Welcome to the Flora Grove Wilderhood Watch page!
Our Flora Grove ‘Pollinator Party’ on September 23 was a great success, with residents meeting up to swap plants, sample some home baking and discuss making our gardens more pollinator friendly. Neighbours from Breakspeare Ave and Vanda Cresc also joined in, and some of our youngest residents enjoyed picking seeds from a sunflower head and spotting butterflies on our Butterfly Challenge display.
We are thrilled that Cllr Juliet Voisey has sourced two large plant containers that we intend to fill with pollinator-friendly flowers. They will be situated on the triangle between Flora Grove and Breakspeare Ave, making a beautiful and welcome addition to our growing Pollinator Highway.
Faith Lucas, Flora Grove street coordinator writes: The Flora Grove Group of Wilderhood Watch looked forward to their opening launch in September to carry on the history of flowers that exist in this area.
Frederick Sanders, born in Bremen in 1847, began his business in St Albans as a seed merchant at 21 George Street (now Trinder), and subsequently bought 4 acres of land near The Camp where he built a family home and established a large number of greenhouses for selling orchids. Orchids arrived from all over the world, sent by his team of orchid hunters, arriving at the greenhouses by rail, which he regarded as essential to his business. By 1883 he had created the largest orchid business in Europe. He was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour for his services to horticulture and in 1886 he was appointed the Royal Orchid Grower.
The road names Flora Grove and Vanda Crescent (from the orchid named after Sander (“Vanda Sanderina”) are redolent of this illustrious past. The residents of Flora Grove together with Wilderhood Watch are looking forward to working together to create a Pollinator Highway to continue this floral tradition.
By growing plants for pollinators in every garden and for every season, we’ll create a highway for pollinators, ensuring that insects such as bees, butterflies and hoverflies flourish along Flora Grove. For more information please contact street coordinator Faith Lucas faith.lucas04@googlemail.com
