Growing Hope: Join Andover Trees’ Disappearing Wildflowers Campaign
Andover, Hampshire - 16th March - This April, Andover Trees United is launching an important new community campaign: Disappearing Wildflowers. Kicked off in 2025, the community project is part of a three year project.
Across the UK, many of the wildflowers that once coloured our countryside are vanishing. Through this campaign, we’re inviting the local community to help reverse that trend by growing wildflowers at home, volunteering with us, and helping restore vital habitats for pollinators.
This hands-on project starting in April, will run throughout the year, building towards a large wildflower planting in October. Every seed planted helps strengthen the natural habitats that wildlife depends on.
Why Wildflowers Matter
Wildflowers are far more than beautiful additions to our landscapes. they are essential to the health of our ecosystems. The UK is home to around 90% of the world’s remaining calcareous (chalk) grasslands, one of the most biodiverse habitats on Earth. These special grasslands support an incredible variety of plants, insects, birds and animals. In fact, almost every pollinator species relies on them.
Yet these habitats are disappearing. Since the Industrial Revolution, over 80% of Britain’s chalk grasslands have been lost due to development, agriculture and land-use change. Without action, the wildflowers that support our bees, butterflies and other pollinators could continue to decline and with them the wider biodiversity that depends on them.
This is why growing and restoring wildflowers locally matters so much.
How You Can Get Involved
We’re inviting the Andover community to take part in several ways, whether you’d like to grow flowers at home or volunteer with us in the woodland.
1. Collect a Free Home Growing Kit
To kick things off, free wildflower home planting kits will be available to collect on the 8th April at Augusta Park Community Centre from 10:00am to 12:00pm. Each kit includes everything you need to get started: Wildflower seeds, seed tray, compost and simple growing instructions. Participants can nurture their seedlings at home over the summer before bringing them back to join our community planting in October. You can sign up here for your kit.
2. Join Our Community Wildflower Days
Throughout the spring and summer, we’ll be dedicating our monthly Community Conservation Days to wildflower potting and preparation. These sessions are held on the second Saturday of each month and are open to volunteers of all ages. Upcoming Wildflower Conservation Days are listed below. Check out the event pages to book your space. Whether you’re an experienced gardener or completely new to planting, these sessions are a great way to learn, meet others and contribute to restoring nature locally.
3. Raising Awareness Across Andover
Over the summer, we’ll also be installing a special wildflower display in Andover town centre to highlight the issue of disappearing wildflowers and inspire more people to get involved. The display will showcase the beauty and importance of these plants while encouraging residents to support local biodiversity.
4. The Big Community Planting – October
All of this work will lead to a large community planting event in October, where the seedlings grown by volunteers and residents will be planted together to create new wildflower areas. This will help expand important habitats and support the pollinators that keep our ecosystems thriving.
Start This Spring
The Disappearing Wildflowers campaign is a major focus for Andover Trees this year and we’d love the community to be part of it. There are many ways to get involved:
Collect a home planting kit
Join a Community Conservation Day
Volunteer in the woodland
Help spread awareness about wildflower habitats
Together we can help protect pollinators, restore precious chalk grasslands and bring wildflowers back to our landscape.
