Scouse Flowerhouse brings the Northern Flowerhouse Assembly to Lutyen’s Crypt this June News This June, Scouse Flowerhouse promise a seminal day in the building of the Northern Flowerhouse movement. The event, supported by the RHS, PlanIt, and the Eden Project, hosts horticulturalists, artists and scientists from across the North of England, features a host of expert panellists, including Great Dixter’s Fergus Garrett and the Singh Twins. The Northern Flowerhouse is a movement born from conversations, exchanges, visits, goodwill and, above all, from collective action. Originally born from a meeting in Everton, reflecting on the team’s collective experience of the Grow Wild England Flagship wildflower programme with Hulme, the concept of wildflowers as essential infrastructure, requiring serious investment and care has spread. In Liverpool, schools and community groups of all sizes have joined in sowing events, workshops, celebratory events and harvests. Influenced by all of that, Scouse Flowerhouse believe that Beauty is a Birthright. As Jamie Reid wrote, “subscribe to working with our hands, minds and hearts in equal measure”. Scouse Flowerhouse members has connected with like-minded groups across the North and beyond to bring this major botanical and cultural event to Liverpool this summer. Amongst the presenters are Talking Plants, a group of Sheffield gardeners who come together regularly to share and promote their love of plants; Manchester Green Infrastructure Network, Groundwork, Kendal’s Nature Recovery Network, gardeners, artists and ecologists. Plus, people passionate about their local neighbourhoods like GalGael in Govan and Aproxima Arts in Glasgow. The Northern Flowerhouse is not about one size fits all, it is about creating connections and a magnetism to invite curious folk to assist in restoring wildflower habitats across our cities and edgelands. It’s not difficult work, but it does require powers of observation and a sensibility to nurture rather than tame our wild habitats. Nature does a lot of the work in producing the seed and creating the beauty, given the right starting points and substrates, most often readily available close to home. Fergus Garrett, a Patron of Scouse Flowerhouse, will share his generous insights into what makes a garden, and the Singh Twins will speak about how their artworks depicting flowers and nature in symbolic, political and personal ways. Audiences will hear from inspirational work in cities across Northern Europe: Nantes, Sheffield, Doncaster and Manchester, and Alistair McIntosh will close the day talking about the possibilities of land reform from a Scottish perspective. So this Assembly is about growing our movement and sharing ideas and practice to make our green spaces, parks and gardens more beautiful and better interconnected. The invitation to audiences is to actively help to weave a web of biodiversity across the North with the grit, spirit, ambition and humour, which Northern communities are so well-known for. If we are to reverse biodiversity loss, we need to act boldly and collectively. On 19th June the action and workshops of the events at the cathedral will be continued at St Vincent’s School, and audiences are welcome to stay for a community build over the weekend with more details to be shared with ticket holders shortly. Tickets for the event are available on Eventbrite here.