The International Garden Photographer of the Year has begun inviting entries to the third running of its ‘Early Bird’ competition.

The theme for this year’s contest, to run throughout the summer, is ‘In Full Bloom’, with a deadline for entries of 30th June 2009.

Five winners will receive a signed and inscribed copy of ‘IGPOTY Collection 2 book’ featuring a gallery of all last year’s main competition winners.

Says organiser Philip Smith, “Our early bird theme is a great curtain raiser for the main IGPOTY competition; it gives photographers a theme to work with during the Spring and Summer”.

All entries will automatically be submitted to the main IGPOTY competition, and to find out more instructions on how to enter, visit the IGPOTY website.