National Gardening Day (U.K)

We’ve got lots of exciting plans for National Gardening Week this year. We'll be focussing on two main themes for the week; Horticultural Careers and Wildflowers.

Why is Britain going wild for Wildflowers?

We want to help the Nation plant wildflower meadows from mini-meadows in plant pots to transforming spaces in gardens. Some of our plans include hosting workshops at RHS Gardens and providing online advice, as well as our wildflower seed giveaway.

Sue Biggs, RHS Director General says: “After enjoying the Olympic Park wildflower meadows in 2012 there is a great appetite from the British public to create their own version at home, which is great news for pollinating insects!”

Over the past 50 years we’ve seen a huge reduction in wildflowers in the countryside, which play a vital part in biodiversity and creating a habitat for pollinating insects. Gardens are increasingly recognised as important sources of nectar and pollen for insects. It has been estimated that the value of insect-pollinated fruits and vegetables grown in the UK is about £220 million a year. Encouraging people across the country to plant wildflowers will help protect their habitat.

The RHS has developed extensive advice on what to plant, visit RHS Plants for Pollinators and look out for the Plants for Pollinators logo in garden centres.Over the past ten years Ragley Gardens have been developing their grounds, clearing large over grown areas to make way for new gardens of interest including a Crevice Garden for alpines, a Prairie Garden for late summer interest and a new contemporary Rose Garden.

To help mark this achievement and our partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society we are celebrating National Gardening Week with an Open Day on 17th April 2013.

Experts will be on hand to help get you going in the right direction. There will be special talks and demonstrations and the chance to ask questions or even just chat to the experts about your favourite plant.

April is the perfect month to get stuck into the garden and get some real work under way. The days are getting noticeably longer and the weather is warming up. Things are bursting into life and colour is blooming all around.