News

We could continue to sell you the amazing benefits of being an Accredited Installer of Wildflower Turf but sometimes it is more useful to hear from one of our Accredited Partners to find out why they chose the training programme with Wildflower Turf Ltd.
Nick Walker from ABG Ltd specialises in creating bespoke geosynthetic products for engineering problems involving soil or water – for example: green roofs, walls, embankments, SuDS, erosion control. He explains why he decided to become an Accredited Installer of Wildflower Turf.
“About two years ago, I was looking for an effective solution for green roofs. I had trialled a number of turf products and had found huge inconsistencies. These inconsistencies were twofold, thickness of product and species variety.”

“When laying wildflower turf onto a green roof there is no room for error. The look needs to be consistent with species spread at the same rate throughout the whole expanse of roof with no patchiness. Any inconsistencies are immediately visible on a pitched roof and cause a headache for correcting the problem as it is very difficult to patch…

Happy New Year to you all. We hope you had a fantastic holiday, a break away or restful time at home, whichever it was, there is something quite exciting about stepping into a new year after time away from the office or the spade! It was great to take stock of the amazing projects achieved last year, but now we are looking forward to all that 2015 will bring. We thought you might like to know what’s in store for us here at Wildflower Turf.
1. New Product Launch
We will be officially launching another pioneering product for the creation of wildflower meadows in 2015. The product will particularly suit larger wildflower landscape projects and we look forward to bringing you more news on this very soon into the New Year.
2. New Accreditation Training Dates
Our accredited installer programme goes from strength to strength, with now over 160 landscaping businesses being Accredited Partners throughout the UK. If you are looking for a wildflower installation expert then please go to our accredited installer pages where you…

It’s that time of year when many landscapers and gardeners find themselves on their hands and knees with a variety of implements, desperately trying to get their bulbs planted before Christmas. If, like us, you have decided to sprinkle colour into your lawn or wildflower areas with naturalizing spring bulbs, you may well be looking at hundreds of bulbs that need to be in the ground over the next month. Read our top tips to achieve a fantastic burst of spring colour in your lawn or meadow.

What does ‘Naturalizing’ Mean
To most gardeners, naturalizing means growing bulbs in grass areas rather than in set borders and effectively, naturalizing is the growing of bulbs as they would appear in the wild or ‘in nature’. Bulbs lie in informal drifts of dozens or even hundreds of bulbs. They are normally smaller varieties such as crocus, scilla and bluebells. Early bulbs are perfect as they tend to grow only to 10-20 cms, the flowers poke above the new growth of the grass and wildflowers but they are not too leggy, nor do they have a great deal of leaf debris after flowering.
Planting Rates
The Dutch bulb experts such…

Wildflower Turf Ltd is delighted to announce their expansion into Europe with the first distributor of Wildflower Turf now operating in Belgium and servicing the Benelux countries. Frank Adriaenssens, a prestigious landscape architect and garden designer, is a newly accredited Wildflower Turf installer and will be distributing wildflower products throughout Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and beyond.

Desire for wildflower meadows across the Benelux region is high, as the appreciation for the natural environment or more particularly the ‘back to nature’ philosophy has growing momentum. People are trying to reflect this philosophy in public and private spaces and want to create a natural and wildlife friendly atmosphere. Consequently the demand for wildlife friendly planting to support biodiversity is on the rise and wildflower meadows perfectly comply. They are uncomplicated, beautiful and particularly cost-effective for larger areas.
Adriaenssens reports, ‘The soil-less growing system of Wildflower Turf Ltd, to create an instant wildflower meadow, is a unique feature in Europe. Moreover, the expertise and the high quality of their Wildflower Turf products, make it possible for European landscape professionals and gardeners to successfully create an English wildflower meadow in a very…

Wildflower Turf Ltd is the leading supplier of Wildflower Turf products in the UK. We produce a range of innovative wildflower products that are bio diverse and low maintenance. The ‘back to nature’ philosophy has growing momentum in the landscape world and in both private and public spaces there is more emphasis on creating natural and wildlife friendly planting.
In 2012, we famously provided the turf for the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics as well as many of the surrounding landscaped areas in the Athletes Village and Olympic Park. Due to the enormous interest that this has generated and the incredible ongoing success and acclaim that the turf achieved, we are in a continuing growth phase and currently searching for an Assistant Production Supervisor to help develop the production of the turf and other products.

 Assistant Turf Production Supervisor
The new position is a production based role involving the growing of Wildflower Turf and related products. Working alongside the Turf Manager you will be expected to oversee and manage the production team and schedules.
Responsibilities

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The first step towards a national pollinator revival was secured today as the National Pollinator Strategy was published by DEFRA. It is a paper that hopes to protect the vital 1500+ species of pollinating insects which support our food production and ensure the diversity of our environment. Pollinating insects, such as wild bumble bees, moths, butterflies, wasps, beetles, hoverflies as well as honey bees have faced serious difficulty over the last 100 years with habitat loss, pesticides and the depletion of nectar sources, but without them, our £210bn per year food industry would be in serious difficulty, as well as our gardens and countryside looking far less beautiful.

The National Pollinator Strategy is a 10 year plan and hopes to re-introduce the best possible conditions for pollinating insects to flourish. The plan focuses on a number of key areas that are not just about landowners creating appropriate pollinator environments. A sustainable long-term monitoring programme is essential, so we better understand their status, the causes of any declines and where our actions will have most effect. The plan calls for better dissemination of information to landowners,…

The BIG Challenge is a CIRIA Biodiversity Interest Group initiative launched to encourage the construction industry to make small biodiversity enhancements on existing or new build development sites. The BIG Challenge  hoped to demonstrate that small enhancements are the crucial first step in engaging with and understanding biodiversity. As more construction companies understand the importance of maintaining and enhancing biodiversity, it is hoped that it will become a much greater consideration in towns and cities.
It was great to go back to the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew where The BIG Challenge Awards were held on 14th October. We met at the Princess of Wales Conservatory where we had previously laid a large section of wildflower turf framing the conservatory. It was good to check up on it’s progress 3 years later. The Awards were conceived to honour those that have made best biodiversity enhancements that go beyond normal business practice. There were seven different categories along with an overall winner who demonstrated outstanding contributions to biodiversity enhancements.

Wildflower Turf were delighted to provide the prize to the overall winner. It is a cause…

This autumn, we are excited to be launching our new range of scatter bulb mixes that have been specifically chosen to enhance your wildflower areas. They are easy to incorporate into your garden designs whilst laying your wildflower turf. Scattered onto prepared soil before laying your turf, there is little extra effort required to creating a beautiful visual display through the Spring and Summer months. We have developed four unique bulb mixes that due to bulb size, flowering time, height, colour and shape will each bring something a little different to your wildflower patch.

There are two spring scatter mixes, both will lengthen the flowering season earlier into the year. The first of which is a naturalising mix, with a subtle colour palette incorporating bluebells, puschkina, crocus, scilla and fritillary. The second, a vibrant spring mix, is designed to give a big colour hit with varieties of bold tulips, narcissi and crocus, perfect to bring early visual impact. Both mixes will flower before the new growth of the wildflower gets going, and bulb foliage dies…

We are all very aware how biodiversity has been compromised over the years and our Wildflower Turf products continue to aid both the construction and landscaping industries deliver guaranteed biodiversity enhancement where development is taking place. Increasing biodiversity within both urban and rural landscapes is fundamental to our company values and why we are really proud to be sponsoring the ‘Overall Winner’ category in the BIG Challenge awards that champion biodiversity in the construction industry.
Biodiversity enhancement should be at the heart of design and engineering processes although knowing where to start and how to incorporate them into developments can be daunting.
The BIG challenge launched in 2013 to encourage organisations to make one biodiversity enhancement on each construction site, development or building.
The enhancements can be as simple as adding hanging baskets with native wildflowers, creating bug hotels, rain gardens, planted cycle locks and skip gardens. They can be permanent features for the development or temporary during the construction phase. There are over 35 organisations currently signed up to participate and the Big Challenge website features the competition entrants case studies.
The challenge…

As we remember the start of the First World War, we are again reminded of the poignancy of the red poppy and how significant this was to so many of our soldiers. Some forward thinking councils have planned memorial areas and parks in time for this years events and I am sure we will see further displays spread across the nation throughout the next four years in time for the centenary anniversary of the end of WW1.

We have learnt a great deal about poppies this year working on two separate projects for councils. The common poppy is an annual wildflower, a showboat of red which normally flowers in late June and July. They are however notoriously difficult to germinate and conditions need to be just right. A poppy will produce and disperse up to 17,000 seeds but a much smaller percentage will actually germinate the following year. In fact seeds can lay dormant for many years and still be viable to germinate up to 100 years later.
We have worked with two different councils this year to help them create a more thoughtful approach to a poppy display that will provide a…