There’s a large garden nursery inside Hyde Park that grows more plants than it needs, and if the weather allows a surplus, the plants are given away to the local community.
Rows of flowers in the Hyde Park nursery (c) Royal Parks
The Royal Parks run the nursery, and it’s the place where they grow all the bedding plants and flowers that decorate the parks and provide the floral displays that fill the space in front of Buckingham Palace.
However, plants and the weather are temperamental, so as insurance, they always grow more than they expect to need. However, if the weather gods are kind, then that means they have more plants than they can use. So the surplus is given to local community groups each year — and applications for this year are now open.
Applicants must be organisations based in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, or Camden. They must be either a local charity, a community group supporting people who couldn’t afford to buy plants, or non-fee charging schools.
Successful applicants can collect free plants in June/July and October/November.
The full details and the application form are here and successful applicants will be informed in late May or early June.
Who knows? With a few minutes spent filling out a form and some nice weather, your community group could be decorated with Royal flowers this year.
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