Richmond was blooming with celebrations this week as children were presented awards by the new Mayor of Richmond for their flower paintings entered in a school art competition.

Wenlan Chang, 12, from The Lady Eleanor Hollis School was crowned the overall winner of the 2017 Richmond Borough in Bloom floral art competition held at the Council Chamber, York House on May 17.

Cllr Lisa Blakemore presented Miss Chang and 13 other school children, who were shortlisted, from the five age categories with commemorative certificates and a surprise pack of art materials for their floristic talents.

Pat Schooling, chair of Richmond Borough in Bloom, said: “As always the standard of garden entries was first-rate as was the artistic efforts of our youngsters.

“The posters are always a great asset to our annual ‘in bloom’ campaigns, and the garden competitions gives us a great opportunity to reward the hard work of green-fingered residents who continue to do their bit to keep our borough looking great."

Wenlan, also winner of the 12 to 16 category, will have her stunning painting used to represent this year’s Richmond in Bloom Merit Awards Gardening competition.

It was the first event attended by the new Mayor who was extremely impressed with the talent the youngsters showed.

Cllr Blackmore said: “This year’s competition saw an excellent standard of entries. All the winner’s entries were well thought out, creative and bright.

“Wenlan’s poster used some really bright and bold colours and the design really stood out. Congratulations to all today’s winners and I look forward to seeing the winning design up around the borough.”

All the award-winning paintings will be on show to the public as part of the bloom exhibitions held in June at the Landmark Arts Centre.

George Turnelty, 4, from Jack and Jill won the under-five category with Joash Standing, 4, from St Richards CE Primary School and Anjum Uddin, 4, from Buckingham Primary School as the runners-up.

James Clark, 6, from Carlisle Infant School was the winner in the 5-7 years category with Anthony Simonov,6, from Holy Trinity CE Primary School and Kyle Holt, 7, from Orleans Primary School as the runners-up.

Leonid Karpovich, 8, from Collis Primary School was crowned the winner for the 8-11 years category with Anna Panfirova,11, and Jamie Cowley,11, both from Radnor House achieving the runners-up prize.

Zoe Wreford,13, from Radnor House and Paulina Gerchuk, 13, from The Lady Eleanor Hollis were the runners-up in the 12-16 category which Wenlan won.

The sixth form winner was Daniel King and Lily Payne,17 as the runner-up both from Strathmore School.