FLOWERS were blooming in a village church at the weekend when it hosted a winter flower festival.

Royston Crow: Jacqui Dodds with her flower displayJacqui Dodds with her flower display (Image: Archant)

The Melbourn winter flower festival saw All Saints Church in the village decorated with a wide variety of flowers.

Rosemary Gatward, who helped organise the festival, said it had gone down “extremely well”, and raised more than £1,000.

She said: “It is quite unusual to have a flower festival at this time of year, but that’s why we do it – it doesn’t clash with other similar events.

“You can get all sorts of flowers, but we try and keep the theme seasonal and use a lot of white.”

Arrangements were put together by people on the church flower rota, as well as local florists. Also taking pride of place were the snowdrops planted outside the church.

Mrs Gatward explained that they had been planted to coincide with Candelmas – the day Jesus was presented at the temple after his birth – which was celebrated on Saturday, February 2.

She said: “Snow drops are known as Candlemas bells, and we planted them so that we would have a nice carpet in time for Candelmas.

“They’re just coming up now and look really lovely. Money is still coming in, but so far we’ve raised over £1,000, and all the profits will go towards the upkeep of the church.”