Cheshire’s bluebells set to blossom

3rd April 2008

There’ll be a much-needed boost given to the region’s bluebells this year, thanks to Cheshire’s Year of Gardens ’08 and the Bluebell Recovery Project.

Threats to the UK’s favourite flower, including loss of woodlands and the large-scale theft of bulbs from the few remaining sites in Cheshire, prompted the launch in 1996 of the Bluebell Recovery Project which began a programme of seed gathering, bulb cultivation and replanting across Cheshire and Merseyside.

The Project has teamed up with Cheshire’s Year of Gardens to produce a Cheshire Bluebell Guide and Map, and stage the first ever annual Bluebell Festival which kick-starts in April and continues with an annual programme of events.

The informative guide provides locations and opening times of the top 15 bluebell sites in Cheshire.

It also includes details of the Bluebell Festival, National Bluebell Day, how to get involved, how to grow your own native bluebells from seed and how to submit bluebell-related photos and memories for inclusion in future publications.

Cheshire Building Society, which is a partner of Cheshire’s Year of Gardens, will promote the Bluebell project and provide free guides in all of its branches throughout the North West.