It’s that time of year again when the Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council have the opportunity to show the (RHS) Anglia in Bloom judging team our beautiful town and borough. It is a Borough competition sponsored by the Royal Horticultural Society and covers Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.
This year the WHBC has entered 2x categories, and The Fernery, Danesbury Nature Reserve has been entered in the Historic Parks and Gardens category.
Humble and proud as we are, we do have a proven success record with Anglia in Bloom:
2018 We won a Special Award for a Conservation project. (Planting had hardly started at that stage).
2019 We failed to win – but received a Certificate for our troubles.
2023 We won the Gold Award in the Parks & Gardens Category.
But that confidence could be mis-placed and the nail-biting starts on the afternoon of Tuesday 15th July when a team of independent RHS Judges will visit the Fernery; the FODF volunteers will be expected to be ‘standing by their (flower) beds’, properly dressed, and ready to smile and answer testing questions.
But in all truth, the RHS Judges have always been very happy visiting the Fernery, and they are sure to be impressed with the new planting, and the Pulhamite rockwork restoration, carried out since they last visited us.
The results and Awards will not be known until the Autumn at a big Borough Council Bash. (Could it be their last?)