Corn Field Flower Project 2020

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KRTSuKkAPY12y8Qp7u5FpsrE6e091AvU/view?usp=sharing

Our project will introduce people to threatened arable flowers and create opportunities for them to grow these
valuable and important plants, supporting their mental health. This project will continue work that has been
taking place on farms in the district for almost 20 years to save these species from extinction. We will focus on
securing new public sites in towns and villages for these beautiful flowers to be grown and seen, to support
the continuing rural activities and link them with new audiences in the urban environment. This will result in a
greater network of cornfield flower sites in the district and help raise awareness about local species at risk.
Our project is an exciting exploration of how hands-on nature conservation and experiencing the countryside
can support the needs of our service users and volunteers, many of whom suffer from mental health issues,
isolation and loneliness. Our volunteers will learn new skills and knowledge, giving them great confidence to
take away into other areas of their lives.

This project will focus on about a dozen species that will be best suited to be grown by volunteers in urban
environments to support the farms involved in the Cornfield Flower Project and would make a stunning display
as part of town planting schemes, including:
– Prickly poppy
– Babington’s poppy/ Yellow-juiced poppy (this has already been found at the allotment site but was not
known about by the volunteers)
– Corn poppy (this has already been found at the allotment site but was not known about by the
volunteers)
– Cornflower (Species of Principal Importance, formally UKBAP Priority Species)
– Corn marigold
– Corn buttercup (Species of Principal Importance, formally UKBAP Priority Species)
– Common fiddleneck
– Night-flowering catchfly
– Small-flowered catchfly (Species of Principal Importance, formally UKBAP Priority Species)
– Venus’s looking glass
– Red hemp-nettle (Species of Principal Importance, formally UKBAP Priority Species). Red hemp-nettle
plants have already been provided to us from an existing Cornfield Flowers Project volunteer who had too
many in her garden.