A TAVISTOCK florist has won top marks at the world's biggest flower show with her intricate floral dress — and came home with a gold medal. Freelance florist Amanda Randell was 'amazed' to have impressed judges at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and win second place in the RHS, in association with the British Florist Association, Florist of the Year competition. Amanda, who is based at Hotel Endsleigh, took part in the British Florist Association's regional heats around the country where she had to create a woodland collar for a dress. She was awarded second place in the South West heat but that qualified her for a place at Chelsea Flower Show, along with 16 other florists from around the country. In April, Amanda was given the brief for the Florist of the Year competition — a fantasy floral dress for a crystal themed ball. 'I started by drawing loads of designs — I had about 20 pictures,' said Amanda. 'Then I started work on the construction which was very difficult. Two thirds of the dress had to be fresh flowers so you couldn't just buy a dress and stick flowers on it.' The dress is made to look like a Fuschia flower and the skirt was made with loofahs. 'It took me three weeks to build the frame, then I spent three days solid in Covent Garden putting all the flowers on the dress — I didn't sleep for three days!' After judging, Amanda said she got down to the presentation late and the head judge met her as she arrived to tell her she had achieved the second highest score in the competition of 90%. The winner only beat Amanda by 1%. 'I honestly didn't think I'd do that well,' said Amanda. 'I felt like an amateur. Everybody has different tastes but the judges loved it and I got feedback saying that I was the first florist to achieve gold on their first try at Chelsea. It was very thrilling. 'It's every florist's dream to go to Chelsea and to win gold is absolutely amazing.'