Seeds and Fertilisers

Bishops Waltham blooms

Bishops Waltham in Bloom is a registered charity run by a small group of Trustees, supported by a team of volunteers, who all share a passion and responsibility for planting and maintaining the flower beds, tubs and hanging baskets in Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire.

Since 2016 this work has been extended to incorporate two main wildflower areas. A 65m2 roundabout and a 180m2 patch of open ground beside a road junction that leads from the main road through the village. Both areas have now been sown with 500 gms of John Chambers Wildflower Seed Follers Manor Annual seed mix. This is a special mix of wild and cultivated annual species, originally mixed for the award-winning gardens at the stunning Follers Manor in Sussex.

John Chambers Wildflower Seed has a 35-year history of supplying native British produced wildflower seed and mixes to rural and urban projects across the UK. Seed is sourced from growers that are long established and stringent in their collection processes; it is cleaned by hand, a labour-intensive process that will only achieve the highest quality standards. The team of specially trained seed cleaners only dispatch the best seed that ensures optimum growth and success no matter the climate or soil quality.

Having developed many bedding and shrub beds around the village, the Trustees felt that wildflower areas would add more colour and enjoyment for local residents while supporting biodiversity and a wider range of pollinators. Therefore, the wildflower project at Bishop’s Waltham was initiated with the larger open area and followed up with the roundabout. The group received sponsorship from the Waltham Society and BW Gardening Club, in addition to a grant from Winchester City Council to fund this initiative.

Susan Bircher, one of the Trustees comments: “We initially experimented with different seed mixes and some plug plants, and found the annual based mixes gave much more impact and colour. We did use some perennial mixes to try and reduce the yearly workload as we are only a small group, but that created a problem for us with species like wild carrot taking over and dominating the annuals in both areas.

Because of our initial experience we wanted to move back to a mix which gave us real impact for the enjoyment of local residents over a reasonable length of time. When researching options, I saw the John Chambers Follers Manor Wildflower mix and we decided the mix of indigenous wildflowers for wildlife plus the 'extras' of Nigella, California poppies and Coreopsis would give us the 'best of both worlds', and the photos on your website and the Follers Manor website looked very much what we hoped to achieve.

And it did. Very successfully. Lots of colour and variety, and we had a lot of very positive feedback from the residents, which was lovely.”

Peruvian fertliser firm seeking UK trading partners

GUANORGANICS, exclusive suppliers of guano rich fertiliser, is seeking new retail trading partners in the United Kingdom. Here, we take a look at the history of the company and what it has to offer the British consumer market

Established in 2004 GUANORGANIC parent company, the Anglo-Peruvian Trading Company, is a UK based business which specialises in sourcing exceptional products from reputable and experienced producers and exporters in Peru, for their introduction to suitable buyers in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Fresh for spring 2022, the company brings its unique blend of 100% organic and sustainable GUANORGANIC fertiliser to the UK market. Made from guano – the excrement of seabirds – GUANORGANIC is rich in essential Potassium, Nitrogen, Phosphorous (NPK 1212-2), sulphur and iodine, with a high calcium content, meaning this environmentally responsible fertiliser provides all the nutrients a plant needs for the production of abundant food-crops and flowers.

Easy to apply and safe to handle GUANORGANIC pellets are the perfect choice for both amateur gardeners and professionals committed to sustainable growing. Renowned for its exceptional performance and soil-enhancing qualities, Guano is a well-established ingredient in many well-known brands of fertiliser and is already supplied to large manufacturers of own-brand product in Holland, Germany and France.

For the environmentally conscious GUANORGANIC is a great choice over synthetic fertilisers.

Consisting of the accumulated excrement and carcasses of birds, bats, and sometimes seals, the organic materials from which guano is composed are heat treated at source to eliminate harmful bacteria such as Salmonella and E.coli, before being pelletised for ease of storage and application. Unlike horse or bovine manure it doesn’t need a settling period and can be applied as soon a the pellets are ready.

A circular economy spanning centuries

It might be relatively new to Britain, but when the Ancient Incas created their amazing circular terraces at Moray, the Sacred Valley of Cuzco-Peru, they utilised Guano for the development of agriculture in what became one of the world’s great high civilisations.

Fast-forward to the 21st century and we have a truly sustainable, circular-lifespan product created from the waste materials of local fish and birds. Highly nutritious anchovies from the Peruvian Pacific Ocean provide a consistent, stable diet for millions of seabirds whose droppings are deposited over many small island and peninsulas off the coast of Peru. Over time these abundant droppings are weathered into an exceptionally potent, natural fertiliser, thanks to the unique weather conditions of coastal Peru, where it seldom rains.

Guano is harvested by hand between April and September, well outside the birds’ breeding season of October to March. Each location is harvested every five to seven years, with careful consideration to the extraction schedule to ensure there is minimal to no disruption to the birds, and certainly no harm.

This care and consideration is not, of course, limited to the bird kingdom and Anglo-Peruvian Trading Company is committed to providing good working conditions to more than 900 workers who hail from a special region in

the highlands of Peru. These invaluable workers apply unique skills to their work with Guano which have been passed down to them over many generations.

As a subsidised commercial product, the annual harvesting of Guano is a vital source of income for independent farmers in the highlands and jungles of Peru. As well as offering important socio-economic benefits, the export of Guano serves a dual purpose in the form of good conservation, surveillance and maintenance of the island regions where harvesting takes place.

Land of the Condor

Peru is an incredibly beautiful and diverse country with a long, rich history that’s steeped in myths and legends. South America’s third largest country (with five times the landmass of the UK), has three distinct geographical regions: Over 2000km of lowlands and coast, the high Sierra of the Andes and dense forest and rainforest.

Abundant in rich soil and with a long heritage of agricultural expertise, Peru has the world’s greatest climate diversity, experiencing 28 of the world’s 32 different climates and the largest biodiversity of plant species in the world. This great diversity has gifted Peru with extensive and varied agricultural land that is perfect for the development of new corps and products.

The technical expertise of Peruvian growers and producers has also brought the most efficient irrigation system in the region to their country, along with a very wide variety of exotic products that are more desirable than ever in the United Kingdom and Europe. Peru is an exciting country with unique products and enormous business potential - the market opportunity for further growth is immense.

Colour boost from DLF wildflower seeds

In order to meet with the increasing demand for conservation mixtures, DLF Seeds have announced expansions to the Pro Flora wild flower and Colour Boost amenity flower collections, in two brand new mixture guides for 2022. Having recently increased their inhouse production for wild flowering species, a number of new mixtures have been introduced - designed to bring biodiversity and visual impact to even more amenity and agricultural spaces.

Wild flowers have long played a vital role in renovation and landscaping projects, improving visual diversity and providing support and conservation for wildlife and pollinating species. With that in mind, DLF have introduced Pro Flora 15 – Pollinator. Pro Flora 15 contain a mixture of native origin wild flowers and fine-leaved grasses, which will thrive in a range of soil types, and produce a prolonged flowering period – perfect for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Also new for 2022 is Pro Flora 16 – Coastal. With many of our coastal areas under threat from human activity and the sea, Pro Flora 16 provides land managers with a mixture for restoring some of these spaces and/or regenerating areas with poor quality land. Containing 20% wild flowers such as Kidney Vetch and Viper’s Bugloss, this new mixture can provide valuable habitat for coastaldwelling insects and invertebrate species.

A number of mixtures have also been launched in the Colour Boost collection, designed for maximum floral impact. Skyscraper contains classics such as Cosmos and Zinnia and is created for areas where a taller growing mixture is required to deliver the desired level of visual impact. As with many of the Pro Flora mixtures, pollinators are at the forefront of species selection for a number of Colour Boost mixtures, with the new Honey Bee & Butterfly mix selecting flowers that will provide both a spectacular display and a valuable nectar source for bees and other pollinating insects. Completing the expanded range is Classical, a mix of blue and white species, ideal for more formal settings.

Full details of the Pro Flora and Colour Boost ranges can be found in the new brochures, available on request, or by visiting www.dlf.co.uk/wildflowers