Floral judges impressed by warm community spirit

Technical manager for Clematis Guernsey, Alan Dorey, has been joined by the RHS Britain in Bloom national judge Rae Beckwith.

Together they will assign awards around the islands, these include discretionary prizes such as the Heritage and Young People’s awards.

This year only Sark and St Saviour’s have decided to enter as individual parishes with a chance to make it to the Britain in Bloom overall competition.

Mr Dorey and Mr Beckwith spent the second morning of judging on Tuesday around the Town centre looking at community buildings and displays such as those at parish douzaine and the Weighbridge roundabout.

‘We’ve been walking around with our eyes really open, most of the time when you’re in Town you’re on a mission to do something, we were just thinking what a great place for visitors to see,’ said Mr Dorey.

‘Last year St Peter Port was in the final. What a shame they didn’t enter it would have been a gold winning entry without too much more hard work,’ he said.

One of the stand-out entries from across the island for the judges so far has been the cemetery at Rue des Freres near to the Elizabeth College.

They also highlighted the Saints Bay loophole tower number 14. Both were a result of volunteer work.

‘We’ve seen a lot of people that care, people want to make a difference.Volunteer groups get in with other volunteer groups and the numbers of volunteers are incredible in Guernsey,’ said Mr Beckwith.

Both judges commented on the wealth of involvement from new people in Floral Guernsey each year.

‘We always find there’s a warmth from people and in a lot of cases [a project] comes along one year and a new set of people take it on,’ said Mr Beckwith.

‘I’ve been doing this for years and it’s never always the same people,’ said Mr Dorey.

Forest parish will be judged for the Britain in Bloom national finals in August.

The results of the Floral Guernsey competition will be announced in a ceremony at Les Cotils on 6 September.