Blooming lovely - or is Britain being turned into a floral Disneyland?

The celebrated Britain in Bloom contest is accused of ruining the look of towns and villages with spray-on flowers

Clearly, Britain in Bloom is anything but a laughing matter for those involved.

Last year, surveillance cameras were trained on Cheltenham's flower beds and patrolling policeman ensured the prized entries in the Britain in Bloom competition were not tampered with.

In 2000, the town of Spennymoor, Co Durham, electronically tagged its plants to prevent them being stolen and a businesswoman in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, offered £100 reward for information leading to the conviction of the horticultural heathens who ripped up part of her town's decorative beds.

Yesterday the competition was accused of turning Britain's once green and pleasant land into a chocolate-box world of technicolour borders and sweet-smelling hanging baskets guarded by a tyrannical army of bad taste gardeners.

As the winners of the 2002 Britain in Bloom awards were being fêted – the eminent gardener and historian Sir Roy Strong, accused the competition of "spreading flowers like disease". As one might expect in a country that spends £3bn a year on home gardening, Sir Roy's comments caused outrage.

Advocates of the competition insisted it was no longer a "diarrhoea of flowers" but a serious award, incorporating the tenets of United Nations charters on the environment.

Sir Roy disagreed: "I think Britain in Bloom goes around this country spreading flowers like a disease. Petunias and begonias are put on with a spray gun and the results are that the countryside is prettified, Disneyfied.

"I have seen villages where you almost expect to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarves fall out of the door, all too chocolate box, too cloying for words. How you control that I don't know."

He accused the Britain in Bloom brigade, approaching the 40th year of competition, of forgetting a year-round, seasonal approach to gardening.

"What about the greenery, what about trees, things they neglect? I mean, they apply flowers like lipstick to the Mona Lisa. They are a kind of prosthetic. They rush round in summer trying to show off a can of begonias or any old thing they can lay their hands on. What the competition should really do is stand back and think: what gives pleasure in January, what gives pleasure in November."

Sir Roy conceded his main gripe was not with the village committees' busy lizzies but with those who have forgotten to care for Britain's once proud Victorian tradition of urban parkland and municipal garden.

It is a comment that the Royal Horticultural Society – who took over "custodianship" of the competition for the first time this year – might have some difficulty counteracting.

While Bournemouth and Oxford both won awards for city projects this year and Blackley in Manchester was recognised for its urban community project, no overall winner was announced in the urban regeneration category because only one entry was received – from Cardiff Bay which took home a bronze – out of the 1,400 communities that participated.

Sir Roy said: "A degree of restraint can set off some of our important buildings and aesthetic villages to greater advantage. I don't think they have moved on from the 1960s. They are stuck in a timewarp with a social overlay. They really need to have bigger picture, a broader vision. They forget the architecture, they forget the seasons, they forget the overall view and reduce it to the level of 'if granny wants 290 begonias, let her have them'. It is such a monumental squandering of money."

Other aesthetes agreed the march of luminous baskets of pansies across the landscape was disconcerting but criticised those who sought to belittle the motivation. The writer and style commentator Peter York said: "Certainly hanging baskets are horrible – they contain these sort of GM flowers you would never find in a real garden. Not to mention the pre-cast paving that belongs to the front of a supermarket.

"But the need to 'flowerise' our environment is a natural human one."

In a country, where some towns and cities have been known to spend up to £100,000 beautifying their environment for the coveted prizes, Sir Roy's comments sparked a furious response from those involved.

Carolyn Wilson was among a dozen winners and 61 finalists at a lavish ceremony, sandwiched between fireworks displays, in Aberdeen on Wednesday night. While her Highlands home of Alness won in the small town category, she received a discretionary award for an outstanding contribution. She said: "We are no twin set and pearls here. We just wanted something better for our community." The town – population 6,700 – spends an average £14,000 a year on Britain in Bloom but Mrs Wilson insists it is not spent on hanging baskets (though 160 now grace the main street) but on serious year-round regeneration.

The florist may sound quite faint with joy at the mere mention of meeting Alan Tichmarsh's (whose Gardeners' World on BBC2 tonight will feature Alness) but her eight years of work have seen thousands of trees and shrubs planted, as well as cycle and walking routes incorporated.

"There is a buzz in the place now. We have gone from being a down at heel, down at heart, depressed community to one that is financially upwards and unemployment has gone down. When British Telecom opened its call centre here they said it was because it was a community which had pulled itself up by the boot straps"

Nigel Colborn, the former Gardeners' World presenter and judge of the competition in the early Nineties, agreed: "Sir Roy Strong has lost his grip. He is referring to the Britain in Bloom as it was 10 to 15 years ago before it took on such items as Agenda 21 – the United Nations charter for a healthier environment." Judges now allocate only 30 per cent of points to floral displays. Permanent landscaping accounts for 25 per cent of marks, environmental quality 20 per cent, Agenda 21 and sustainable development 15 per cent, and public awareness 10 per cent.

'This is just chequebook gardening,' says resident

By Terri Judd

Stephen Wozniak has been at loggerheads with councillors since moving to Sidmouth five years ago.

Affronted by his wild garden – the first sight to greet the Britain in Bloom judges – they threatened him with legal action a few years ago. It was in the words of John Govier, chairman of Sidmouth in Bloom, a dump.

"Some people really took offence," Dr Wozniak said yesterday. "There have been letters in the local newspapers saying I should leave town and go back to where I came from."

In the past three decades, the Devon town has won almost 30 awards for its floral displays. In 2001, it won the national prize. This year the display included a floral peacock and a cart full of blooms.

However, "90 per cent of the displays in Britain in Bloom are those regimented, garish rows of hanging baskets," Dr Wozniak said. "You have to fight your way through town every year.

"All they are interested in is the final product for the judges. They are not interested in the earth, the ground, the species which inhabit the wild plants. They spend a huge amount of money on plants which have virtually no environmental benefit. This is chequebook gardening."

The scientist, whose garden grows unhindered (and admittedly includes a rather unsightly caravan) has dug his heels in and begun an anti-Britain in Bloom campaign.

"The amusing point is that the same council will congratulate itself on opening a nature reserve which has exactly the same things growing as my garden," he observed.