Melbourne Nurseryman, Wes Fleming Receives Another Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal

Congratulations to Wes Fleming,the third generation Fleming family member of the well known Monbulk fruit tree growers and nurserymen who originally traded under the name of E.J Fleming & Sons  for winning another gold medal at this years prestigious UK Chelsea Flower Show .

This increases his gold medal tally to four with two silver medals. A remarkable result as he has been only exhibiting at Chelsea on 6 occasions.

His success results from the careful  selection of creative landscape architects  who design and build the outdoor  settings and infrastructure where Wes then uses his nurseryman skills to select the various plants and flowers. This year he used Scott Wynd to design the gold medal lifestyle setting including swimming pool, spa, a wet bar and last but not least, a good old Aussie Barbie.

The Queen visited the show for her traditional pre opening preview and she also spent time with Wes and his team to inspect his coveted best in show award garden design exhibit. Apparently she made Wes aware that he was missed at last years show (due the Victorian bush-fires).

Wes has already selected garden designer Ian Barker to produce another Aussie quality entry for next years show. and we wish him and his team well as he peruses another gold medal.

A bit of local knowledge can reveal that the Fleming family held a record still not beaten in the Mountain District Cricket Association  where there were 6 Fleming brothers played in the Monbulk First Eleven. team. Wes’s Father Don was one of them and was a good opening bat and wicket keeper. The other Fleming brothers were also good batsmen and bowlers, especially Ken as opening bowler and Ray who batted at number three

Our research on family records for cricket sides also reveal that the Harris Family (of Castlemaine Ham & Bacon fame) had 7 Harris brothers in the Castlemaine first eleven cricket side many years ago.

Monbulk was not only a good area for growing fruit trees but also for making jam where the Camm  family in the early 1900s started the Monbulk jam factory at Monbulk. This jam business was sold to SPC in the mid 1970s who later sold it to Cadburys where the Monbulk brands are still on the supermarket shelves.

Ironically the jam factory building at Monbulk is now used to produce plastic pots for the fruit tree and nursery trade.