A GROUP of four flower arrangers have blossomed at this year’s Tatton Flower Show — winning a gold medal for their creation.

Lesley Devalle, who works at Peter and Margaret Florist in Chorley Old Road, along with William Dixon, from Turton, joined forces with fellow National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) demonstrator Jackie Walker, from Bury, and Arthur McDonald to come up with their Venice-inspired creation, which took more than three months to make.

This year’s theme was ‘carnival’ so the team, led by Mr Dixon, created a play on words and called theirs Carnivale before adding in elegant Venetian masks, a water feature to represent the city’s famous canals, and exploding fireworks made with flowers.

The team, who received their award on Wednesday, are delighted with the honour. Mrs Devalle, aged 60, said: “We were totally overwhelmed.

“When we received it we just started screaming and jumping about hugging each other — and yes we shed a few tears of joy too.

“They don’t give out the gold medal for just anything — the designs have to meet a specific criteria and the plant material has to be in pristine condition.

“We decided to create a piece with a Venice feel, so we had Venetian masks, the canal and also exploding flower fireworks.

“It took us months to do from the conception until now. We had to build it in Bill’s house in his garage and on his drive.

“This is my first attempt at show work and I couldn’t be happier.”

The team’s design was on display at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Tatton Flower Show in Tatton Park, Knutsford.