News

2015 was a very special year at Wildflower Turf for many reasons, but there were 3 projects that really stood out as ‘Meadow Icons’. All were very different, but it is fair to say that each will have had a huge impact on the way in which wildflower meadows are viewed by people from around the world. The messages that these iconic wildflower projects were promoting included the embracing of ‘wilder’ design in gardens and green spaces, the positive effects that wildflower meadows can have on health and well-being and the importance of wildflowers as a food source for our pollinators, that in turn help to sustain food resources for our global population.
First up is the RHS Chelsea 2015 ‘Best in Show’.
The return of Dan Pearson to RHS Chelsea was eagerly awaited, with his interpretation of the Paxton gardens at the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire. Dan has always been known for his ‘wild’ gardens and has long been the flag bearer for garden design inspired by nature. It was therefore with great excitement that we accepted the challenge to grow a native wildflower turf for this particular project.
With just 6 days to go before the show the site was finally ready to…

In 2015, Wildflower Turf have been involved in a lot of work where we join up the needs of the ecologist, the landscape architect, local authorities and the landscaper/contractor. To understand in more detail the issues that different councils are facing with the development of their parks and green spaces we have worked closely with a number of organisations to develop appropriate solutions and advice on the use of wildflowers. Of particular importance to Green Infrastructure planning right now are:

Creating low maintenance areas that require less mowing Increasing biodiversity to help with the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 and the National Pollinator Strategy. Demand for more informal space for recreation to promote physical and emotional well-being is increasing Sustainable planting schemes to cope with budget cuts Understanding how best to install wildflower environments that actually work

We are very serious about working alongside councils to create outstanding meadows in public spaces and the following projects highlight the diversity of our work in this area and our ability to provide a solution that fits the brief for all of the interested parties in Green Infrastructure.
 
1. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Stratford…

As well as looking at the many successful client projects we have supplied to, we thought you might like to see some of the goings on within the office and on the farm. Here are a few of our personal highlights this year at Wildflower Turf Ltd.
1. New Offices and Training Facilities
In April we moved into our brand new offices along with a brilliant new barn, purpose built for accreditation training, open days and the Christmas party! We have hosted a number of events including a day specifically for those responsible for green infrastructure around the country and we hope to see more councils join us next year to enhance their knowledge on the development of wildflower areas in urban landscapes.

2. Research and Development
We continue to work hard on trialling new products and mixes. This camomile lawn provided lots of interest to our visitors and is an exciting prospect.

We have been looking into the longevity of non-natives, the pictorial trials were still looking great into September. Our summer bulb trials gave us brilliant results and we are delighted to have them within our…

2015 at Wildflower Turf Ltd saw inspired wildflower garden designs from the very best in the business, providing us with some fantastic inspiration for future garden projects. Here are a few of our favourites.
1.Whirlpool of Wildflowers
Designer: Ann Marie Powell
Contractor: Garden House Design
It’s fair to say that when these pictures landed on the desk, they completely blew us away. A completely underused area of a garden, as it was so difficult to manage, became a wondrous whirlpool of wildflowers. Other than a few planted beds around the seating area, the design was almost entirely based around steep banks of wildflowers, creating a stunning oasis of calm and nature. Truly beautiful and we hope an award winner in 2016 for one of our Accredited Installers, Garden House Design.

Site before work began.

 
       

The start of the Autumn season sees a host of landscaping shows take place up and down the country and it’s our chance to show you are latest products, talk through potential projects and provide you with the best advice on how to create and maintain a successful wildflower meadow. If you are thinking about becoming an Accredited Wildflower Turf Installer, it is also a great time to meet the team and talk through the benefits and training involved to be part of our specialist installer programme.
We will be at the following shows:
16th September – Palmstead Soft Landscaping Workshop, Kent
This is a great workshop with a host of landscaping superstars providing a jam-packed seminar programme focusing this year on sustainable landscapes. The price is just £33 and it is will worth the visit to Ashford International Centre, Kent. James Hewetson Brown, our Managing Director will be manning the stand and available throughout the day for advice and information.
22-23rd September – The Landscape Show, London
A trade exhibition with a packed seminar programme for landscapers and designers. It’s a big show with loads to see incorporating design, product sourcing, build and maintenance. With it being a two day show you will…

Once established our Wildflower Turf requires very little maintenance, however, there is one important task to carry out each autumn.

No two meadows will grow in exactly the same way or even at the same rate, with the mix of flowers and grasses that flourish possibly varying year on year. The dry start to Spring saw many meadows not flourish until mid May but with feels like continual rain since July, many meadow are still fairly green. However, whilst your meadow may still have some flower power left you are likely to be thinking about cutting it down if you haven’t already done so.

 
Cutting can be achieved by either using a scythe, hedge trimmer or strimmer and raking the clippings off to compost, or by using a mower and collecting the cuttings as you go. A good motor mower on a high setting would be fine but for larger areas, a professional mower such as a Profihopper is ideal. Which ever method you choose, make sure the tools are sharp and try to minimize trafficking. Cutting the plants back to 1 to 2 inches (25mm to 50mm) in length…

Wildflower Turf offer an incredible range of products that we know provide landscaping professionals enormous potential to grow their business. In order to maximise  on these opportunities our Accredited Installer scheme offers landscapers fantastic advice, creative solutions and expertise in selling, installing and maintaining wildflower environments, as well as ongoing support from our team. We believe our scheme gives an unrivalled insight and training in how to deliver a guaranteed wildflower environment.

Why be an Accredited Partner
As an Accredited Partner, landscapers will gain the following key benefits:

extensive training in delivering successful wildflower landscapes exclusive discounts on the full range of Wildflower Turf products referrals from Wildflower Turf Ltd for jobs as Accredited Partners access to a dedicated Accreditation Manager from Wildflower Turf Ltd extensive online and offline marketing support to promote your expertise and status

What will I learn on the course?
The training is spaced over one day and covers many areas of interest including:

how the turf is produced the species preparation of site laying the turf – including embankments and roofs establishment of the meadow maintenance creative design with wildflowers biodiversity and conservation issues relevant to your…

If you have a wild flower green roof it will probably be looking quite brown and hay like at the moment. You may find it useful to know why this happens seemingly quicker than in a meadow and what you should do to ensure the rooftop can look it’s best again next year.
The first thing to know is that nothing has gone wrong, it should be looking that way at this time of year and if you are considering a wildflower roof it is important for you to take on board that it will look ‘brown’ after flowering and setting seed, until you mow it a little later on in the summer.
Why do the wildflowers die back?
Within a wild flower meadow, individual plants have root systems that are very deep and in some case can access moisture 1-2 metres below the ground. This means that it would take months of dry weather before the meadow looks brown and many species are wonderfully drought tolerant.
On a roof, wildflowers only have access to moisture to the depth of the substrate, for example 10cms,  therefore this has the affect of limiting available moisture….

Tuesday morning, May 19th and it has just been announced that Dan Pearson’s ‘Chatsworth House’ garden has become the RHS Chelsea 2015 ‘Best in Show’. The social media world has been in a frenzy since last week, never before has a garden been so eagerly anticipated. Dan is regarded by many in the landscape world as inspirational and with an 11 year absence from Chelsea we all couldn’t wait to see what his return might bring.
…REWIND to September 29th 2014. A call from the Dan Pearson Studio to discuss the possibilities of growing a show standard turf for a ‘Derbyshire’ project. It was clear from the start that whilst this was going to be a man made project, it needed to feel like nature; it just so happened that our turf fitted the bill perfectly. With a number of visits from Peter Clay, Managing Director Of Crocus, we set aside a bed of our wildflower landscape turf, containing 34 native perennial species and hoped that the winter would be kind.
With show turf we must admit that our normal advice to the contractor would be…

Earlier this year we featured this beautiful green roof constructed by Organic Roofs (a specialist Green Roof Installer), designed by  HPW Architects. We are absolutely delighted for Lee and his team at Organic Roofs, who won a prestigious award on Friday at The UK Roofing Awards 2015; an industry-wide event that recognises and rewards outstanding standards of workmanship. Lee is a fine ambassador for the green roof industry and has had a huge amount of experience creating sustainable roofing models using our Wildflower Roof Turf. The award was won for the sustainable roof, green and vegetated category. A closer look at the award winning project is below.

The Brief: Avon Tyrrell is set within the New Forest National Park. A beautiful and historical setting, it now provides the backdrop to a wonderful charity, UK Youth, focussed on providing non-formal learning opportunities. This beautiful site is bound by sensitive planning regulations. HPW, the appointed architectural practice based in the New Forest, have specialised in designing and delivering sustainable buildings for…