The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
With spring very much on the way, the Springfields Festival Gardens is hosting the annual daffodil competition this weekend.
Set within a marquee on the main lawns at the Spalding venue, the show will pit novice competitors showing their best single and multi-headed blooms.
There will be a range of attractions including Evolve Flowers with Helen Chambers. She will be showing her tree installations featuring daffodil and tulip flowers.
Among the commercial growers will be Taylor Bulbs featuring a new style of presenting daffodil varieties in vases for visitors to admire. There will also be catalogues available.
Lingarden Bulbs’ Adrian Jansen will be showcasing around 100 daffodil varieties set within test tubes for educational and inspirational purposes.
Visitors to the event will be encouraged to take a walk around the 15-acre site to see many of the 100,000 bulbs planted between October and December. There will also be displays from bulbs left from 64,000 bulbs left in place.
The gardens are also home to one of five National Narcissus Collection of 450 varieties and includes many unnamed which have been bred at Rosewarne Experimental Horticulture Station and the Glasshouse Crops Research Station at Littlehampton.
Head gardener at Springfields, Andy Boyton, is including it as part of the garden tours. Visitors will be able to connect their phone to identify specified area, plant, tree and flower.
The garden team will also include succulent, Japanese miniature garden exhibits and Kodedama garden art.
Elzbieta Gulbinovic will be running workshops on the many styles of moss ball art.
There will be workshops and activities including a bird hide linking live to Willow Tree Fen, Gibraltar Point and Frampton Marsh.
RSPB and Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust will be supporting activities to educate and inspire visitors to discover more about the natural world.
Joey Lowe will be holding splatter painting workshops as well as showing his current exhibition.
He is a resident artist and donates time to help the interactive Senses Garden which is designed specifically for people who are on the autistic spectrum.
Zoe Hudson will be hosting butterfly felt art and there will even be a miniature of the Flying Scotsman for visitors to enjoy. Face painting, balloons and a wildlife train will also be on offer.
Some activities will be charged with costs from £3.50 to £5.
