The RHS/Ball Colegrave National Flower Bed Competition
The RHS / Ball Colegrave National Flower Bed Competition is a special highlight of the show providing an explosion of colour and excitement.
In this competition 19 local authorities and colleges use their skills and experience to stage a flower bed that reflects their community’s identity.
Show Gardens | Back to Back Gardens | RHS/Ball Colegrave National Flower Bed Competition
Wainwright's Love Affair
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
Exhibitor: Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
Designer: Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
This bed celebrates Alfred Wainwright MBE’s love of the Lake District. The author of Pictoral Guides to the Lakeland Fells was born in Blackburn and his earliest job was with Blackburn Borough Engineers Department. The flower bed reflects his first view of the Lakeland Fells, which sparked his love affair with the area.
Reg Harris Cycle Maestro
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council
Exhibitor: Bury Metropolitan Borough Council and Tatton Volunteers
Designer: Bury MBC
Returning to Tatton following an RHS Silver-Gilt Medal for its literary-themed flower bed in 2007, Bury MBC turns its floral attention to sport in this flower bed honouring leading race track cyclist Reg Harris. The Bury-born athlete won two Olympic medals in 1948 and was five times world champion. The bed makes a bold statement in reds and whites.
You’ve made your bed, now lie in it!
Calderdale Council
Exhibitor: Calderdale Council
Designer: Calderdale Council
This flower bed celebrates the work and life of a Calderdale gardener by showing Tommy Topham, one-time gardener at Shibden Park, Halifax, in bed, surrounded by tools on a quilt of marigolds. Morning Glory is draped around the bed head to wake him for another day. The design features the encroachment of the gardener’s craft from flower bed to the bed that he sleeps on.
Learning City Carlisle
Carlisle City Council
Exhibitor: Carlisle City Council
Designer: Lee Lowis/Russell Maddams
As a tribute to the University of Cumbria, which opened in Carlisle this year, Learning City Carlisle uses bedding plants to embrace the key theme of education with recognisable symbols to illustrate this to the audience.
Twelve Months Ago
Cheltenham in Bloom
Exhibitor: Cheltenham in Bloom
Designer: Sharon Backhouse
A year since Gloucestershire was hit with torrential floods causing massive devastation, the Cheltenham in Bloom team pays tribute to the brave and tireless work of the emergency services in this tributary flower bed. The main feature of the bed is a rescue helicopter positioned near a flooded Cotswold River, made of Petunia 'Pirouette Blue', with the sculpture of a person being rescued.
Conwy’s Butterflies
Conwy County Borough Council
Exhibitor: Conwy County Borough Council
Designer: Conwy County Borough Council
The picturesque County of Conwy, part of which lies within the Snowdonia National Park, has many sites of natural beauty where wildlife abounds. This flower bed depicts one of these sites.
Cleaner Conwy
Conwy County Borough Council and North Wales Probation Service
Exhibitor: Conwy County Borough Council & North Wales Probation Service
Designer: Conwy County Borough Council
In a celebration of the council’s partnership with the North Wales Probation Service, this bed represents the joint work carried out to reduce the effects of vandalism and graffiti in the area. Ex-offenders will work with bedding plants to create a brick-walled display complete with floral graffiti markings.
