Oldbury gardener lands award for green-fingered efforts
Everything in Dennis Amos’s garden is blooming wonderful and the owner has now netted a national award for being the best in the country.
The 77-year-old retired builder, from Oldbury, is often tending to his plants from about 6am each day. Now his hard work has earned him the title of the Best Garden in the Country in a contest judged by Peter Seabrooke, an exhibitor at the Chelsea Flower Show. Dennis also won Best Containers which were judged by Richard Jackson.
Having won the two awards and £300 for the Best Garden and £50 for the Best Containers, Dennis is now having second thoughts about abandoning his beloved plants and said that he now only “intends to cut back a bit on the hard work”.
Dennis of Farm Road, specialises in begonias and his displays of apricot and orange provide a colourful backdrop but admits watering 40 baskets of flowers can be tiring.
A retired builder, Dennis has been an avid gardener for about six years although he and his wife, Jean, aged 75, have lived in their present home for 27 years.
Dennis said: “My 51-year-old son, Steven, who lives at Bridgnorth, took photographs and entered me for the competitions.
“I cried when I realised that I had gained national attention.
“I am over-the-moon having won and it makes the hard work for the last four to five years worthwhile.
“I am really chuffed as it is a big achievement and my friends and neighbours have all said I must not give up gardening.
“Each year I preserve the begonias in October and get them out in February, dry them and wait for them to spurt and then plant them out in trays.
“The whole thing takes me at least a couple of months to get things ready for the baskets.
“My garden is about 100 feet long and 30 feet wide and I love the variety and beauty of it.
“I don’t change the colour scheme but I do have 30 other varieties of plants other than the begonias.
“There are tree lilies, trailing geraniums, border geraniums, busy lizzies, petunias, French marigolds, sweetpeas, sunflowers and fuchsias.
“I am often now up at 6am doing the watering and out again at night and reckon I am in the garden working for about six hours each day.
“Neighbours and friends come to visit the garden but they could not do so last year because of the pandemic.”
