A comper goes to Chelsea

About ten years ago, I took a friend to the Chelsea Flower Show using tickets that I had won, and  we enjoyed the day out so much that every year I've tried to win tickets to take her again - but until this year, I'd not been lucky. However my luck changed and this year I won a pair of all-day tickets for the Thursday.

We had a lovely time there, and despite the weather we didn't get wet at all, and I managed to restrain my friend from blowing her life savings on a robotic lawn mower (she now wants me to win her one) but I know you don't want to hear about  the plants and the flowers, do you? You want to hear about the competitions!

One of the first stalls we passed  had a competition to win £100 worth of tools. I immediately started to fill in a form, but my friend said "I haven't brought a pen." I'd been prepared for that - she isn't a comper, after all - and silently handed her my spare one. After that we both scoured the stalls for competitions, but the only other one we could find to be entered there and then was on the Spear & Jackson stall, with a prize of a pair of tickets to Kew Gardens. The leaflet said it could be sent in by post, so I looked around for a handful to grab for my friends,  but they were being closely guarded by the young ladies on the stall who were handing each visitor a clipboard with just ONE form clipped to it.

There were very few competitions there, but I did bring home a (very) few that could be entered online, so here is a round up:

Trailfinders at their brilliant, Best in Show winning,  Australian garden, leaflets were being handed out with an ef for a draw to win a trip to the Australian rainforest. However you can also enter at www.trailfinders.com/chelsea and it closes on June 30th.

The Telegraph  were giving out a leaflet directing you to www.telegraph.co.uk/chelsea where you can win a trip to the Tatton Park Flower Show with three nights in Cheshire. an iPad mini and 5 x £25 iTunes voucher. This closes on June 9th.

Hillier Garden Centres  gave out a free magazine offering a prize of a pair of tickets to the Coronation Festival. Enter at www.hillier.co.uk - they don't give a closing date but say the winner will be chosen on June 10th.

And just to prove that we DID look at  the amazing plants and flowers on display, here is a little montage of some of my photos, put together with a piece of software called CollageIt that I won earlier this week.