Yorkshire's most famous sons and daughters will be blossoming at a special flower festival this weekend.

There will be flower arrangements based on the lives or achievements of a host of Yorkshire folk including former Yorkshire cricket umpire Dickie Bird, Sir Titus Salt, the Bronte sisters, JB Priestley and David Hockney.

Flower arranger Sylvia Robinson, who thought up the idea, said it had snowballed and a lot of people were taking an interest.

Mrs Robinson, of Farr Royd, Burley, said: "We organise a flower festival every few years and I thought it would be good to do something different this time round.

"I made a cross-stitch sampler to celebrate the Millennium and it featured all these Yorkshire folk in it and that basically gave me the idea of doing the flowers as tributes to local stars.

"We invited Dickie Bird but unfortunately he is away this weekend but he sent us a nice letter thanking us for honouring him in the festival," said Mrs Robinson.

A team of women were beginning to make the floral tributes today and the displays will appear at the Methodist Church in Burley-in-Wharfedale from tomorrow until Bank Holiday Monday.

The show will officially be opened by the famous calendar girls from the Rylstone Women's Institute.

"We have got a lot of famous Yorkshire people and what better way to pay tribute to them than to feature them in floral displays," said Mrs Robinson.

Each of the legends will be represented in some way and extra flowers have been ordered to cope with the exhibition.

Mrs Robinson said: "We will have a selection of white and red roses, chrysanthemums, lilies and pink flowers called proteas."

Public viewing will be from 10am to 5pm on Saturday, and Monday and from 2pm to 5pm on Sunday. The preview evening tonight, ticket only, is from 7pm to 9pm. The show will raise money for church funds and proceeds from the preview go to the WI's leukaemia charity.