Animal-friendly blooms for Wolds Wildlife Park

Jayne Hickling planting flowers at Wolds Wildlife Park.

Two Horncastle organisations have come together to provide some blooming lovely additions to one of our town’s top attractions.

Jayne Hickling of Horncastle in Bloom visited the Wolds Wildlife Park last week as their planters were looking a little sorry for themselves, and in need of a little spruce up.

Careful thought was given to which animal-friendly flowers would be planted at the park, as Jayne explained:

“The planters surround an area with picnic tables for visitors bring their own food to be able to sit and eat while at the park, so it was important to make this area look welcoming - however, one thing that we absolutely had to think about was the types of plants, to make sure they were suitable for an environment with lots of amazing animals.

Horncastle in Bloom volunteer Colin White with Jayne Hickling.

"Things like foxgloves, hollyhocks and lupins are beautifully structured plants, but they’re poisonous. But, more importantly these plants do go to seed and tend to spread their seeds over large distances.

"We also didn’t want to go for planting which would be highly attractive to bees and wasps.”

The planters are now all planted up, with help from additional community volunteer Colin White, and Jayne said she is “really pleased” with them.

Sharron Tonge, the park’s events and cafe manager, said: “We’re delighted with the planters and they really do brighten up our picnic area.

"We’re so grateful to Horncastle in Bloom for their help.”