University Centre Bishop Burton students triumph at the Harrogate Flower Show

With a number of individual places in the Flower Arrangement competition including two first places from student Soolmaz Lashgary, the team representing University Centre Bishop Burton also won Gold and Overall Winner in the Florist College – Inventive Britain category.

The Harrogate Flower Show, established in 1911 is run by the North of England Horticultural Society, attracting an audience of up to 90,000 visitors a year to enjoy plant nursery displays, floral features and talks and demonstrations. The show has been a fixture of the degree level Floristry programme for students for a number of years - providing students, with the opportunity to work on a large-scale collaborative piece, within a competitive industry environment, at a professional level.

The college’s entry into the Floral Art Pavilion category, Florist College – Inventive Britain, was based on geometric drawing device Spirograph. The bold design featured a striking use of flowers and thread in red, green and blue to convey the dynamism created by the mathematical curves produced by Spirograph. The eye-catching design was a favourite with the expert judging panel winning Gold in the Inventive Britain class and receiving the Gold award for overall winner.

One of the students who was part of the Spirograph team commented “Competing in the Harrogate Flower Show has been an amazing experience. It’s been fantastic to be able to work on a collaborative piece in a competitive environment. I feel privileged to have been able to showcase my expertise and creativity alongside some of the most talented florists in the country. I am so excited we won Gold for our team entry and to also be Gold overall winner has been a dream come true!”