A blooming beautiful summer reaps rewards

So it is no wonder that the county brought home a handful of awards from the Heart of England in Bloom finals.

This week the volunteers, park keepers and council workers who helped bring home the accolades from event at Warwick Castle, were celebrating the news.

Shropshire struck gold in the small city category thanks to Shrewsbury, large town with the Oswestry entry and Ludlow in the small town section.

Bridgnorth's Castle grounds won the horticultural excellent awards while Oswestry's Cae Glas park won the trophy for the best floral display. The chairman's award went to Kevin and Carolyn Wood's 'secret garden' in Ludlow.

Across the border in the Wales in Bloom competition, two organisers in Chirk were named outstanding in the community awards, St Mary's Churchyard Volunteer Group and the Friends of Chirk Station.

Cafe Wylfa in the town also received a silver gilt award.

In Oswestry the Cae Glas park team that work for the Greenfingers contractor were busy working hard in the town council run park.

Mike Harding has been working in the park for the past seven years and is due to retire in January.

He said he was overwhelmed by the award.

"I was hoping that we could bring a gold award back to Oswestry. However to win that, win a special award just for the park and go through to Britain in Bloom, well that is brilliant."

"We all love the park that we work in and we treat it as if it was our own back garden."

While Mr Harding is celebrating at the end of his career, the awards have come at the beginning of the career of the park apprentice, 17-year-old Keiffer Thomas.

The judges in the Heart of England competition said they were pleased to see an apprentice taken on by the contractors.

Judge, Mark Wiltshire, said: "The maintenance team have excelled themselves this year in achieving such a high standard of work and should be very proud. Whilst judging the park numerous

members of the public commented to us how much they appreciate the work of the maintenance team, Cae Glas Park really is the jewel in Oswestry’s crown."

Mayor of Bridgnorth, Councillor Ron Whittle, praised the hard work of the staff who had helped to keep the town looking bright.

He said: "We are absolutely delighted and I would like to congratulate all our hard working staff. They did an absolutely super job.

"We're really proud and they really have worked very, very hard. It is great that it has been recognised."

Councillor Keith Roberts, chairman of the Shrewsbury in Bloom committee said he was delighted with the results, especially considering this year’s challenging weather conditions.

"This is once again a fantastic result for Shrewsbury and a testament to all the hard work by the town council’s horticultural team, as well as members of the Bloom committee which includes community volunteers and council officers from both the town and unitary authorities.

“We are absolutely delighted to have achieved Gold standard once again, maintaining Shrewsbury’s enviable reputation as the Town of Flowers.”

Helen Ball, Town Clerk added: “So many people work incredibly hard on preparing for Bloom every year and I would like to thank everyone who is involved, not just those who work for Shrewsbury Town Council but also our partners at Shropshire Council who make sure the streets are clean, freshly painted and free of graffiti to add to the overall effect, our businesses who sponsor the traffic islands and purchase hundreds of hanging baskets each year and, of course, our residents. Everyone pulls together for the best possible effect and the results speak for themselves.”