ingenious ferny nest had been constructed and a just hatched out baby dinosaur was flanked by the proud mum and dad, with the flame spewing rocks in the background. Stunning!
As well as being able to walk right through the display, it could also be viewed from an outlook platform. There was a gardener's question time area with guests Ron Womack and Ken Gill on hand for much of the time dealing with general gardening queries. Staff from the Parks and Countryside Department were also available to answer questions and they were doing brisk business at the Manor Road Nurseries plant stall, so attractively flanked by those colourful celosias.
Further points of interest were provided by the Yorkshire in Bloom photographic display and further informative display regarding the Parks and Countryside Services, the Manor Road Nurseries, the Friends of Peasholm Park, Scarborough Conservation Volunteers, Scarborough Training Centre and the Gladstone Road Junior School 'design a flowerbed' competition.
Also, and this is where we come in, the local Scarborough Horticultural organisations were invited to take part by putting on a small display depicting their activities. The Sandybed Allotments Association joined into the spirit of things by having a selection of their allotment photographs superimposed with dinosaurs pictures - to good effect!! They also put on a display of produce and a section entitled 'hats off to gardeners' with a selection of sunhats beautifully decorated with beans, pulses and floral bits and pieces. The Scarborough Flower Club section was backed with beautiful murals made up from dried leaves, seedpods, shells and bark and it also contained some stunning traditional and modern flower arrangements.
The Scarborough & District Fuchsia Society section featured blown-up photographs of fuchsias, including of the fuchsia named after the Society, 'Scarborough Society' and also photographs of our Annual Show and of the Lincoln Millennium Display, with the great wheel once again proving a talking point. Likewise the plants in the display. About a dozen, with the variegated F procumbens and the bonsai fuchsias creating much interest. Naturally we manned the stand from time to time to get some feed back from the public and our leaflets and copies of our Newsletters were eagerly gathered up by interested people. Hopefully this will lead to the recruitment of some new members.
Another talking point were the triphyllas on our stand. Although we are by no means the only people in town capable of growing decent triphyllas, you will have noticed that they are to be found all over town as striking centrepieces in the many floral tubs the council provides. They grow many hundreds of triphyllas on every year for this purpose and also find the trailing fuchsias a great standby for the hanging baskets.
Another nice touch was the colouring competition organised for the visiting children. Having chosen Dinosaurs as part of the title of the exhibition also helped a great deal to get youngsters on board They were therefore interested to come along, rather than having to be dragged along yet another boring gardening event for adults. Good thinking!
It had been an extremely busy time for the staff at the Park and Countryside Department with many extra hours spent planning, organising, setting up and manning the exhibition. Manager, Roger Burnett, was however delighted with the response from the many visitors, a good mix of locals and tourists, as an impressive visitors book proved. He proclaimed it to be "a good successful show with great community involvement" and was hoping to follow it up with a repeat next year, already in it's early planning stages.
I certainly look forward to that and most of Scarborough's gardening enthusiasts hope this will turn into an annual event to show visitors and locals alike that the Parks & Countryside Department do the town proud!