Hexham Alpine Plant Show

During the last year, Dr Ruth Starr-Keddle, Farming and Nature Officer at the North Pennines National Landscape, has been nurturing a collection of Calaminarian grassland plants and upland hay meadow plants, to display at the Hexham Alpine Plant Show.

The plants were chosen as the best examples that were collected from seed, sown in seed sowing workshops and then looked after by volunteers at home. At the show, alongside the plant display, we exhibited a selection of photographs showing the beautiful upland hay meadows and Calaminarian grassland flowers, and the process of seed collecting and growing plug plants, through the Tees-Swale: naturally connected programme.

The Calaminarian plants on display included spring sandwort, alpine pennycress and thrift, alongside meadow plants including wood crane’s-bill, great burnet, melancholy thistle, Lady’s-mantle and globeflower. Ruth said, “It has been a pleasure to grow these rare and significant plants and help re-establish them across the North Pennines.”

Ruth was delighted to be awarded a ‘Large Gold’ for the educational display, being told that the display was ‘outstanding’, the quality of the wildflower plants was high, and the judges were pleased that the alpine pennycress was in flower.

The Tees-Swale programme is led by the North Pennines National Landscape team, in partnership with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, with funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.