School children, community groups and council workers have spent the last two weeks, braving all kinds of weather to plant thousands of bulbs in preparation for next year's Falmouth Spring Festival.

Led by Jacqui Owen, visitor and education officer at Gyllyngdune Gardens, and Matt Stannard and Howard Burns of Cormac's gardening team, youngsters from the gardening clubs at Falmouth Primary Academy, St Francis and King Charles School, and the forest schools group from Marlborough, have been out and about at key locations across the town.

Falmouth Primary children kicked off the bulb planting sessions in Kimberley Park, where they were joined by the park's head gardener, Julian Kay. Next it was the turn of Marlborough pupils who worked at Gyllyngdune and Queen Mary Gardens while children from St Francis School took on planting on Pendennis Point.

Youngsters from King Charles School's lunchtime gardening club descended on the large patch of grass at the junction of Pennance and Spernen Wyn Roads to plant their consignment of bulbs. Children from class four at St Mary's School had been due to carry out work at Arwenack Avenue last Thursday, but were unable to attend so their work was taken over by Cormac apprentices who were soaked through by the end of their session which was carried out in the pouring rain.

Away from the school groups, volunteers from Boscawen Fields Action Group also picked up their spades and trowels and helped out on the fields overlooking Falmouth Bay.

Between them, they have planted a variety of flower bulbs, including five varieties of daffodils, snowdrops, crocuses and bluebells many of which had been donated. Paul Williams, from Manaccan who sells daffodils on the entrance to Prince of Wales Pier, provided 2,000 bulbs free of charge; Ron and Adrian Scamp, of Falmouth, also donated as did Cormac and Falmouth Business Improvement District.

Taking a break from the planting, Jacqui explained: "This is all in readiness for Falmouth Spring Festival - the work starts now. The idea is that come spring time the whole of Falmouth will just be awash with daffodils and spring flowers in readiness of Paint the Town Yellow Day.

"Every year it gets bigger and every year more and more people come forward and donate daffodils and get involved with the planting. The enthusiasm of the kids and everyone else is always fantastic."