Blooming Sunderland and Durham

He might be smiling but he won't be if you pick his flowers

The first thing you have to realise about Britain in Bloom is that it is taken very, very seriously.

They may just be pretty flowers to you but, to the entrants, they're the culmination of months of hard work.

To some it is absolutely essential that their pretty flowers are prettier than the next town's pretty flowers.

And remember - it just takes a plague of greenfly, a gang of marauding slugs or someone bent on trouble and the judges will be looking at compost.

August is the month the Royal Horticultural Society's Britain in Bloom judges do the rounds.

They spend two weeks touring the 66 finalists - whittled down from more than 1,000 - among whom this year are Durham and Sunderland.

It'll be a relief for anyone local cheering from the sidelines that they're in different categories.

Durham is hoping to fight off competition from Bicester, Bury St Edmunds, Coleraine, Colwyn Bay, Perth and Whitehaven in the Large Town/Small City (12-35k) section.

Sunderland will be eyeing up two other Large Cities: Bristol and Leeds.

Critical friends

Sunderland's Britain in Bloom project reflects 100 years of the Girl Guides

The judges, in pairs, cover two categories each and don't necessarily judge the same place two years running, which helps if somewhere wins more than once.

This also means entries have to be judged against strict criteria - horticultural achievement, environmental responsibility and community involvement - rather than compared to each other.

Some places get to be good at it. They enter year after year and they nearly always win something.

Earsdon in Northumberland, for example, is a regular, winning Gold in 2007 and 2008 and Silver Gilt in the Champion of Champions section in 2009.

Morpeth, too, is no stranger to a Silver Gilt while, last year, Durham took Silver.

Durham's judge, Roger Burnett, who's also the Britain in Bloom chairman, says: "It used to be very much the Middle England hanging basket campaign in the 1960s and 70s.

"It's evolved from that to be very much a grassroots community campaign now."

Roger says the judges - or "critical friends" as they like to think of themselves - are very experienced.

He reckons they have about 300 years between them and personal preference doesn't affect their judgement.

That said, Sunderland and Durham take note, BBC Wear happens to know Roger likes geraniums.

Playing the game

Although they're encouraged to show the judges a broad view of their area, entries decide what they're going to do and where.

Roger says a place is doing well if something sticks in his mind after he's left: "[It's] innovation, we're looking for.

"We're looking for horticultural excellence of course. We're looking at how the community have got involved."

He promises they don't take sneaky looks prior to their official tour but they are wise to some entries' diversionary tactics: "We've had entries putting tubs out in front of the judges and picking them up behind them...and the judging tour caught up with them.

"There's often times when the entries will be in a vehicle with you and they'll say, 'If you look to your left now you'll see a nice lovely rose garden or something', so we'll immediately look to the right."

Sabotage

Ruined flowers in Morpeth, Britain in Bloom finalist in 2008

Plants are subject to the vagaries of the weather, pests and, it has to be admitted, sabotage.

Morpeth learnt in the past what it was like to have their entries flooded. Cayton in North Yorkshire has guards patrolling round their floral displays this year after a spate of weedkiller attacks.

In the case of out and out sabotage Cayton's case is rare, but not unheard of.

Hanging baskets have been poisoned over the years, for example, but Roger says there's no evidence that rival entrants are to blame: "Bloom's a very friendly competition, it's healthy rivalry really, rather than sabotage.

"It often comes out as a somebody with a local grudge against the village or somebody in the village...or it could be just pure vandalism.

"But we all live in the real world and, if vandalism happens the night before judging, we'll take that into account, it just depends how the entry's responded and how they've worked round that local problem."

The perfect job

While attempts at bribery are frowned upon - not that any entrant would even consider such a thing, of course - the judges do spend a lot of time being plied with tea and cake.

"We tend to put weight on while we're off duty," Roger admits. "It's one of the hazards of judging: everybody thinks we've probably not been fed on our tour round.

"Certainly you do get cakes and the local delicacy: you get Cornish pasties in Cornwall and haggis in Scotland and that sort of thing.

"Appropriate hospitality's OK. Of course, we do not accept bribes or any sort of gifts of any kind."

It's hard to know whether to feel sorry for the judges.

They spend a lot of time on trains filling in their marking sheets and reading entries' portfolios and they have to live out of suitcase for a fortnight.

But the tea and cakes and flowers must be some comfort.

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For more information on Britain in Bloom click here.

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