PRESS RELEASE FROM Flora locale

Date: 19 February 2003

Native flora for new woods and wildflower landscapes

Business is blooming – that is if you are intending to bring back wild flowers to the countryside, or create new wildflower landscapes in towns. Guidance on what to do is now available for ecologists, landscape architects, farmers and park managers, with Flora locale’s new programme of wild flower training events. These provide practical demonstrations of methods and techniques used to bring back wild flowers to the countryside, create wildflower landscapes, set up a wild plant nursery, and collect and propagate wild seed.

New woodlands provide a particular challenge – most small farm and amenity plantations consist only of trees and will only grow tall weeds and grass underneath without help. But it is possible to establish colourful native wild flowers – one event taking place hosted by the Milton Keynes Parks Trust will demonstrate how. Other events in south and eastern England will take participants into woods to collect seed and demonstrate how this can be propagated or used to introduce woodland wild flowers into new woods.

The event “Specifying native flora for wildflower landscapes” will be hosted by British Wild Flower Plants in Norwich – and will help landscape specifiers negotiate the minefield of procurement issues, ensuring they obtain correct species, British native plants and a result that will benefit the landscape and wildlife.

Additional events will take place at the National Wildflower Centre (Liverpool) and on several Lincolnshire farms where methods used to restore wild flower diversity to agriculturally improved grassland will be demonstrated. Two special events will also take place in the Yorkshire Dales, focusing on wild flower grassland management, restoration and seed harvesting.

Editor’s notes

Flora locale is a national charity established to promote wise use of native flora for countryside restoration and other planting projects that have wildlife in mind.

Flora locale’s events are focused on using seed and plants of British native origin, and stress the importance of involving specialist suppliers who can source-identify their stock.