The Tribune

WHILE our athletes are going for gold at the Olympics the UK town which is home to their training camp has spruced up its flowerbeds with a Bahamas theme as a tribute.

Bahamas High Commissioner Paul Farquharson visited Crawley, in West Sussex, to see for himself the town’s Caribbean themed flowerbeds.

They were created with the Olympic Games in mind, as the town is home this week and next for athletes from The Bahamas, Paraguay, Grenada, Barbados and Dominica.

They are training at the K2 Leisure Centre in the town, which is about 30 miles outside of London.

The last-minute training is expected to continue until July 24 before the athletes head off to the Olympic Village in London ahead of the start of London 2012 on July 27.

Mr Farquharson toured the flower beds on Tuesday, the day the Olympic Torch came to the town as part of its relay around the UK.

He was joined by the Mayor of Crawley, Councillor Keith Blake, and High Commissioners from Grenada and Dominica as well as the Chairman of Horsham District Council.

The Caribbean flower beds are located in the busy town centre in a series of raised planters that run down either side of a wide pedestrian shopping area.

The six large flower beds were planted by a group of students from the local college - Central Sussex College.

The students have various degrees of learning difficulties but worked to ensure the town had the right plant in the right place, helped by council gardeners.

They are planted with a mix of sustainable and annual plants on a Caribbean theme as a tribute to the teams training, or staying, in Crawley.

The plants have proven to be eye-catching for the town’s residents – who keep asking what the “big plant” is - a Collocasia.

The flower beds also form part of the judging route for Crawley’s entry into South East in Bloom, a regional UK competition, and Britain in Bloom, a national UK competition that sees the town represent the south east region to compete against other small cities.

Judges like to see something quirky, innovative and original and the flower beds fit all three.

Mr Farquharson and his fellow High Commissioners were said to be extremely complimentary, “touched that the town had taken the time and trouble to create an innovative tribute to the Caribbean in a small part of the south east of England”.

“We were very honoured that the High Commissioners found time in their very busy schedule to meet the students and council gardeners who have all worked extremely hard on these special flower beds. We all had a brilliant time planting the wonderful tropical flowers in honour of the visiting Olympic teams,” said one council worker.

“When we were planting the flowerbeds, lots of people stopped to ask what we were doing as the plants are somewhat unusual and not the traditional plants people expect to see in England in the summer.

“Crawley has a diverse population and residents also stopped to chat when they recognised plants from ‘home’ so we must have got it right.”

The flowers planted are: Begonia Burning Embers; Banana; Perilla Magilla; Ipomea (Lime Green); Alstromeria; Collocasia; Anagalis (Blue; Ginger Lily; Tradescantia; Dwarf Canna Lily.