Recently I saw a photo of wild flowers blooming in the middle of a busy city, part of the Forest Of Flowers initiative. I remembered the photo in part because I like the name: Forest Of Flowers. It conjures up a mental image of flowers growing in profusion, carpeting the ground, an expanse of colour and scent. A forest is a wild place, a place apart, to immerse ourselves in nature and feel surrounded and enclosed. So when it’s a forest of flowers it’s all about being surrounded by colour. A forest of trees might tower overhead, flowers will most probably grow at our feet, but even small wildflower areas can soon grow taller, flowering grasses too waving in the wind.
The Forest Of Flowers initiative is centered on a 74-acre nature reserve near York, created in 2015. There, over 40,000 trees and shrubs have been planted over the last nine years, and many, many wildflowers grow – over 30 species. And the reserve is only part of what Forest Of Flowers do. By encouraging and supporting groups large and small to sow wildflower seeds (and supplying the seeds themselves), they’re boosting wildflower growing nationwide. They also sell items like greetings cards and T-shirts. The Forest Of Flowers logo sums it up – it shows an illustration of a tree trunk surrounded by flowers and insects. Nature full of life.
Well-known research has proved how beneficial being in a forest or wood can be for mood and wellbeing, even physical health too. This research focuses on trees, known to reduce stress hormones in the body and slow heart rate and ease anxiety and sometimes physical pain. But it’s entirely possible that forests of flowers could be just as beneficial as they too surround us with nature and become a refuge. They might even be more welcoming to people who find tree forests oppressive, shady and menacing. Most flowers need light to bloom so forests of flowers will be open, bright and airy.
It would be wonderful if more and more of the groups Forest Of Flowers support to grow wild flowers could be in urban areas, patches of colour and wildness amidst the concrete. Unlike most plant or tree species, flowers don’t need a lot of space, and they grow fast. Sow wildflower seeds and they can soon transform a patch of bare earth or grow up amid other plants, even pushing through cracks in stones. So growing wildflowers is a fantastic way to see nature’s profusion in crowded urban settings. Planting a tree forest in a city is unlikely. But a forest of flowers can become a reality in little time. Contrasts of colour, form and size highlight nature’s extravagance.
To learn more about Forest Of Flowers go to https://www.forestofflowers.co.uk And think where you could sow wildflowers where you are, and transform the everyday.