HIS garden is the envy of his neighbours and he once used flower power to break through Royal stuffiness when he chatted with the Queen. Now, Dennis Shaw's love of gardening and brightening up his little patch of England is to be recognised with a civic award.
Tomorrow, the 79-year-old will visit the Guildhall to collect The Lord Mayor and Admiral of the Humber Award in recognition of his colourful displays of community spirit.
He said: "For me, the effort is all made worthwhile when someone stops and looks at my garden and says, 'Doesn't that look nice?'"
"You think to yourself, 'I've created that', and it's a really lovely feeling that."
Dennis, who lives with his wife of 55 years Beryl in Arthur Lucan Close, off Preston Road, east Hull, has amassed about 130 gardening awards over the years.
He first won a prize at Hull in Bloom, an annual competition run by the city council, in 1986. Since then, he has collected a prize every year.
But Dennis describes the latest award as "a very big one", which is up there, he says, with his Centenary Citizen Award, which was presented in 1997 for his outstanding contribution to the life of Hull.
He said: "I am honoured. I have been told it's as good as getting the freedom of the city."
Councillor Nadine Fudge, Hull's mayor, will collect Dennis and Beryl from their home and take them to the Guildhall, where the award will be presented.
Dennis puts his good health down to pottering around on his garden, which he hopes will erupt into vibrant colours in spring.
He said: "I have some good mates help me now and again as I am getting older, but I still enjoy it.
"Ever since I was a boy, I've loved gardening.
"As a child, I thought flowers were beautiful and I still think the same now I'm approaching 80 years of age."
He entered his first Hull in Bloom when he lived on Greatfield estate and continued impressing judges when he moved to his present home.
"I must have had thousands of people come to visit my garden over the years," he said. "Beryl is a great help too."
And Dennis has plenty of stories, including pleasant conversations with Geoff Hamilton, the late presenter of the BBC TV show Gardeners' World.
But his Royal tale is his favourite.
In 2002, Dennis was invited to lunch with the Queen at the Guildhall.
"I was told not to talk to the Queen," he said. "But after the meal, I saw her wiping her hands. No one was talking to her.
"Well, I'm a very down-to-earth man and I wouldn't have liked my mam to have been sitting on her own at lunch without anyone making the effort to talk to her.
"So I turned to her and said, 'Did you enjoy your meal, Ma'am?' She said she did.
"We chatted. I told her about Beryl. She gave me her remarks and I gave her mine. She really is a lovely lady.
"She said I must really love gardening to have won all these awards. I said I did."
Dennis then asked the Queen to name her favourite flower.
He said: "I still, to this day, remember her words. It was lovely.
"She smiled and said, 'Every flower is beautiful.'
"So from that day on, I say the same. From the buttercup to the chrysanthemum, every flower in my garden is beautiful."
