The City’s Parks Department team participating in the 2008 Sunday Tribune Garden and Leisure Show in Pietermaritzburg, have improved on the Silver Laurel award garnered by their colleagues at last year’s event by winning a Gold Award for their floral exhibition.

The Sunday Tribune Garden and Leisure Show is South Africa’s most important horticultural show and places a specific emphasis on municipal and corporate gardens. The event has been hosted annually since 1975 by the Royal Agricultural Society of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. The show hosted 42 keynote gardens, ranging from five to 225 square metres in size - with designs from the practical to the surreal - all of which received acclaim from the panel of professional Chelsea-mentored judges. Held over three days, it attracted 18 900 visitors. This year, the theme was "Gardening with Colour".

Six staff members were nominated by management for their enthusiasm and expertise, and their participation provided an ideal opportunity for skills development, training and education. The team consisted of Yasmine Colley, Lynn January, Jacobus Verwey, Jonathan Claasen, Nicholas Wannenburgh, Brian van Wyk and Bronwen Williams.

The award-winning exhibition will be on display to the public on the concourse of the Cape Town Civic Centre at the end October.