Roger's company had one of the smaller garden plots at Chelsea, themed as a country garden, which apparently was not on the Queen's usual route round the exhibition. However, that day she varied her route and stopped to view his garden. He was obviously very pleased and the moment was caught on camera by a professional photographer in the next exhibition garden.
It's a great photograph with the Queen smiling and looking as though she's really enjoying the encounter.
Roger explained how complicated the logistics of exhibiting are - the precise time slots given to unload all the plants, and how the rules require all the plants to be in full bloom (not in bud), with more plants ready to replace any that go over during the exhibition period. And then there's the final day, when everything has to be sold so that they don't have to load it all up and take it back again!
Roger's second name is Harvey, and he named his company Roger Harvey Garden World. which is the name on the medal and award certificate.
This was a really interesting and revealing 'behind the scenes' glimpse of what exhibiting at Chelsea involves. Roger was happy to answer all our questions and members obviously really enjoyed this meeting.