WHEN Rosemary Raymond's horticultural efforts brought her only fifth place in Bexley in Bloom, she chalked it up to experience.

For Rosemary, who comes from the Philippines, gardening has become a passion since she met and married her husband Alan six years ago.

She has transformed the couple's gardens in Tavistock Road, Welling, but it was a neighbour who encouraged her to enter Bexley's horticultural competition.

Once she entered the Bexley competition, she was also invited by the London Garden Society to take part in its annual competition, which takes in gardens as far out as the M25.

But it looked as though her efforts were gaining less and less success locally. In previous years her garden had achieved second place in the Bexley competition.

So imagine her astonishment when after her fifth place in Bexley this year, she won first place in the London Garden Society competition.

Not only did she win the trophy for the best back garden, she won a second cup for the best small front garden too.

The society was so impressed she was asked to enter some hanging baskets one of Rosemary's specialities in the Royal Horticultural Society's Hampton Court Palace show. And she won a bronze medal there too.

Rosemary, who grows most of her plants from seeds, raised £400 for Greenwich and Bexley Cottage hospice by opening up her garden to the public.

But husband Alan doesn't let her steal all the credit. "The gardens are set off by the lawns and I'm in charge of the grass," he said.

November 26, 2001 14:53