A floral group wants to say a giant thank you to hospital staff in Bury St Edmunds with a giant display of flowers.
The horticultural organisation Bury in Bloom wants to lift the spirits of exhausted West Suffolk Hospital workers by creating a ‘fountain of flowers’ at the walk-in entrance to say thank you from everyone in the town.
But the group needs the public’s help to raise the £1,000 needed for the five-tier planter, installation, plants and maintenance.
Bury in Bloom co-ordinator David Irvine said: “We are very lucky to have the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds and we feel we owe all the nurses and staff a great debt as they work day and night at no small risk to themselves.”
The organisation hopes the floral fountain, which would be more than two metres high, will be in place by late May and it will last until late September.
The self-watering pyramid will have the “wow factor” in red, white and blue.
MORE: Banner tribute to NHS from family of late community stalwartWith the cancellation of the Anglia in Bloom competition, Bury in Bloom’s plans “went up in smoke,” Mr Irvine said, but the group is still preparing for the day when restrictions are lifted.
Commenting on the coronavirus lockdown, Mr Irvine said: “It was like the sky falling in. This made us consider our simple, main objective ‘to make Bury St Edmunds a greener, cleaner and more beautiful place for residents and visitors alike’ and that’s exactly what we intend to do.
“When the restrictions are eased, the shops will start opening and the visitors will return and we want to make sure Bury St Edmunds is at its best and show everyone why the town is the ‘Jewel in the Crown of Suffolk’. “We want to say ‘come and visit our beautiful town, we are open for business and have lots to show you!’”
Despite losing some vital sponsorship, Bury in Bloom will be putting on a floral display of 350-400 hanging baskets and planters in and around the town centre from late May.
“These alone are a sight to be seen,” Mr Irvine said.
The group has also commissioned the Crafty Foxes arts organisation to produce a two-metre floral sculpture of recycled materials to be displayed in the Abbey Gardens that will be entered in the online competition run by Anglia in Bloom. Families and children in lockdown are taking part as they decorate drinks bottle bases.
“It will be spectacular and not to be missed,” said Mr Irvine.
And if restrictions are eased the popular ‘certificate of merit’ scheme for people’s front gardens will return in mid-July.
“The certificate of merit [scheme] is the face of Bury in Bloom to most residents and we also intend to enter it into the category of ‘Best Community Effort’ in the online [Anglia in Bloom] competition,” Mr Irvine added.
Mr Irvine can be contacted here.
To donate for the fountain of flowers go to Bury in Bloom’s Facebook page here. Scroll down to the ‘donate’ button.
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