Greenwood Community: St Wilfrid’s Hospice
Creating green community spaces with enhanced biodiversity
This year we have donated plants to a number of community projects, including schools, colleges and local charities. Our aim is to share the vast benefits, which plants provide, with our local community. A recent donation was made to St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Bosham, Chichester—a local hospice that strives to care for all local people who have life limiting illnesses, or are in the last phase of their lives.
St Wilfrid’s Hospice has been working tirelessly on its gardens over the past three years. It has a great deal of outside space that is split into three wings. These have been designed to be enjoyed by all residents, regardless of their mobility. Its gardens are run by a small group of dedicated volunteers, who make a real difference to the residents of St Wilfrid’s and ensure the gardens are kept in great shape, all year round.
The gardens include a beautiful wildflower meadow which is home to a bug hotel. It’s a real feature of the gardens that the residents love. There’s a pergola area with seating amongst the stunning planting—a quiet spot where residents can sit and enjoy the view and spend time in nature. St Wilfrid’s also has a beautiful courtyard area with communal seating and a countryside planting theme. With over 100 plant varieties in its gardens, St Wilfrid’s has gone above and beyond to provide a space of peace and tranquility for its residents. There’s a variety of foliage and flower colours, textures and plants flowering at different times of the year, to ensure it can be enjoyed throughout every season. With this in mind, we donated a range of shrubs and herbaceous perennials to further enhance the gardens’ flower beds.
Plant varieties we donated included Convolvulus cneorum (silverbush), Elaeagnus pungens ‘Maculata’ (oleaster ‘Maculata’), Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ (Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’) and Photinia × fraseri ‘Magical Volcano’ (Christmas berry ‘Magical Volcano’). Convolvulus cneorum adds year round colour with its stunning, silver foliage and white flowers with yellow centers, throughout spring and summer. Adding year-round height, colour and structure to the flower beds, Elaeagnus pungens ‘Maculata’ has bright yellow foliage with dark green margins. Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ is a bushy, deciduous shrub that will bring showstopping, white, spherical blooms in summer. Lastly, Photinia × fraseri ‘Magical Volcano’ is a fantastic addition to St Wilfrid’s gardens with its young, toothed, bright red-purple foliage in spring and summer, that later turn green as they mature. This variety blooms white flowers in summer and red berries in autumn to provide multiple seasons of interest.
St Wilfrid’s is always on the lookout for volunteers. If you’re a keen gardener and would like to volunteer to help the team, please get in touch with St Wilfrid’s Hospice. Volunteers are integral to its care and make a significant difference to the hospice’s residents.
Helping our local communities is a priority for us; we are proud of the projects we’ve contributed to so far and continue on our aim to help 24 projects by the end of 2022. Check out our Greenwood Community page for more information on our community initiatives.
