Honouring horticultural dedication

The winners and runners-up of the Sunflower Challenge, including the first-place grower, Austin Bowden, front row, right.

Dedicated gardeners and horticultural lovers have been honoured for their green-fingered efforts at the annual Alnwick in Bloom presentation evening.

The event, staged at The Alnwick Garden’s Pavilion last Thursday, has been described by organisers as ‘superb and very well attended’.

The prizes for the Sunflower Challenge, the shop window competition, Alnwick in Bloom garden competition, The RHS It’s Your Neighbour Assessments and the Northumbria in Bloom awards were all presented.

All of the prize-winners at the presentation evening.

Among the winners was Northumbria Pets, which was presented with a cash prize of £50 for coming out on top in the Shop Window Competition.

Northumbria in Bloom also yielded some fine results for the town, with Alnwick taking gold in the Town category. There were a number of golds for the town in the special awards section of Northumbria in Bloom, including Swansfield Park Primary School, which was also named best in class in the School category.

There were some monster blooms in the Sunflower Challenge, with youngster Austin Bowden, from Alnwick, winning the contest with an impressive 12ft 1in entry.

The Gazette teams up with Alnwick in Bloom to promote its gardening competition and Sunflower Challenge.