Best hanging baskets/ containers 2012

Mrs Margaret Pendry, from Brook Lane in Great Barford, won first place in this year’s Bedfordshire Basket and Container of the Year award after impressing judges with the use of unique flowers in her baskets.

The winning baskets had a spectrum of colourful flowering plants including petunias, trailing geraniums and lotus plants, as well as santalias and acalyphyas.

Commenting on her win, Margaret said: “I think the judges were impressed with the unusual element of the plants I used. In particular the acalyphas, which were quite difficult to get hold of. I have only been gardening for a few years and I’m still really a novice so it was great to win.”

The Basket and Container category was only introduced this year.

Margaret added: “I only garden baskets so I haven’t entered the competition before now. I was very pleased to hear the category had been added to the list this year.”

But Margaret is not content with the one prize and is already looking ahead to next season. She has said that she hopes to enter next year and has already began to plan which flowers and plants she will use.