So what is it all about?

Heart of England in Bloom is the regional element of the national Britain in Bloom competition which started back in the early 1960`s, by what can only be described as a happy accident.

Roy Hay MBE, who spent a large part of his many faceted career as a horticultural journalist, was on holiday in France when he noticed that the place was over flowing with plants and flowers. Everywhere he looked, there were pots, tubs, window boxes, hanging baskets and gardens burgeoning with bloom.  When he asked what was going on he was told that this was part of the `Fleurissement de France`, a make-France-more-beautiful campaign, initiated by General de Gaulle.

Once home, Roy, with the support of the British Tourist Authority, set up a campaign to develop a home grown version, and thus Britain in Bloom was born.

All kinds of people and organisations were recruited to help, from the AA and RAC to the Royal Horticultural Society; from the Flowers and Plants Council to the Society of Local Council Clerks, the English, Scottish and Welsh Tourist Boards.

At the request of the British Tourist Authority, Tidy Britain Group, which had been associated with the competition virtually since the beginning, took over responsibility for the organisation of national Britain in Bloom in 1983. In 2001 The Royal Horticultural Society took over the organisation of the national competition. Over the years, the judging has been streamlined to make it fairer, new categories have been added, and a greater awareness achieved.

Now with a rather wider environmental approach, the campaign has gone from strength to strength and it annually attracts over 1350 individual entries from small villages to the largest of cities.