Planting on the Wildflower Bank

The seed mix we used to establish wildflowers on the bank beside the steps from Lumsdaine Drive to Ross Avenue contained a range of perennial wildflowers, but while a number of different species have developed since the 2014 sowing, Ox-eye Daisies have dominated. To help boost the numbers of other useful and colourful species, it was decided to grow some plug plants to supplement those that had emerged from the seed mix. Seed from a range of local wild sources was sown in spring and young seedlings were transplanted into small pots for growth over the summer.

Sunday saw the first planting on the bank of these pot grown plants, along with other wildflowers that had self-seeded in the garden. The plants added to the bank included Primrose, Oxlip and Lady’s Smock, along with Black and Greater Knapweed, Field Scabious and Meadow Crane's-bill.

Further planting was done on Monday and Tuesday and altogether over 80 young plants were added.

It is hoped, now that the moisture sapping Leylandii tree that grew on the bank has been felled, there will be more moisture in the soil to enable the new plants to thrive and produce flowers.

Some will be springtime flowerers while others will bloom over the summer months, and while not all will flower next year, once established they should provide colour over future years, and benefit a wide range of pollinating insects.

These are some of the flowers planted