Cllr Caroline ffiske writes:

Residents who live near the Talgarth Road may have noticed the new bulbs that stretch along the northern side of the road all the way from Barons Court to West Kensington.  

There are 36,000 bulbs in total, of different varieties, and flowering at different times.  The first little yellow crocuses showed last month.

The bulbs are a happy result of a project that began last autumn.  Sean Adamson of Friends of Marcus Garvey Park told me about the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association who provide free bulbs to community groups in London.  I applied for some of these bulbs for Gwendwr Park and Gwendwr Rec.  When 1000 bulbs arrived in two very large boxes at my house I panicked a bit.   So I made contact with TfL to see if some could go on the Talgarth Road side of  Gwendwr Rec.

A happy contact that turned out to be.  TfL were also looking for suitable places to plant end-of-season bulbs that are provided at low cost by generous suppliers.  They did a recce and decided that the wide grassy strip would be perfect for …  36,000 bulbs…. generously provided by Lubbe & Sons, a very experienced Dutch company.  They planted them by machine in December.

The bulbs are now looking gorgeous.  And the nice thing is they will be there every spring for years to come. (Now for some summer wildflowers..)