We were really excited to be able to visit the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew at Wakehurst with the Wildflower Guardians this summer as part of our Greening the Cities project.

The Wildflower Guardians are a specialist group of volunteers formed through the Greening the Cities project.  They meet every fortnight to help create and maintain the wildflower banks across the city of Brighton & Hove.

As part of the visit to Wakehurst , the group received a guided tour of the site where we learned about the history of the gardens, information on some of the iconic plant specimens which have a home there as well as gaining an insight into the research and maintenance that goes on behind the scenes.

We were also particularly lucky to be able to have a personal tour of the Millenium Seed Bank – the most biodiverse place on Earth – from Kait, a member of the Wildflower Guardians who works as part of the Seed Bank team.

Thanks to funding from the National Lottery for the project, the Wildflower Guardians have been able to receive specialist training in botany from the Field Studies Council as well as onsite training from the team at Wakehurst in wildflower seed collection.  The Guardians also work closely with the Wildflower Conservation Society who are based at Stanmer Park.

Over the course of the project the group have become a skilled taskforce, meeting like minded people and boosting each other to learn more and enhance their learning experience.

The Wildflower Guardians are now sharing their expertise by teaming up with local Friends of Greenspaces groups, and putting their training into practise on the wildflower banks across the city of Brighton & Hove.

The volunteers are delivering work based on specialist advice about how to best maintain the region’s urban pollinator hotspots, that was commissioned at the start of the project.  You can read the full report on the ecology and maintenance of our wildflower banks on our Greening the Cities project page.  

We will be repeating our ecological surveying next summer at the end of our Greening the Cities project, and look forward to learning more about the species that are calling these wildflower banks home.

Like volunteers all across our Biosphere, the Wildflower Guardians do a fantastic job maintaining and enhancing our greenspaces for the benefit of everyone.  The difference they have made to our wildflower banks in particular over the course of the project has been visible and significant.  Thank you Wildflower Guardians!

Whilst the Changing Chalk and Greening the Cities project are drawing to a close in March 2026, the Wildflower Guardians will continue to support the local Council and communities in looking after our urban wildflower banks.  If you would like to get involved please contact the group organisers on: wildflowerguardians@brighton-hove.gov.uk

You can also find out when the Wildflower Guardians volunteering sessions are via our Whats On pages.