The Euroflor Urban Flower seed mixes have been delivering beautiful flower displays from Cornwall in the south of England to Moray in the North of Scotland, and all points east and west.
Increasing number of metropolitan and parish councils, country estates, golf courses, holiday parks and also plays an educational role in schools and colleges. All benefit from these vibrant displays that enrich our sensory environment and also serve as an invaluable habitat for pollinators, birds and small mammals.
Euroflor urban flower seeds such as ground Cover, Honey and Poppies, draw, their inspiration from enhancing habitat bio-diversity, combined with maintenance cost savings for roadside verge management. As another low growing mix, Euroflor’s Boulevard is an attractive mix of native and naturalised, predominantly perennial species, and requires minimal maintenance and in that it can reduce mowing to just one cut per year.
On the verge
Although highways, roadside grass verges and roundabouts are deemed non-productive land with little or no amenity value the visual, environmental and economic impact of their management continues to attract a high level of awareness and scrutiny.
Mowing is a costly exercise and whilst budgetary pressures and re-wilding to support bio-diversity has reduced the extent of verge cutting in some regions, investment in road building infrastructure has increased the roadside verge footprint in others.
Mowing grass verge strips and splays is an essential operation for traffic safety, ensuring site lines are unimpeded and excessive growth does not obstruct the carriageway.
Verges also play an important role as a buffer zone between the road and other structural landscape elements, forming wildlife corridors and acting as soakaways for rainwater and floodwater when roadside drains become blocked.
They also soak up carbon, pollutants and have a cooling influence, helping regulate temperatures in urban environments.
Cost v benefit
Euroflor Boulevard can reduce operating costs while supporting habitat bio-diversity, bringing a carpet of colour to roadsides or indeed any site where low-growing native and naturalised British Flora is essential.
The low sowing rate of Euroflor Urban flower seeds and low maintenance requirement are significant when compared to installing annual bedding schemes and maintaining grass lawns.
One local authority undertook a cost saving case study and found that they made an annual £43,000+ saving by substituting Euroflor flower sowings for their traditional bulbs and bedding plants on highways, car parking areas and cemeteries.
But long-established verges seeded with tall agricultural grasses and colonised by weeds over the decades present their own challenges.
Euroflor Boulevard is a practical and cost-saving choice for renewing these types of verges and for creating new verges, balancing the safety and convenience of road users, reducing or replacing the associated costs of grass mowing 2-5 times per annum including roadside warning cones, 2-5, machines, fuel and labour as well as the inherent safety issues.
For pollinators and people
Euroflor Boulevard provides an excellent food source for pollinators, a habitat for insects and smaller species of wildlife and brings colour into the landscape for people to enjoy. Sow in the spring at just 3g per square metre, 1kg covers up to 333 square metres, and the diverse species will find their own ecological niche to develop and flourish in different soil types and conditions. Flowering height in most conditions reaches 10-30cm.
Trials at Origin Amenity Solutions, Technology and Science Centre is looking at a wide range of field trials conducted under UK conditions, including Euroflor Urban Flower mixes that both enhance our sensory awareness and act as both a food source for pollinators and small mammals.
