Christchurch wow visitors with another flower festival success

Imagination, ingenuity, inspiration and sheer artistry go hand-in-hand to produce a stunning effect.

This year was no exception.

Once again, members of the Ladies' Supper Club at the church brought off a highly-successful and enjoyable three-day flower festival

This year's festival was entitled Cavalcade! The charities chosen to benefit from it are Hospice At Home and Homecall.

Around the church were a dozen different interpretations of the cavalcade theme, from Crufts to carnival, bonfire to bridal.

Visitors were treated first to a floral depiction of a typical Guy Fawkes' night procession.

A giant jumping jack and a Catherine wheel formed the base of a display which rocketed upwards in a riot of reds, oranges and yellows thanks to carnations, mimosa and gazenia.

The eye was then taken by Crufts' Parade of Champions. The highlight of the four-day annual dog show founded in 1886 featured gold alstromeria, carnations and chrysanthemums for the overall champion with silver and white carnations and gypsophila in second place.

The roped-off show-ring featured gold, silver and bronze trophy-winners.

For New Yorkers, May 17 means that traffic stops for the annual St Patrick's Day Parade. A towering skyscraper was topped by green and white thanks to hebe, chrysanthemums and lysianthus.

Eucalyptus and carnations were in street-level procession.

Christchurch members can usually be relied on to contribute a lively float for Bexhill's July carnival procession. All the fun and colour of carnival was expressed in a display which featured a child's pedal car on parade topped by an explosion of pink, red, white and bronze between which peeped balloons.

Carnival bunting ran along the top of all this excitement.

The annual civic service held by the incoming Town Mayor is a feature of the Bexhill calendar. The procession into church with the mayor and their fellow Charter Trustees in the regalia of the former borough was cleverly evoked with a civic mace of gold carnations, a mayoral chain and jabot, the town coat of arms and a sea of red and yellow provided by roses, alstromeria, chrysanthemums and carnations.

Graduation Day is a milestone in the lives of countless young people. The hope and optimism of such occasions was symbolised by three academic mortar boards topped with floral displays before a tall column of roses, their white blooms matching the degree scrolls.

In the world of fashion, the catwalk parade is the moment to put new designs before a critical audience. Down the centre of the church a catwalk stretched across the pews. Along the catwalk strutted supermodels of floral displays, culminating in a modernistic white structure.

For the Scouting Movement, April 23 means St George's Day - parades, standards, church services and the renewal of promises. It also means the red and white flag of the country's patron saint set off by a pyramid of red roses.

At the foundation of the edifice someone's treasured copy of Scouting For Boys.

All the pomp, splendour and ceremonial of the annual Trooping The Colour on London's Horse Guards' Parade was evoked by a red and white profusion of roses, carnations, alstrometria, chrysanthemums and gladioli. They set off the trappings of the day - trumpet, drum and regimental colours.

Christchurch has seen countless brides and grooms take their oaths. Bridal Procession was packed with symbolism.

Before a church wall and on a path of petal-strewn gravel, floral bride and groom were represented by stephanotis, roses, carnations and alstrometria; the bride's bouquet and groom's buttonhole at the foot of the display.

Swiss cow-herders decorate the horns of their cattle with flowers, bells and ribbons when they drive them up to the mountain pastures in Spring and back down into the valleys in autumn.

The end of each Christchurch pew bore both horns and floral displays in a procession which led from the back of the church to the front.

Finally, Cavalcade! paid tribute to the annual Walk Of Witness held each Good Friday by Churches Together In Bexhill.

Simplicity itself, shoes had been used to hold displays which processed in front of the Lord's table.

Light lunches were available on Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday and cream teas on all three days.

Full use was made not only of the church but of the church hall and the new Centenary House and its garden for a weekend of floral magic - fund-raising by the most beautiful of means.