Community Wildflower Nursery
Welcome to our Community Wildflower Nursery on Hammersley Lane in Tylers Green, High Wycombe. We became the proud keyholders in Autumn 2022 and our vision for this once blank canvas is now really taking shape.
Projects like these only happen thanks to our multiple funders investing in our vision and people volunteering their time, energy and effort to bring it to life.
Our wildflower nursery is for the local community. It is a place for people of all ages, abilities and from all parts of our community to help us grow local, native wildflowers and when they are ready, plant them out via our various projects and sites e.g. NHS hospital gardens, schools, sheltered accommodation and other public realm areas. Time spent in nature and with others is so good for our mental health, reduces social isolation and brings everyone together to achieve more.
If you would like to volunteer at the nursery or would like further information, please email info@chilternrangers.co.uk
Wildflower Nursery Update 2024: A Year of Growth and Collaboration
This year at Chiltern Rangers Wildflower Nursery has been one of incredible transformation and collaboration!
Our polytunnel has been transformed into a productive growing space, complete with new benching, a seed sowing area, and an accessible slab path to ensure everyone can use this area. In addition, we’ve installed two shade-tunnels and outdoor growing-on benches, with fantastic help from the students of Pebblebrook School.
We’re thrilled to have partnered with the talented DT students at Stony Dean School to build eight colourful raised planters, bringing both function and creativity to the nursery.
Our partnership with Hypnos Beds has flourished, who helped build new raised beds (not for sleeping!) and facilitated a fantastic, informative visit to the Eden Project to explore their National Wildflower Centre.
Another amazing partnership has sprouted with the FreshWater Habitats Trust GrowWet team, who funded two wetland plant beds and came to deliver some fantastic education sessions on our declining freshwater plant species and the importance of water quality.
A special thank you to Khurram the beekeeper, who delivered informative beekeeping talks to our volunteers and school groups, enriching everyones understanding of local pollinators.
We couldn’t have done it without our amazing regular volunteers – Ed, Sarah, Perry, Colin, Karina, and Greg – who worked tirelessly through the summer, keeping plants watered, compost topped up, laying paths, and even repairing our water supply! Special thanks also to James and Ali-Jo for your regular attendance and dedication at our wildflower nursery sessions. We deeply appreciate all your hard work! Volunteer George also created some beautiful new signage for the nursery, helping to guide and inform visitors about our efforts. On the wildlife front, we’ve had some wonderful sightings, including slowworms, bank voles, moths, butterflies, and even the rare striped lychnis moth.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been part of this amazing journey. Your support and hard work have helped make this year at the nursery such a success! We look forward to continuing our work in the coming year, growing both plants and partnerships.
So far volunteers have grown and cared for a stock of 500 native wildflowers, many of which are from seeds of local provenance, 250 of which have been planted out on Chairborough Local Nature Reserve, Alfriston School and Abingdon Hospital grounds.
Wildflowers are so important, they are the base of the food chain, feeding pollinators such as bees, beetles, butterflies & moths including their fussy, yet hungry, caterpillars.
Some species have only one or two caterpillar foodplants: Small Blue (Kidney Vetch), Chalkhill Blue (Horseshoe vetch) and Common Blue (Bird’s-foot trefoil) Duke of Burgundy (Cowslips & Primroses).
We grow & distribute the plants and hope in turn the various beneficiaries can thrive in a better quality, more connected landscape.
We were delighted to be awarded £7,000 from The Clare Foundation’s Angel’s Den process in December 2023.
We are investing that prize into our community nurseries enabling us to host some of the other Angel’s finalists and their teams and also to support a range of volunteers and community organisations.
They enjoy a day in these fab sites working together learning and having fun knowing they’re giving back. Their time and effort is helping us take these nurseries forwards, growing and nurturing amazing plants for the local environment and the wildlife it supports. Happy days!
Thanks to Nicholas King Homes, The Clare Foundation & Buckinghamshire Council’s High Wycombe Community Board for kicking it all off in 2022-23.
The Chiltern Conservation Board’s Farming In the Protected Landscape is adding to the infrastructure in 2023-24 to make it a better place for volunteers and also to upgrade our rainwater harvesting too!
Coming soon will be new planters made by students at Stony Dean School, Amersham as part of their stepping stones programme. These planters, made from recycled wood, will be used to grow terrestrial wildflowers but also in partnership with Freshwater Habitats Trust’s GroWet project we will grow wetland plants like Ragged Robin & Lesser Spearwort too!
Thanks to a grant from Awards for All from The National Lottery Community Fund, we have staff time to train, guide, inspire and engage our community. Local people will be the key for building momentum and long term success into the project.
In 2024, locally-based British bedmakers, Hypnos, are stepping up their partnership with us and investing in this space too. Hypnos have a close working partnership with the Eden Project which has created an opportunity for us to work closely with them to learn more about wildflowers and helping to deliver even more environmental impact!
We look forward to welcoming lots more volunteers to the site – if you or your community group would like to get involved in the buildling and growing, contact clemency@chilternrangers.co.uk or info@chilternrangers.co.uk.
