'Horticultural glory’ blooms with two gold medals for Petworth

Petworth has secured ‘horticultural glory’ after winning two gold medals in prestigious floral competitions.
By Joe Stack
Published 6th Oct 2021, 17:22 BST
The In Bloom planting team. Left to right: Patricia Hewlett, Charlotte Hamilton, Carole Pope, Jean Orrow.The In Bloom planting team. Left to right: Patricia Hewlett, Charlotte Hamilton, Carole Pope, Jean Orrow.
The In Bloom planting team. Left to right: Patricia Hewlett, Charlotte Hamilton, Carole Pope, Jean Orrow.

The Petworth In Bloom team was awarded a gold medal for the second year running in what has been called a ‘tremendous accolade’.

Then, at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, garden designers Euphorbia Design scooped a gold medal for its exhibition on behalf of plant conservation and research charity Plant

Heritage.

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The teams from Euphorbia Design and Plant Heritage, including television's Alan TitchmarshThe teams from Euphorbia Design and Plant Heritage, including television's Alan Titchmarsh
The teams from Euphorbia Design and Plant Heritage, including television's Alan Titchmarsh

Euphorbia Design co-owner Lorraine Cooke, from Petworth, said: “We were over the moon — it was great to be involved.

“We just thought it would be fun to be involved.

“We sold ourselves down and thought it would be wonderful to get a silver guild so we were pleasantly surprised.”

The stand incorporated a container garden, a small sitting room and a tropical garden, with the aim of showing that anyone can get involved even with little space, with house — plants or container planting.

Lorraine added: “We didn’t have a big budget.

“We built the sitting room from mostly reclaimed furniture and was kindly donated a beautiful rug from Rugs of Petworth to finish it off beautifully.”

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A spokesperson for Petworth Business Association said: “Huge congratulations go to Petworth in Bloom’s committee and volunteers this week.

“They have been awarded a gold medal by the Royal Horticultural Society in their annual ‘In Bloom’ competition, for the second year running.

“Petworth falls into the ‘small town’ category and they were declared the winner of this category in the seven counties that make up South and South East England. A tremendous accolade.”

Chair of the Petworth In Bloom an member for the town council’s horticulture and gardening committee, Patricia Hewlett, said huge amounts of work had gone into Petworth’s In Bloom effort.

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She said she was ‘delighted’ that the ‘year round’ activity had paid off.

She said: “We were absolutely thrilled to get the gold again but particularly being the winner of the small town category for the whole of the south east of England — we were not expecting that at all.”

Commenting on the victory of Euphorbia Design, Patricia added: “We congratulate them on an amazing achievement and to have a Royal Horticultural Society gold is phenomenal.”

Petworth In Bloom is also looking for volunteers to help with planting bulbs in the town.

To find out more email: [email protected]