticulture and Land-based Engineering.

Christopher Paul Beardshaw is a British garden designer, plantsman, author, speaker and broadcaster.

James Wong is a British ethnobotanist, television presenter and garden designer, best known for presenting the award-winning television series Grow Your Own Drugs and the BBC & PBS series Secrets of Your Food, as well as being a panellist on the long-running Radio 4 series Gardeners' Question Time,

Raymond John Evison OBE, VMH, is a nurseryman, lecturer, author and photographer. Born in 1944 he started his horticultural career at the age of 15 in Shropshire and moved to the island of Guernsey to set up The Guernsey Clematis Nursery in 1984.

Jessica "Jekka" McVicar is an English organic gardening expert, author and broadcaster, particularly on the cultivation and use of herbs.

Paul Hervey-Brookes is an multi-award winning garden designer and plantsman who lives between the Cotswolds, England And the Loire Valley in France.

Andy Sturgeon is a British landscape and garden designer, author, journalist, broadcaster and commentator in the international garden design sector.

David Domoney

David Martin Domoney, C Hort. FCI Hort is a Chartered Horticulturist and English celebrity gardener, best known for co-presenting Love Your Garden alongside Alan Titchmarsh and for being the resident gardener on ITV1's This Morning.[3]

Stuart Meeson physicist

Stuart Meeson is a physicist who having done research in Electrical Impedance Tomography and Mammography has been working in Computed Tomography (CT) with the Radiology Group of the University of Oxford. Areas of particular interest include imaging the cervical spine, abdominal sepsis and low contrast features in the abdomen and liver. His work in CT led to a collaborative study with the UK Health Protection Agency on the Third UK national CT dose survey.

Peter Beales

Peter Beales MBE, was a British rosarian, author and lecturer. Beales was considered one of the leading experts on roses, especially species and classic roses, preserving many old varieties and introducing 70 new cultivars during his lifetime. He served as the President of the Royal National Rose Society from 2003 until 2005. Speaking of his contribution on BBC news, Alan Titchmarsh said: "It was the old and classic roses that Peter loved best and by growing them and making them available to a wider range of gardeners, he did tremendous work in terms of our rose-growing heritage."

Dibleys Nurseries

Dibleys Nurseries is an award-winning leading grower of streptocarpus plants. The nursery is based in Llanelidan, Denbighshire, north east Wales.

Davies White is the landscape architectural practice founded by Adam White and Andrée Davies in 2008.

William Gregor MacKenzie (1904–1995), known as Bill, was born in Scotland, where his father was head gardener at Ballimore, near Loch Fyne in Argyllshire.

Mark Gregory is a multi award-winning garden designer from West Cowick, Yorkshire. He has been in the horticultural and landscaping industry for about 35 years. Mark was voted the most influential person in the landscape and garden design industry by his peers and beating his competition even house hold names and celebrity gardeners.he was given membership in July 2020 the become a fellow of the Landscape institute and is now a chartered landscape architect (FI) He completed his training in horticulture with the RHS at Wisley and also Askham Bryan Horticultural College. He has exhibited/designed at the RHS shows for many years being involved with 99 gardens at the Chelsea flower show.in total a 160 show gardens for the RHS across all its shows, making him the most medaled garden builder within the RHS He has achieved gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show on five occasions and is a senior RHS Garden Assessor and Garden Judge.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Growing Vegetables for the Chelsea Flower Show by Medwyn Williams". National Vegetable Society. Archived from the original on July 20, 2010. Retrieved August 3, 2010.
  2. ↑ Eryl Crump (May 26, 2010). "Llanfairpwll's Medwyn Williams wins President's Award at Chelsea Flower Show". Daily Post. Retrieved August 3, 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.