Harpenden scientists are celebrating blooming success after winning an award at this year’s prestigious Chelsea Flower Show.

Dr Sam Cook and Dr Jason Baverstock from Rothamsted Research received a silver flora award in the Discovery category for their display on using flowers to minimise pesticide use and enhance biodiversity, in the Discovery category at the Chelsea Flower Show.

St Albans & Harpenden Review:

The display designed by Rothamsted’s in-house creative arts director, Nicky Seymour, demonstrates how flowers can be used to manage insects on crops and in gardens to help reduce reliance on pesticides and promote biodiversity.

Professor Achim Dobermann, the new Director at the centre, said "This is a fine example for how high-quality, interdisciplinary ecological engineering can contribute to finding new solutions for sustainable agriculture.

"We need agricultural systems with a higher degree of biodiversity, thus also resulting in greater resilience to many pests."