Reading Flower Meadows in August 2012

We visited our flower meadows this week and what a great change it was.

The annual meadows

The annual meadows are really colourful and every one of the 5 annual flower meadows looks a bit different in spite of the same seed mix sown. California poppies (Eschscholzia californica), poppies (Papaver rhoeas), pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis), red flax (Linum grandiflorum), cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus), cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus), sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) and showy baby`s breath (Gypsophila elegans) are in full flower now.

Annual flower meadow in Victoria Recreation Ground, Tilehurst

(photo by G. Mumford)

The colours are beautiful with red poppies, orange california poppies, blue

 cornflowers and pink cosmos

Hundreds and thousands of  poppies in the Henley Road Cemetery meadow

And the pollinators seem to enjoy the flowers as well ...

The perennial meadows

The perennial meadows have some flowers now but most perennial plants will not flower until next year. You can see yarrow (Achillea millefolium), catsear (Hypochaeris radicata), musk mallow (Malva moschata), rough hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus) and wild carrot (Daucus carota) flowering. The meadows will be cut soon to help the establishment of the meadow plants and to suppress weeds.

The perennial meadow in Prospect Park with yarrow and catsear flowering

 Perennial meadow in Meadway Recreation Ground with wild carrot and

 scentless chamomile (not a perennial plant but good for pollinators as well) flowering

Musk mallow flowering in the Cintra Park meadow

Come and visit the flower meadows on a sunny day, experience the wonderful colours of the different flowers and watch the bees flying from flower to flower collecting pollen and nectar.

Please follow this link to find a flower meadow near you: http://www.urbanpollinators.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/reading-flower-meadows.html

More pictures and flower meadow progress updates coming soon!