Petworth Town Council entered the South and South East area for RHS ‘Britain in Bloom’ national competition for the first time in 2018, achieving Silver Gilt, 17 points off Gold.
RHS judges judged our 2019 entry on 12th July and were given a presentation and slide show by Cllr Patricia Hewlett and Lorraine Cooke with a speech by Anthony Curl, chair of the Petworth Business Association before touring 17 areas in Petworth, showing how the Town has developed and bloomed in the last two years, involving many members from all sections of the community.
Petworth in Bloom is entirely run by volunteers, with financial support from the Town Council, the PBA and members of the community. Financial contributions and committed volunteers are always welcomed.
Petworth in Bloom is not just about floral displays, it is judged also on Town’s environment …cleanliness, litter, graffiti, weeds, maintenance of town furniture … benches, signage etc. with extensive community involvement as well as bio diversity, art in the landscape, the country side, heritage, so volunteers don’t have to be gardeners to get involved.
Petworth in Bloom started with the creation of gateway planting on the roads leading into Petworth as a traffic calming measure and has grown considerably since then. The gateways doubled in size, more hanging baskets and troughs were planted up throughout the town, individual house owners and business owners joined in with hanging baskets and window boxes and the creation of another flower bed in Rosemary Gardens.
Plants for this Spring’s new flower bed in Rosemary Gardens were donated by members of the community and it developed from scrubby grass to a wonderful flowering bed in a matter of weeks.
As this summer’s flowers fade, the troughs and planters round Town will be replanted with daffodils, tulips and pansies to give colour right through the year, until start again with summer planting at the end of May.
The Award Ceremony for the ‘In Bloom’s event for South and South East England was at the Amex Stadium in Brighton on Friday 13th September with over 350 entrants receiving awards. Petworth achieved a Silver Gilt medal as last year, but last year we were 17 points off gold. This year we were only 6 points off gold, so going in the right direction!
Perhaps Gold next year!