A SMALL team from the Oak Tree Retirement Village is getting right into the swing of rodeo week, putting their abundant creativity to use with an entry in this year's Floral Window Competition.

Fran Simmers, Daph Cross and Gloria Baker have decorated the foyer to the village's community centre with a rose and rodeo theme.

Mrs Cross said it was the first time the village had taken part in the competition.

"Getting involved creates interest here within the village as well as the wider community,” she said.

"We've noticed over the years there's been a decline in the number of local businesses taking part.

"In years gone by almost every shop used to get involved and decorate their windows.

"The whole of the main street celebrated rodeo time.”

Mrs Cross said the town used to go to a lot of effort.

"All the schools used to decorate a window in the Smith and Millers building, where Rivers is now,” she said.

"But it's dwindled for some reason.

"So in an effort to get involved and perhaps inspire others to get back into a wonderful tradition, we decided to enter.”

Mrs Cross said they had entered their effort into the foyer category of the competition.

"It was time-consuming,” she said.

"But not hard work and we had a lot of fun, coming up with the ideas and putting it all together.

"We've based it on a stable idea.

"Lots of roses, some hay bales and riding equipment, which was donated to us by one of our residents here, Bob Johnson.”

Mrs Cross said their entry took them a whole morning to put together and decorate.

"There was a coffee break in there though,” she said.

"And when we'd finished we played some bingo.”

The Floral Window Competition was organised by the Warwick Horticultural Society and will be judged tomorrow morning, with winners in each of the ten categories announced in the afternoon.