Wildflower haven for city centre roundabout

A slice of the countryside will soon be springing up at North Cross roundabout in Plymouth city centre as work starts on creating a wildflower haven.

Grassy banks and verges within the roundabout area are to be tilled to plant an mix of seed including cornflower, corn marigold, poppies, ox-eye daisy, red campion and white campion which will bring colour, nectar and visual appeal to the site over a long flowering season.

The project is possible thanks to a £5,000 award, following a fantastic social media campaign to get backing from local people as part of the Grow Wild campaign, which is supported by the Big Lottery Fund and led by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Thousands of local people tweeted and voted in support for creating a corridor of wildflowers through the city centre and although Plymouth did not win, the city’s enthusiasm has been rewarded with funding to transform the roundabout.

Councillor Brian Vincent said: “Once the flowers bloom, they will be an incredible wild welcome to visitors to this city.

“We had a huge groundswell of support for our City to Sea project which was inspirational – we wanted to take some of the ideas we put forward for that to good use.”

The planting of the roundabout is the latest in a long list of wildflower sites in Plymouth.

The Council was among the first in the country to introduce bee verges which involve planting wildflowers to encourage native pollinators to thrive and this site will be the latest in a long list of wildflower sites across the city.

Young people will also be involved in bughunt events with the likes of Buglife supporting the project.

In the next few weeks a team from the Council will be preparing the banks by removing the grass, ahead of removing stones and seed planting in March. The area will initially look bare, but will be a riot of colours by June.