Blooming great start for festival

Children from Rotherham's Brampton the Ellis CofE (Aided) Infant School were on hand to kick start "A Plant in Time", a travelling flower exhibition, by making flowers out of recyclable materials and contributing to what could become the largest collection of artificial flowers ever seen.

The event is part of a joint National Trust and Yorkshire Bank initiative. The "A Plant in Time" exhibition will tour selected National Trust gardens across the country until September. Everyone who contributed to the exhibition entered the Yorkshire Bank Flower Show Competition.

"A Plant in Time" also marks the end of the first phase of an ambitious project to catalogue all the important plants in Trust gardens – the largest survey of its kind undertaken in the UK.

Once completed, this survey will be instrumental in helping the Trust manage its plant collections. Steve Fletcher, Yorkshire Bank's head of retail, said: "'A Plant in Time' is an exciting part of our Greener Gardens initiative with the National Trust.

"It highlights the need for us all to make long-term changes, as individuals, communities and within the wider business world to live more sustainable lives."

Those who can't get to the exhibition or workshops can still make a flower. Log on to http://www.aplantintime.co.uk. "A Plant in Time" tours 16 National Trust gardens between now and September, with flower-making workshops at many more venues.