Britain In Bloom judges were welcomed to Brighton and Hove with a message written in flowers. But they may have had trouble reading it.

Gardeners made an 11th-hour attempt to clean up the overgrown floral greeting on the A23 roundabout at Patcham after it became unreadable.

But the new blooms are not yet fully-grown and the scrappy sign is scarcely more legible.

Judges Jim Buttress and Geoff Yates were meeting members of the City in Bloom working group in Hove Park this morning to begin their city-wide tour for the regional round of the prestigious contest.

Pranksters who spotted the state of the flowers last month put up their own message reading: "Can you read this? If not, you should have gone to Specsavers."