Top award-winning garden and floral designer Leon Kluge was the guest of honour at the Lowveld Garden Club’s 57th birthday celebration last week.
The reception area of White River Golf Lodge at White River Country Estates was packed with members and friends of the club last Tuesday.
As new designer of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), Kluge most recently received a gold medal as well as ‘Best Horticultural use in landscape’ at this year’s Garden Festival in Singapore where his installation “African Thunder” won Best on show of the entire festival.
He also achieved another gold medal at the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show earlier this year for the Kirstenbosch-South Africa exhibit.
He told the gathering that it was an experience compared to none, recalling the challenges, the hard work, but eventually the sweet taste of success. With the help of a slide show he showed how his team presented facets of the beauty and diversity of South Africa’s floral richness to the world under the theme Iconic Landscapes.
They took viewers on a light-hearted journey around the country by also using contemporary township art to depict cultural life in different landscapes.
Club members could share in his enthusiasm as he took them on the same journey from Cape Town and its Table Mountain National Park, northwards along the West Coast and further to Limpopo, Gauteng and Mpumulanga with their own unique and diverse flora.
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