Yorkshire in Bloom Platinum Award

The Friends have been awarded a prestigious platinum award in this year’s Yorkshire in Bloom competition. The award, in the Parks, Gardens, Cemeteries & Public Buildings category, is the highest available.

The award recognises communities that make a positive and lasting improvement to their local environment for the benefit of local people.

Yorkshire in Bloom is the regional body representing the RHS Britain in Bloom campaign organised by the Royal Horticultural Society. The competition is assessed by local judges on criteria developed by the RHS in consultation with the regions.

The judges’s comments on the Gardens were as follows:

Overall Impression

The garden was established in 1836 by Robert Marnock, who as a landscape designer was known for the Gardenesque style which featured winding paths amongst tree planted mounds. Today the friends with a membership of 500 and active volunteers approaching 100 are one of the groups ensuring the success and maintenance the garden. The colonnade of greenhouses provides a distinctive feature of the garden. In practical terms the garden is peat free has extensive compost heaps, bees and areas of long grass. However as a botanical garden it has an important plant collections, and plant records since start of the gardens.

To-day this care and recording can be seen in the form of plant labels. The small council team, volunteers and supporters are to be congratulated on keeping this important garden open and maintained.

Judges feedback on areas for consideration

The evolution bed will continue to develop and thought is ongoing as to how this can be explained to the public. It is an important resource for school parties. The provision of horticultural education in the Dorothy Fox building is to be encouraged and developed when possible. The installation of the volunteers building will provide due recognition for the work put in for the benefit of the garden. The garden issues such as re planting beds, path repair and so on are all planned to take place. The main entrance is a little drab and the borders just inside the gate may benefit from some attention.