National Wildflower Centre’s Richard Scott attended City Quay Friday morning 1st April to commence the process of planting a wildflower meadow along the Riverside Drive parklands area of the site.

The first thing we will notice is the grass dying-off in the area to be seeded and then a sowing will take place to which everyone is invited to take part on Wednesday evening 20th April at 6.30pm. Then we can expect about a 2 month waiting and growing period before the meadow flowers throughout the summer and early autumn. This is an exciting initiative of which we can be proud.

It is also a great step towards what some are now calling the Northern Flowerhouse, building on exciting links between Liverpool and Manchester and what could be a new cultural ecology!

Residents have asked what wildflowers we can expect to see once they grow and the mix we are using is as follows:

We are using a 3kg mixture which is generous in terms of density of seed but ensures very good cover of perennials for year two. This gives annuals in year one and perennials afterwards.

40%                      Red campion,

5%                         White campion

30%                       Meadow buttercup,

10%                        Ox-eye daisy,

4%                          Cowslip

5%                          Field scabious

1%                          Fox glove

2%                          Lesser knapweed

3%                          Cow parsley

The decision to experiment with a wildflower meadow was approved at the two public meetings we held last October:

First CQ Meeting 

Second CQ Meeting 

National Wildflower Centre website