After winning gold at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, local ‘Flower King’ Leon Kluge has won another top prize in another part of the world—gold at the Singapore Garden Festival!
Global (08 August 2024) — Hot on the heels of South Africa’s success at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, South African landscape designer and local ‘Flower King’ Leon Kluge has won another top prize at Asia’s biggest garden show—the Singapore Garden Festival!
While many fantasy gardens were created at this year’s Singapore Garden Festival, Leon’s fantasy garden titled ‘Between Two Worlds’ was the cream of the crop that not only won gold and ‘Best on Show’ but also ‘Best Lighting’ for its clever use of lights to create all the mystical feels.
Inspired by Singapore’s Mangrove forests, the fantasy garden brought forth what could’ve easily been a scene straight out of a fairytale. Here, a humble nest cradled by roots rising up from the water created a wonderful wild sanctuary in which an anonymous being rested. The sound of water trickling through moss-covered rocks set the scene for the creature, whose breath was mimicked by a subtle up-and-down motion as it drifted off to sleep to enter the ethereal World of Dreams.
The festival inspired creators to utilise lighting, sound and theatre to bring their visions to life. As such, Leon’s clever use of lighting and sound transported onlookers with the creature, as if they too were in a slumber bathed in blue and purple lights amid the hums of sounds like frogs chirping.
“I wanted to capture the moment between being awake and the realm of dreams when everything around you starts to change and your imagination takes over. I’ve always thought that mangroves have a mysterious, spiritual quality to them, as if from another world with their roots that walk out of the water,” explains Leon.
Of the creature that stole the show, Leon reflects:
“I wanted the being that calls this wonderful tropical nest home to be anonymous, I would like the viewer to see themselves resting in a natural sanctuary like this. Of course the nest reminds us of wild species, perhaps the last of its kind having to retreat deeper and deeper into the forest to find refuge from the destruction of habitats we see happening all around the world.”
Alongside the King of Flowers was his righthand mana artist Tristan Wouldberg who worked closely with Leon to sculpt the mangrove centre pieces.
Together, they created a display that largely relied on natural materials (including banana fibre paper used for flower lanterns and wood sourced from the island), making the ‘Between Two Worlds’ showcase more environmentally friendly than most.
The local tropical plant palette was also embraced to bring the fantasy garden to life, including a number of rare palms and orchids. An unusual plant, Elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) also made its feature as well as large fig trees with dangling roots to frame the garden.
This marks the second time Leon has won best on show at the Singapore Garden Festival, and another win for South African creativity and green thumbs.
Meanwhile, those looking to enjoy a taste of Leon’s magic can do so in Stanford soon, as the winning RHS Chelsea Flower Show display is set to come home!
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