The long term health of a green roof is a subject that is often overlooked in the commercial world where value engineering reigns, sometimes at the expense of quality. In a world where buildings are part of asset portfolios which can be shuffled and sold multiple times, sometimes without the owner ever seeing the building,…

Our report from the recent annual Horticultural trade association Contact conference, with the theme ‘Surviving and Thriving’. Penny Fryer (Operations Director) and Nerys Arch (Propagation Manager) attended the conference this month to keep up with changes and developments within the industry, regarding key topics like Brexit, water legislation, labour challenges and the need to inspire…

It’s Christmas again, and most of our green roof plants have finished flowering, but in the eternal search for the longest flowering season possible I will undertake the 2016 review of our longest flowering species. Again the Helianthemum nummularium has been the star, holding out well into November. A slight surprise was a small sprig…

NEW GREEN ROOF RESEARCH IDENTIFIES PLUGS ARE THE BEST WAY TO ESTABLISH HEALTHY SOIL ECOSYSTEMS  Maggie Fennell, Head of Boningale GreenSky, reveals the findings of a first-of-its-kind PhD study that was recently conducted with University of Sheffield’s Animal and Plant Science Centre to identify the best way to ensure that beneficial micro-organisms thrive on green…

By Nerys Arch Propagation Manager International plant propagators society held their annual conference this year at Shifnal. The conference and society is open to all in plant production with a main focus on hardy nursery stock and perennials.  This year’s conference named ‘From Start to Finish’, consisted of a visit to Boningale and Worfield Plants,…

We always recommend that green roofs are installed with a watering facility to cover unusually hot, dry spells. But how necessary is it really? What are the consequences of having no irrigation facility? In a hot dry period that lasts a week or so, a lot of wildflower roofs can begin to look decidedly brown,…

By Maggie Fennell Last year I was very excited when CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association) launched their ‘BEST’ Benefits of SUDS Tool.  The tool is available to download for free on the Ciria website here http://www.susdrain.org/resources/best.html and provides a database and instruction manual for anyone wanting to input their details of their own…

Extensive green roofs are traditionally dominated by sedums, for their extreme drought tolerance, or wildflowers chosen for biodiversity support. Plants need to cope with extreme weather conditions, poor soils, and have a good degree of drought tolerance so sedums and some wildflowers are natural candidates. However there are many more species that can thrive in…

We are very pleased to have achieved recertification to the Environmental Management System ISO 14001 – 2015 after our recent audit. The current standard was updated and finalised in September 2015, our Environmental team worked on developing our standard to meet the new regulations. The auditor was more than happy to take our standard and…

In the wide and varied world of roof vegetation, there are a variety of different professionals who may end up in charge of planting. Extensive green roofs are quite often planted by specialist green roof professionals, but more intensive roof gardens might be undertaken by either a green roofer or a landscaper. In any case,…