Newcastle Winners in Heart of England in Bloom 2023

Newcastle-Under-Lyme has been crowned overall winner of the prestigious Heart of England in Bloom competition for 2023.

The awards saw Newcastle bag first place in the small city category, collect its 21^st consecutive gold award and also receive a judge’s discretionary award for outstanding achievement.

As part of Newcastle’s entry, Queens Gardens was planted with annual bedding on the theme of the 850^th celebrations.

To promote sustainability in the town, work has begun on planting 850 native lime trees and town centre roundabouts were provided with pollinators and herbaceous and perennial plants.

Such has been the Council’s consistently high standards, the Borough has won Gold in the regional small city category for 21 years in a row, as well as taking a hat-trick of regional championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

In recent years it’s also won the national ‘small city’ title and a gold award in the Champion of Champions round.

Newcastle is also in the RHS Britain in Bloom National Finals for 2023 and will find out the results on Monday 23^rd October at the award ceremony in London.

Judging considerations include the range of plant species, diversity and how it supports wildlife; art in the landscape, restoration of habitats and ecological practices; and evidence of year-round activity and community engagement.

This year volunteers have already donated the equivalent of 4,000 hours of work, while 14,662 trees have been planted across 12 sites.