39 organisations took part in Ely in Bloom. A good three quarters of them were volunteer organisations and the project was also coordinated by an independent volunteer group, the Ely Perspective.

In other words, ordinary people, people like you and me did most of the work. People of all ages from all over Ely who had far better and more important things to do with their spare time, were willing to put in hours of effort, over a period of several months, because they are proud of their city and they want it to look nice. They’re prepared to do it again, next year, too.

One of the criteria for entry in the “In Bloom” competitions is that the entrants can prove their efforts are sustained throughtout the year from the point at which the town or city decided to enter… so for 2006 that starts from… oooh… about a month from now!

A scrap book has to be submitted in advance of the judging documenting the work that has been done, with photographs of areas planted before and after and more photographic evidence documenting work in progress - and the results - throughout the year. Some bedding is quite short lived but permanent planting displays take time to establish themselves and ideally we’d want a mixture of both. As I understand it, the intention of the other volunteers is the same as my own; that they should maintain the current displays throughout the summer. If they aren’t it’ll not be because we’re all de-mob happy after the judging, if we cared enough to bother in the first place our commitment isn’t going to evaporate over night. No, it’ll be because there aren’t enough volunteers to make it possible.

So if you want to make sure the planting is maintained there’s a very simple solution.

Join in. Help us to keep it going.