NORTHERN FLOWERHOUSE ASSEMBLY

Our Northern Flowerhouse is a movement born from conversations, exchanges, visits, goodwill and, above all, from collective action. Born from a meeting in Everton, reflecting on our experience of the Grow Wild England Flagship wildflower programme with Hulme, the concept of wildflowers as essential infrastructure, requiring serious investment and care has spread. In Liverpool schools and community groups of all sizes have joined in sowing events, workshops, celebratory events and harvests, leading us to establish Scouse Flowerhouse as a charitable co-operative. We believe that Beauty is a Birthright, as Jamie Reid wrote, and subscribe to working with our hands, minds and hearts in equal measure.

Scouse Flowerhouse members love to connect with like-minded groups across the North and beyond: like Talking Plants in Sheffield, Manchester Green Infrastructure Network, Groundwork, Kendal's Nature Recovery Network, gardeners and artists and ecologists and people passionate about their local neighbourhoods like GalGael in Govan and Aproxima Arts in Glasgow. The Northern Flowerhouse is not about one size fits all, it is about creating connections and a magnetism to invite curious folk to assist in restoring wildflower habitats across our cities and edgelands. It's not difficult work, but it does require powers of observation and a sensibility to nurture rather than tame our wild habitats. Nature does a lot of the work in producing the seed and creating the beauty, given the right starting points and substrates, most often readily available close to home.

Fergus Garrett, our Patron, will share his generous insights into what makes a garden, and the Singh Twins will speak about how their artworks depict flowers and nature in symbolic, political and personal ways. We will hear from inspirational work in cities across Northern Europe: Nantes, Sheffield, Doncaster and Manchester, and Alistair McIntosh will close the day talking about the possibilities of land reform from a Scottish perspective.

So this Assembly is about growing our movement and sharing ideas and practice to make our green spaces, parks and gardens more beautiful and better interconnected. We'd love you to come and help to weave a web of biodiversity across the North with the grit and spirit, the ambition and humour which our communities are so well-known for. If we are to reverse biodiversity loss, we need to act boldly and collectively. We're delighted that the RHS, the Eden Project and PlanIt are backing the day on June 18th.

On the 19th we'll continue with action and workshops at St Vincent's School and you are welcome to stay for a community build over the weekend if you would like to. Please email any queries to [email protected] and we will keep updating this page over the next few days and weeks.

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