Pupils lend a hand as village prepares to get back on the In Bloom map

Pupils at Claverley Primary school were visited by Lisa Thomas and Lesley Writtle from the village's "In Bloom" volunteer group who talked to the pupils about how wonderful Sunflowers are and how much they give back to nature through birds and insects.

Claverley in Bloom are working with Head Teacher Mrs Jo Derrer at the school this year to share their love of plants and all things nature.

A demonstration was given to help explain to the pupils how to grow their own sunflowers.

Lisa Thomas said after the assembly all the children were presented with "a little bag of sunshine" containing a plant pot, compost, sunflower seeds, a name tag and some information to get their flowers blooming.

She said: "The children asked lots of great questions, such as, 'will my horse eat the flower?'.

"They were also challenged with two competitions - ‘who grew the tallest sunflower’ and to create a painting or sculpture of their sunflower during the summer holidays ready for an art competition in September."

The visit comes as the Claverley In Bloom team is gearing up to enter the national competition.

The village scooped gold in 2015, but has not entered the competition that is run by the Royal Horticultural Society for a number of years.

Ms Thomas said: "We are re-entering the In Bloom competition in 2024.

"It takes an awful lot of work to enter and they have recently changed the rules so you have to first enter the Heart of England competition before you can then then enter Britain in Bloom.

"At the moment there are only seven of us, so we are hoping to get more volunteers so we can get back on the In Bloom map."

She added that the group has just conducted a litter pick that garnered 30 bags of rubbish.

They are also set to hold a plant sale on May 27 at The Plough in Claverley to raise funds for the In Bloom drive.