Rebecca Hubbard
Posted: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 10:50 am

Staff at a Somerset garden centre are celebrating this week after winning a Silver Medal for their charity show garden at the 2010 Taunton Flower Show.
 
Taunton Garden Centre on Pen Elm Hill in Norton Fitzwarren created the garden at the event, which took place at Vivary Park in Taunton on Friday, August 6 and Saturday, August 7, as well as sponsoring the Show.
 Horticultural Manager, Sally Cridge said: “We are delighted our garden won silver at Taunton Flower Show. The garden centre team put a lot of time and effort into the design, so it’s great to be rewarded like this.”
 
The garden centre’s show garden raised money for the charity, Greenfingers, which creates gardens at children’s hospices throughout the country. 
 
Sally continued: “The design incorporated the Greenfingers child’s hand logo and included a ‘chill out’ zone to interest and inspire children of all ages. We used plants such as fatsia ‘Japonica’, cloud pruned cupressus ‘Goldcrest’ and spiral juniperus ‘Blue Arrow’.
 
“We also sponsored the show. It is a prestigious gardening event in the South West and is often referred to as the ‘Chelsea of the West’, so to be recognised with a silver award is very flattering. 
 
“We sponsored the ‘Ready, Steady, Garden’ exhibit, which was a competition that gives participants two hours to create a garden from scratch. We also sponsored a talk on roses hosted by David Austin Roses and the team from the floristry department at the garden centre hosted a demonstration of wedding flowers.”
 
Greenfingers, which was set up by members of the gardening industry, creates gardens at children’s hospices throughout the country. It was launched in November 1998 by garden writer and broadcaster, Richard Jackson and a team of volunteers drawn from all sectors of the gardening industry.