prestigious Chelsea Flower Show.

Celebrity landscape gardener Jamie Durie designed the show garden for Fleming's Nurseries, in its fifth entry at

Chelsea.

With the help of Timber Benders, Durie spent more than a year designing and planning his $800,000 Australian

native garden for the annual show.

Husband and wife team Don O'Conner and Sue Ewart operate Timber Benders, which has the largest collection of

machinery for steam bending timber in the southern hemisphere. The East St business was the only workshop that

could create the garden feature's eye-catching curved decking.

"They knew we existed and they sent up the plans. We said, yeah, we can do it," Mr O'Connor said.

"The next thing they said was `you've got three weeks to do it'," he said.

Timber Benders specialises in steam-bent timber with a total of 60 bends needed for the entire project.

"It gave us a chance to show what we can do. Even getting an entry at Chelsea is amazing so we are delighted," Mr

O'Connor said.

Timber Benders started in 1887 in Launceston, Tasmania. It moved to Daylesford six years ago.

Mr O'Connor said all timber bending machinery was of 1850s vintage and the trade was a dying art.

"There's no other business like this left anywhere. We want to keep the trade alive," he said.

Mr O'Connor, originally a shearer, said the glory of being part of the winning entry was all the business would

receive.

"That's about all we get, our business name on a flier," he said.

"We hope this will transpose into more work for us."

Back in Chelsea, Durie unintentionally offended British royalty after earning the gold medal.

The Queen and Prince Philip took a tour of the winning display. Reportedly they were impressed with what they

saw.

But when the Duke of Edinburgh told Durie he admired the fern at the centre of the display, the celebrity gardener

quickly but politely corrected him.

He told the Duke the plant was actually a macrozamia moorei, a member of the cycad family.

The Duke briskly strolled away, and was reportedly overheard mumbling "I didn't come here for a lesson".