Hosepipe ban for Chelsea

For 84 years the blooms at the Chelsea Flower Show have been a royal favourite and drawn thousands from across the world. But this year its fate lies in the hands of a small family firm from Dereham - to ensure the world's greatest gardening extravaganza does not wilt.

Dereham Water Supplies is pulling out all the stops to drill a 100-metre borehole in time for the Royal Horticultural Society show. It has just three weeks to tap into the water table and supply the 4,400 gallons a day to quench the thirst of 11 acres of displays.

Every May the world's finest garden designers transform the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea into a breathtaking spectacle of horticultural art, combining explosions of flora and foliage with radical design to produce works that challenge convention and provoke ideas.

The five-day show provides an escape into a world heavy with perfume and riotous colour, as amateur and professional designers paint their views using nature's canvas.

It is a plant breeders' favourite place to unveil new exotic specimens from across the globe.

But with the South East in the grip of severe drought and a regional hosepipe ban in place, this year's show organisers turned to the firm - headed by husband and wife team Henry and Wendy Hewson - to drill a borehole for the first time in the event's history.

Started in 1977 and run from the offices next to their home, the firm is more used to drilling holes for farmers' fields and private gardens.

But Mrs Hewson said failure was not an option and that their team of four men was working from dusk to dawn with daily deliveries on site to get the £45,000 job done in time.