19:01:20 27th January 2010
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has revealed its finalists for the prestigious Britain in Bloom contest.
A total of 66 towns, cities, hamlets and villages will take part, with residents busying themselves in their gardens and greenhouses in order to prepare for the arrival of judges in August.
Each of the communities will be hoping to be given a gold award, an achievement managed by 13 of last year's entrants, including Perth, Woolton and Forres.
The contest has been running from 1964, when the tourist board launched it as a means of marketing the UK and encouraging communities to create attractive town centres with hanging baskets, containers and gardens.
RHS community horticultural manager Stephanie Eynon explained that the garden and greenhouse organisation took over responsibility for the competition in 2002 and that it has come a long way in the intervening years.
"Today we see the competition as a genuinely relevant and integrated initiative, enabling people to join together to improve their local communities through a range of long-term, sustainable and locally defined projects," she said.
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