After almost half a century of trying a Moray village has been recognised for producing the finest floral decoration in the country.
Dufftown in Bloom is one of four entrants considered to be ‘outstanding’ in this years Beautiful Scotland competition and has been awarded the prestigious Rosebowl Trophy as a result.
The village achieved the same overall top mark as Beautiful Perth, Pitlochry in Bloom and St Andrews in Bloom, beating off 50 other entrants in the highly contended competition.
Dufftown in Bloom also went home with the Large Village Trophy, and was awarded a Gold medal certificate in the Large Village category. They were the only group competing from Moray.
Beautiful Scotland is a competition run by the independent charity Keep Scotland Beautiful in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society. Entrants are judged on their year-round horticultural achievement, environmental responsibility and their community participation.
The award ceremony is the climax of a year of continuous work by local people throughout Scotland and was attended by almost 150 people. Awards were presented to a wide range of communities, all of whom had achieved the highest scores in their categories. In addition, Discretionary Awards were given out to those who demonstrated excellence in their commitment to the campaign.
Lord Purvis, who hosted the ceremony, said: “Keep Scotland Beautiful is delighted that Dufftown in Bloom has scored so highly this year – it is a fantastic result and an extremely positive news story for the whole of Scotland that we have four entrants achieving such a high standard.
“I would like to congratulate everyone who was involved in achieving this result for Dufftown, and would also like to commend the group for helping to make Moray, and Scotland a cleaner, greener place for us all to enjoy today and tomorrow – through floral enhancement, community participation, and taking responsibility for tackling the criminal activity of littering and dog fouling, Beautiful Scotland groups make a massive difference to our country.”
Moray’s MSP, Richard Lochhead, passed on his congratulations to the village last night, saying: “Communities across Moray always delight with some really fantastic floral displays and Dufftown in Bloom’s top success with the Beautiful Scotland Awards is an impressive achievement.
“The community can rightly be very proud of their success, which is great for Dufftown and an inspiration for many other communities who put so much into their floral displays.”