THERE was no secret to the success of this year's Malvern in Bloom winner, unless you call dustbin liners a secret.

Chris Lush, manager of The Unicorn, was awarded the £250 first prize for his 20 red, white and blue baskets and window boxes in this year's Malvern in Bloom competition.

But he said there was no magic formula, he just uses good plants and waters them regularly.

"The only thing I do differently is use bin liners to line the baskets rather than spending a lot of money on moss," he said.

"I do the flowers myself and because I haven't got a garden I enjoy putting together the baskets and boxes.

"I try to put in more interesting plants and I love fuchsias but it took quite a long time to find fuchsias that were red and white rather than pink and purple," explained Mr Lush.

After ten years trying to impress the judges he said he was glad to have finally caught their eyes.

But he added that his baskets also seemed to be making an impression on a lot of passers-by.

"I've lost count of the number of times I've looked out of the window and seen a group of three or four people taking photographs and a lot of people have commented on how nice the plants look," he said.

One of the judges, Coun Whinray Coates, said the decision to award the Unicorn first prize was unanimous.

"The ones that did it, did it well, but I was a bit disappointed to find that there weren't many in the Link or Barnards Green," she said.

"They've always complained that they are treated differently but when you try to treat them the same they don't join in," she added.

The second prize was awarded to The Vaults pub at Link Top and third prize was given to the Foley Arms Hotel.

There were also Highly Commended awards for Gordon Smith Ltd, Great Malvern Post Office, Robson Ward Kitchens, Lyttelton Well, DIR International and Excell.