Blooming brilliant flowers wow judges

Virtual show sees over 120 entrants take part

A VIRTUAL floral art and allotment show has proved a big success with entries from all over the country and even across the world.

This year Leek Floral Art and

Leek Allotment Holders and Gardeners Association had to cancel their annual show due to the pandemic.

However, not to be discouraged, local flower and vegetable enthusiast Suzanne Sheldon decided to organise virtual shows for the Leek Floral Art and Leek Allotment Holders and Gardeners Association.

The result have proved very successful with more than 50 entries in the floral art show and more than 70 in the allotment show.

Now following the success it has been decided to run Christmas virtual shows for both organisations.

Suzanne, above, said: “I came up with the idea to keep minds ticking over and to allow individuals to show off their talents from home. It would have been such a shame not to have been able to see the vegetables and flowers that keen gardeners work so hard to nurture”.

Entries were opened up to the wider public, not just the clubs, and entries were received from all over the world.

Floral Art judge, Lorraine Simcox, from Leek said: “It was wonderful to see all the designs – they were all of a high standard and quite different – it was a difficult decision to make”. The title of the flower show was ‘Go For

It’ which gave exhibitors a very wide scope to think about.”

Suzanne said: “Congratulations go out to everyone who entered and made the virtual shows wonderful to look at. It has been so popular that we have decided to run Christmas virtual shows for both organisations and details will be available soon. “The Leek Allotment virtual show entry categories were scaled down and included vegetables, fruit, flowers, herbs and a table decoration. Judge David Lownds said he enjoyed looking at the entries - using his expertise to decide on the winners.”

Anyone who is interested in receiving a schedule or finding out more about Leek Floral Art and Leek Allotments can contact Suzanne on 07518 074185 or suzsheldon@ btinternet.com.

Above, Floral Art winner Ghazala Javed’s design. Below, clockwise from top left, designs by children’s winner Madeline; flower class winner Jane Citty; veg/fruit class winner Derek Hulme; table decoration winner Heather Waring.