Nikki Wright, 59, was awarded second place in the floral creations category at the London show after being selected as one of just ten finalists from thousands of applicants.
The former corporate worker, who left her career in learning and development in 2024, said the achievement made all of the hard work worthwhile.
She said: “It has been an inordinate amount of work. Although we had to put the design in to apply actually bringing it to life and building it was a lot of work.
“The idea actually came to me in a dream and I woke up and instantly drew it up.
“Then came the hard part trying to work out the logistics to bring it to life.
“Then two weeks before we left I just wasn’t happy with the way the test tubes sat because the metal inside was curved but the test tubes cannot bend so I ended up wanting to tweak a few and then basically rejigged the whole thing.”
Competitors were given two days to build their displays before judges awarded gold, silver and bronze medals on May 18.
Nikki said the process of transporting the installation to London was one of the most stressful parts of the competition with more than 1,000 test tubes needing to be individually protected using foam and layers of bubble wrap.
She said: “It was a very nerve wracking journey and when we got there it took about an hour to get it all off and secure.
“When we finally unwrapped all of the packaging I burst into tears as I was so happy not one was damaged.
“In the whole process I only broke four.”
Nikki only began pursuing floristry professionally after a chance meeting at Darlington Train Station with a woman she had not spoken to for years.
Soon afterwards she was asked to create flowers for the woman’s daughter’s wedding and was encouraged to pursue floristry full time after the arrangements were completed.
She enrolled at East Durham College’s Houghall Campus, self-funding her studies, and has since completed her NCFE Level 1 qualification while studying for her Level 2 certificate.
Earlier this year she also won gold at the Harrogate Flower Show on her first attempt.
Reflecting on the Chelsea Flower Show experience, Nikki said: “It was really intense and overwhelming as it was a whole new experience for me but still just so amazing. We had two days to build our floral design but really after we organised everything it was about a day and a half.
“The judges came to view the designs on the Monday and that night I just couldn’t sleep.
“I ended up waking up about 3am and woke my husband too and dragged him to the Covent Garden Flower market that opens at 4am for something to keep my mind occupied and pass the time.”
She said she felt privileged to compete at the show and is now looking to the future.
“The judges gave some great feedback and when we arrived and saw the silver award card I couldn’t believe it, it just makes it all worth it”, she said.
“The judges even said they are excited to see what I bring next year so I feel that’s an invitation to go again and hopefully go for gold.
“I just feel incredibly lucky, it is an absolute privilege to go to something like Chelsea Flower Show and even though I am still early into this career I have worked very hard to get there.”