Floral Guernsey is an initiative in full bloom
I WAS very disappointed to read in an article of 13 May, about the new Floral Guernsey patron, the implication that in the past the Floral Guernsey initiative 'was only visible to the Guernsey public from one year to the next solely because of the Floral Guernsey Show at Cambridge Park and the occasional open garden'. The Floral Guernsey initiative was started in late 1992 by a small group of Senior Civil Servants from the Board of Administration's Parks and Gardens, The Horticultural Committee and the Tourist Board who formed the Floral Guernsey Working Group. The original concept was the promotion of 'horticulture in tourism' with the primary intention of encouraging visitors to Guernsey to enjoy the natural and formal floral aspects of the Bailiwick. To achieve these aims the Floral Guernsey Working Group introduced floral competitions for garages, public houses, places of visitor interest, hotels and visitor accommodation and it encouraged parish floral competitions.
UK television and radio gardening personalities were brought over annually to give advice and practical gardening tips to our local gardeners.
Well-known floral experts such as Sarah Raven, Carol Klein, Tim Smit of the Eden Project, Jekka McVicar and specialists from the London Physic Garden gave talks and the Blue Peter Gardener and Dick Strawbridge visited our local schools.
Lectures and demonstrations were given on floral painting and cane weaving and all of these were attended by local gardeners.
The Parks and Gardens Department introduced splendid floral displays along the Town seafront, the Weighbridge roundabout and St Sampson's Harbour. Shops in St Peter Port were encouraged to display hanging baskets.
Two one-week Floral Festivals were organised in spring and summer when certain gardens were opened to the public, guided walks, talks and guided visits to gardens in Jersey, Sark, Herm and St. Malo were organised.
The Tourist Board produced a comprehensive Floral Calendar and promoted Floral Guernsey by taking exhibition space at the Chelsea, Hampton Court, Harrogate, Shrewsbury and Southport Flower shows at which we won a number of gold awards and distributed visitor information.
The first Floral Guernsey Show took place at Cambridge Park in June 1996, four years after the creation of the Floral initiative and attracted 12,000 visitors.
Floral Guernsey will soon be celebrating its 25th anniversary and its undoubted success is due largely to the tremendous enthusiasm and hours of tending floral displays that has been given by the parish communities over those past years and rewarded by their successes in the Britain in Bloom Competition.
Hardly an invisible initiative and all under the Floral Guernsey banner.
EVAN OZANNE,
First Floral Guernsey Coordinator and former Deputy Director, Guernsey Tourist Board.
