Squire’s Garden Centres has announced that Harley Silvestri, age 9 from Hampton Hill Junior School, is the winner of their competition to design a planting scheme for a flowerbed at the Environment Agency’s lock on the River Thames in Teddington.
220 children aged between 6-11 from Hampton Hill Junior School, The Russell School and Latchmere School took part in the competition, which is run by Squire’s in conjunction with the Environment Agency.
The children were given a template of a circular flowerbed with a sundial in the middle, and were invited to suggest colours and patterns that could be planted up. The design brief was the Sapphire Jubilee, to celebrate Her Majesty’s sixty five years on the throne. Squire’s deputy chairman Sarah Squire and Mandy Marshall from the Environment Agency’s River Thames Waterways Operations team judged the designs, and the children who created the best designs in each age group from each school were invited to a prize giving afternoon tea with their parents at Squire’s Garden Centre in Twickenham on July 6. All children who attended received a certificate and a goody bag from Squire’s, and Harley Silvestri’s winning design has been planted up at Teddington Lock.
Squire’s deputy chairman Sarah Squire commented: “We were overwhelmed by the number of entries this year, and the time and effort that the children put into them, so congratulations to everyone who took part. It was lovely to meet the finalists at our special prize giving afternoon tea party.
“We awarded winners for each age category, and the overall winner of the competition was Harley Silvestri. His design was chosen as it followed the Sapphire Jubilee theme nicely with the colours that he selected. His design has been planted up at Teddington Lock and it looks absolutely stunning. I’m sure that visitors to the lock will enjoy the special Sapphire Jubilee planting scheme all summer long.”
Mandy Marshall from the Environment Agency added: “We love being part of this annual event, and every year’s winning design is wonderful and really brightens up the lock. Our staff really enjoy planting it and maintaining it to keep it looking its best. They also put all the design entries on display for visitors to admire, and people are always highly impressed with how good and how imaginative they all are. The children are so talented – it’s amazing.”
