A SMALL working watermill set in the beautiful Cheshire countryside is the inspiration for this year's Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) National Flower Bed Competition entry from Vale Royal Borough Council.
Having won an RHS Gold Medal every year since the awards began, Vale Royal is aiming to surpass its achievement by being the first local authority to win five gold medals consecutively at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park from July 20-24.
Stretton Mill near Chester, provides the inspiration for the flower bed. At the mill visitors are able to see the two water wheels driving the ancient wooden mill machinery and turning the millstones to grind grain into flour.
The flower bed depicts the workings of a traditional watermill, including a water wheel structure with New Guinea Impatiens and trailing plants to give the effect of flowing water spilling out of the wheel as it would if it was turning.
Surrounding the water wheel is Ageratum 'Blue Champion' also represents water with Purple Millet to reflect waterside plants such as bulrushes.
Silver Cineraria depicts the building edge next to the water wheel and the inner section of the mill is represented by two millstones that have been reclaimed from a local river, as part of an environmental scheme.
Hessian bags labelled with wheat, corn and flour are used to show how the inside of the mill would have looked, with yellow shades of marigolds reflecting the changing colour of the wheat and corn from its natural state to the final milled flour.
Sue Fernandes, Streetscene Strategy Manager, said:'I am very proud of the team that produces the flower bed, who have put a huge amount of time and effort whole-heartedly into this project. We are all determined to get our fifth RHS Gold Medal at this year's show.'
Tickets for the RHS Flower Show are priced £18 in advance - ring the hotline number on 0870 906 3811.
