Bluebird Care West Berkshire and North Hampshire are welcoming the summer months by running a sunflower growing competition for their customers.
The winner will be the customer who grows the tallest sunflower.
The winner’s prizes include two afternoon teas for two people, donated by YumYums, a local food supply service.
Hannah Buckthorpe, Care Assistant at Bluebird Care North Hampshire, said: “It’s been lovely to surprise all our customers with this competition and the vast majority have just got stuck in – they all have different techniques.
“Many are like professionals who’ve done this before.
“One customer, Angela, in Odiham was the most excited. It was her husband Richard’s 90th birthday recently and she said he used to grow sunflowers every year and was even kind enough to show me some pictures of him with some he had grown almost 70 years ago.
“Angela said she couldn’t wait to go and see him today and have an extra little gift to share with him.”
She continued: “Ernest, who loves to grow geraniums, said he’s never grown a sunflower but if the competition was to grow geraniums he’d be in with a chance.”
And Sharon Lovelock, Care Assistant at Bluebird Care West Berkshire, said: “I loved helping distribute sunflowers to some of our customers for the competition, straight away I got stuck in, I love doing these kinds of things.
“I spent two days delivering pre-made bags and I also brought some compost; pots and sunflower seeds and I then made my way round to deliver them. It was lovely seeing the smiles on their faces from something so small and simple, a lot of them thought I was there for their care call.
“It was nice to spend a few minutes with my customers outside of their call, something which they clearly really appreciated, they said the extra face and someone else to talk to was lovely and it made their day.
“One of my customers said: ‘All I have to do is look at a plant and it dies so don’t expect a sunflower from me’ – we both laughed and I assured her we would all help her with it…she wasn’t convinced but as she said: ‘I’ll give it a go’.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how they all grow and what the tallest will be”.
