Published on 11th September 2015

Girl running through wildflwoer urban meadow in Pittville Park

This summer, Cheltenham Borough Council’s ranger Janice Peacey, set residents a challenge to capture the best photographs of the borough’s wildflowers, and the competition deadline is looming fast.

Photos can be submitted in three categories: wildlife in the wildflowers; families enjoying the displays; capturing the flowers at their location (not just close ups of the flowers but images that show where they are in the borough).

Age ranges for the photograph competition are: budding photographers (under the age of 14); and adults (entrants must be over the age of 14 by the closing date).

Janice says: “The deadline for the competition is at the end of this month so there’s still time for people to send us their photographs.

“Cheltenham has many green open spaces and by increasing the number and size of flower meadows across the town we help the wildlife; from insects through to birds, as well as providing visually appealing views for the parks users and visitors.

“We’d love to see how residents and visitors have captured the meadows and see from their perspective what the meadows mean to them.”

Councillor Chris Coleman, cabinet member for green environment says: “It is great to see that the urban meadows project has been embraced so whole-heartedly by local residents. I would like to congratulate the council officers who were involved in the planting - they have done a fantastic job in adding colour to the town. Good luck to all those taking part in our photo competition!”

To find out more and to enter the competition, visit our website (www.cheltenham.gov.uk/wildflowerphotos) fill in the consent form and email the form with your photographs to [email protected] (total email size should not exceed 20MB). The competition closes at 5pm on Wednesday 30 September 2015.

Notes:
Competition details:
The competition is restricted to amateur photographers and is not open to professional photographers.
Up to three entries can be submitted per category with a maximum of nine photos in total.
The prizes are a packet of wildflower seeds for sowing in the entrants’ own gardens and a canvas print of the winning photograph for the overall winner.

The winning photographs will be displayed on the council’s Flickr stream.

Urban meadows:
Cheltenham Borough Council embarked on its urban meadow project for the first time last year with the aim of creating a number of colourful meadows across the town, improving the biodiversity of green open space and providing attractive displays throughout the summer and beyond.

Two seed mixes are predominately used; one is a traditional cornfield mix and the other is a special mix developed to commemorate the beginning of WW1 and includes Flanders poppies, Bishops Flower, Red Flax and Cosmos.

The poppies/mix flower until around October or November and the cosmos/mix then come in to their own from mid-July through to the end of October or the first frost. Tom Thumb Endurance, a mix of poppies, cornflowers and French marigolds, can be seen on the road side and flowers from mid-June until mid-September.
The meadows start to fade in the autumn, however last year Pittville cornfield was left in full flower until late autumn. The cosmos and bishops flower provided nectar for the insects and the poppies were left to set seed ready for the following year.