Thousands of volunteers across Scotland will be sowing golden sunflower seeds in public spaces throughout National Gardening Week which begins today to launch the 50th anniversary celebrations of Britain in Bloom, which has been organised by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) since 2001. The thing is that there are no registered events in Edinburgh! So if you have grown some lovely plants in your garden or allotment then please add photos of them to our photo board here!
Keep Scotland Beautiful, Scotland’s environmental charity, is a member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom Federation, delivering the community engagement campaigns – Beautiful Scotland and It’s Your Neighbourhood – in Scotland.
Sowing events are being held by community gardening groups across the country, reinforcing the ‘Growing for Gold’ theme of this year’s campaign.
The RHS is providing 500,000 pollinator – friendly sunflower seeds to RHS Britain in Bloom, It’s Your Neighbourhood and Campaign for School Gardening groups across the UK to start sowing during the week to brighten up public spaces. There are 148 Bloom groups (Beautiful Scotland and It’s Your Neighbourhood) in Scotland and 1,065 Campaign for School Gardening Schools.
RHS Community Horticulture Manager, Stephanie Eynon, said: “What better way to celebrate this huge anniversary for Britain than a mass planting of beautiful golden sunflowers. These gorgeous and uplifting plants have been known to grow an astonishing 20 feet high, which reflects the sort of spirit and drive we associate with RHS Britain in Bloom volunteers.”
Carole Noble, Head of Environmental Services at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “It is wonderful that the RHS is providing all of the Beautiful Scotland and RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood groups in Scotland with the opportunity to brighten up their local areas with golden displays, as part of the 50thanniversary celebrations. It is a great way to thank these groups which work tirelessly to clean up and green up their local areas. Communities in Scotland can still register for this years’ campaigns until the end of April, and they can do this by emailing beautifulscotland@ksbscotland.org.uk for more details.”
Hundreds of events are taking place across Scotland throughout the week and many are designed to encourage children, parents and communities across the country to get together and plant the seeds in and around the school grounds, in local parks and community gardens.
There are a number of events taking place across Scotland throughout National Gardening Week.
• Powis Residents Group in Aberdeen is inviting partners and residents in the local community to get involved in a community clean-up day which will incorporate planting the sunflower seeds. The City of Glasgow College Transitions will be holding a public sowing event at Townhead Village Hall to add a touch of gold to a new community centre in Glasgow, with a new community orchard and garden.
• On 15 April a spring collection of rare and threatened trees are to be planted in parks and other important public open spaces in Perth & Kinross, beginning with a commemorative planting in Crieff’s McRosty Park
• Every spring the Friends of the Barnhill Rock Garden, Dundee arrange a spring clean-up in the Garden which involves a litter-pick (usually by local Cub Scouts), a major tidying up of areas for which the group is responsible. This year the event will include planting snowdrops-in-the-green in the Snowdrop Wood, now part of the national Snowdrop Trail, and sunflower seeds in a bed beside the railway. It will start at 10am and finish at 2pm and the event includes refreshments provided by the Friends – a coffee break and soup and sandwiches at lunch time.http://www.barnhillrockgarden.org.uk.
RHS Britain in Bloom volunteers work all year round to make the UK a clean, green and beautiful place. Planting sunflowers across the country in celebration of RHS Britain in Bloom’s 50th year will bring colour to the streets as well as provide vital food for pollinators this summer.
The story of Britain in Bloom began in 1964 when the tourist board wanted a way to market the country through floral displays. Since the RHS took over as the organising body in 2001, the focus of the campaign has widened to include helping the environment, strengthening communities and inspiring more people to get involved.
For more information on RHS Britain in Bloom visit www.rhs.org.uk/communities
More about the events taking place throughout National Gardening week can be found here.
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