Blooming Haddington

In 2024, Blooming Haddington was awarded two Beautiful Scotland discretionary awards: 1. the Haddington 700 Discretionary Award for St Mary's Pleasance, and 2. the David Welch Memorial Award for Something Special - for Amisfield Walled Garden.

Blooming Haddington was formed in 2013, and the group are enthusiastic people of all ages and abilities who care deeply about keeping their town and green spaces looking beautiful. They have regular volunteer sessions and look after 120+ hanging baskets in the summer months. They also have street planters and tattie boxes dotted around the town centre, which are filled with both summer and winter planting. Blooming Haddington receive numerous comments from members of the community saying how important their work is and how much pleasure it brings to them.

In 2023, Blooming Haddington was awarded the Haddington 700 Discretionary Award for the Siege of Haddington Commemoration Garden: Using last year’s Beautiful Scotland theme, Year of Stories, Blooming Haddington, working with a local Research group, embarked on a project to create a commemoration garden that would help to tell the story, and engage the public with the greater narrative of Scotland’s longest siege.

The garden consists of five Gabion baskets filled with plants representing some of the countries that fought in the Siege, as well as 16^th century medicinal herbs. The steel baskets were designed to replicate the wicker baskets used in the siege.

The commemoration garden was officially opened in June.

In 2022, Blooming Haddington was awarded the Haddington 700 Discretionary Award for Amisfield Walled Garden: Since 2006, a group of local people have taken on the task of restoring this site from a neglected wilderness into a vibrant community garden. After setting up a charity and obtaining a long-term lease, members began planning its development. The dual aim was to create a garden with year-round interest for visitors, as well as encouraging volunteer gardeners of all ages and abilities to learn a range of horticultural skills.

Under the supervision of a volunteer co-ordinator, the group has cleared overgrown shrubs and trees, laid out footpaths following old maps dating back to 1855, and planted herbaceous borders, orchards which include local, heritage apple trees, vegetable beds, a maze and sensory gardens. There is a modern education building for shelter and teaching space. To extend the season of interest, a winter garden has recently been established, with willow, dogwood, birch and snake bark maples providing ornamental stem colours that contrast with the evergreen ground cover.

In 2019, Blooming Haddington was awarded a Gold medal and won the 'Town' category of the RHS UK Britain in Bloom finals. The group was also presented with the RHS UK Discretionary Award for Gardening in a Changing Climate.