Colourful flower beds mark the arrival of the Tour de Yorkshire

Harrogate Borough Council’s horticultural experts have created a number of specially designed flower beds to celebrate the arrival of the Tour de Yorkshire into the district.

This year, the Tour de Yorkshire takes place from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 April, and Harrogate has been given the honour of hosting the finish of both the men’s stage two race and the women’s race on Saturday 29 April.

Around 4,750 individual plants have been used to create two Tour de Yorkshire themed flower beds on Montpellier Hill – one depicting the Tour de Yorkshire ‘Y’ shaped trophy and the other representing a bicycle wheel in the Tour de Yorkshire colours.

The Tour de Yorkshire trophy flower bed is made up of 2,400 Polyanthus Crescendo Blue and 450 Polyanthus Crescendo Lemon Yellow flowers, whilst the bicycle flower bed features 1,100 Polyanthus Crescendo Lemon Yellow and 800 Polyanthus Crescendo Blue, which have all been grown at the council’s Harlow Hill nursery.

Harrogate Borough Council Horticultural Officer Sue Wood said: The Harrogate district has an enviable reputation for its floral excellence and is becoming a must visit location for cycling, so it seemed a ‘wheelie’ good idea to combine both by designing these flower beds.

This year is a special year for Harrogate with the arrival of the Tour de Yorkshire and the town competing in the RHS Britain in Bloom Champion of Champions this Summer. What better way to celebrate both these events than by demonstrating our floral design achievements with an eye-catching floral display for the Tour de Yorkshire!

Our team work incredibly hard to design and plant these eye catching flower beds and we take great pride in the feedback we receive from visitors and residents. The flower beds will add even more colour to a weekend of cycling fever.