BEING retired does not mean resting up and taking life easy for one Teignmouth couple.

In the past few years Vera Ann Bowld and her husband Martin have been enthusiastic entrants in the Teignmouth in Bloom annual competition.

They toil in the garden that wraps itself around two sides of their home on Maudlin Drive, filling every inch with containers of all shapes and sizes that hold a wide variety of blooms artfully chosen to provide colour for the majority of the year.

Their particular skill is with rose growing and when the judge, Stewart Henchie, saw the garden on July 1st, they were just at their best.

Stewart writes: ‘This wonderful display of well grown rose plants of various types in full bloom were a joy to look at on the dull overcast day that this garden was judged.

‘The last photograph I took of this garden on that day was followed by the ‘heavens opening’ – probably the last time we had proper rain in July.’

The couple read the results in the Teignmouth Post and were pleased to see that the John Vaughan memorial cup for Best Rose was theirs together with third place in the Private Gardens class but last Friday, a phone call from Viv Wilson on behalf of Teignmouth Town Council brought an additional surprise because they have been selected to receive the Masterclass trophy.

The trophies – 14 in all – will be handed out by Teignmouth’s Mayor Cllr Iain Palmer at Bitton House on September 29.

Cllr Sylva Russell who has overseen the competition for more than 20 years thanks everyone who has contributed by making Teignmouth visually appealing.