Ninfield Flower Group's festival triumph

Somewhere Over The Rainbow was the theme and members had given their imagination full rein in the quest of illustrating this florally.

The dual beneficiaries of all this artistic endeavour were the church itself, for whom the group hope to have raised a fair amount of money and the many visitors who enjoyed the floral arrangements over the weekend.

Fund-raising throughout the year including two jumble sales provides the means for the club to stage its exhibition.

The profusion of colour began in the church porch, where Felicity Parker had neatly fitted Purple Medley onto the window sill.

Lisianthus, freesias, thistles and even a feather made up the colour-coordinated medley.

Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree was interpreted in the church by Hazel Mitten with a vertical display around a gnarled branch which included carnations and roses.

Pink stargazer lilies rocketed diagonally across a steel framework in Christine Purkess' Lily The Pink.

In displays at the organ and at the lectern, Susan Cambell evoked the predominantly carnation and dahlia Green Green Grass Of Home.

A dressmaker's model elegantly clad in a gown sequined with roses and accompanied by a rose-filled handbag became Pauline Parks' Lady In Red.

The foam-flecked Channel danced below Eileen Parnaby's White Cliffs Of Dover, evoked in white carnations and topped by a sky of gypsophila and delphiniums.

Dominating the church was Lynn Carter and Arthur Pleasants' Over The Rainbow. Over the Lord's table cascades of material set off displays tracing the full spectrum.

Sunlight filtering through displays on the window sills spoke volumes for Jennifer Collett's Silence Is Golden arrangements.

Shirley Bosshard's White Christmas displays in the entrance hallway told their unseasonal but attractive message in roses and lisianthus.

Red and yellow and pink and green'¦the words of the song sang out in roses, carnations, lisianthus and buddleia as Linda Goldsmith painted Colours Of The Rainbow in the refreshment room,

Beryl Harmer's yacht of roses and carnations sailed along a window sill in Red Sails In The Sunset and a velvet base set off the delphiniums, lavender and hydrangeas of Jennifer Collett's Lavender Blue.

Fig leaves and onions figured in Celia Thripp's Green Onions and a benign if one-eyed monster was among the buddleia, stocks and alium of Pat Bryant's Purple People Eater.

Diane Bristow's Orange Blossom Special was a European design, the vertical arrangement riding the cab and tender of a wooden train.

Not even the plant stall outside went undecorated, Pauline Parks' topiary trees flanking it.