LONDON - A GARDEN made entirely of plasticine is challenging the tradition of using natural ingredients to showcase horticulture at the Chelsea Flower Show.

TV presenter James May has created what he says is the world's largest plasticine model for the event.

But what can it mean? Is the co-presenter of the BBC's 'Top Gear' motoring show trying to make a deep point?

'We are not trying to pass it off as natural - it's an artwork inspired by gardens,' he told Reuters. 'We are not imagining anyone will look at it and think it's real.'

May, 46, devised the colourful clay model after making a television programme about the lasting attraction of plasticine as a children's toy. Flowers, he felt, were among the most obvious things to make from it.

'From the flower we got the garden, and we ended up in Chelsea,' he said.

The 2.6 tonne plasticine garden took around six weeks to build and features a large orange and cherry tree. Plasticine cakes and sandwiches were set up on a red and white chequered picnic cloth and surrounded by potted plants and palm trees.

The garden was made by 2,000 people from across Britain, including children, model-makers and people picked 'off the street", May said.

'If you want to read deep things into it, it's asking questions about botanical life and what gardens actually mean to us,' he said.

'Is it plants or is it design or the arrangement? I don't know. I'm just making flowers out of plasticine.' -- REUTERS