By Rebecca Hannant
Members of Hornsea Urban Gardeners (HUG) are planning to create a Daffodil Town Walk this springtime.
As part of an ongoing project, HUG is asking the residents of Hornsea to plant daffodil bulbs into their gardens, around trees, under street signs or place a planter at the end of their
drive or either side of their front doors to turn Hornsea yellow next spring.
Cllr June Greensmith, founder and chairman of HUG, said: “Since formally founding HUG in 2018 it has been a personal ambition of mine to make Hornsea the most gardened town in East Yorkshire, and to create a Daffodil Town Walk.
“It is my belief that through gardening we can raise community spiritedness, and reduce littering and dog fouling.
“This project will also bring footfall to the town from February and therefore extend the normal touristic season by several weeks.”
The project began back in 2016 when June was inspired by Christine Summer of Hornsea in Bloom to plant daffodil bulbs into Morrow Avenue Sunken Garden. Following on from
a visit to the Farndale Daffodil Walk in 2018, she learned that the daffodils attracted up to 50,000 visitors each year.
June later shared her thoughts with Simon Tudor of Hornsea Freeport, who got on board with the project by donating a 25kg sack of daffodils to HUG.
June added: “I decided to start by planting the bulbs into a section of verge along Hull Road, Hornsea. When I saw how fantastic the daffodils looked in the spring of 2019, plus how many residents said thank you, I decided to carry on and plant 50kg every autumn thereafter.”
“Hornsea’s North Promenade was next, Morrow Avenue to Floral Hall was planted in autumn 2020 along with the entrance to Elim Gardens, and the Southgate entrance to the Trans Pennine Trail, and Parva Road corner was planted up in 2021. About 30 street signs were underplanted with the bulbs between 2019 and 2021.
This year, 50kg of bulbs were planted by HUG volunteers Elaine and Geoff Finch into borders of the new Hornsea Burton Road car park, 10kg were added to Hull Bridge and 15kg to other areas of Hornsea. HUG is also donating bulbs to Men in Sheds to plant on the green area in front of their building in Cliff Road.
June added: “Not only does the planting of the bulbs make Hornsea look amazing, it supports HUG’s mission to reduce weed spraying around street signs, trees and street furniture. Glyphosate should only be used on hard-surface areas, in my humble opinion.
“The ideal time for bulb planting is autumn if you want a good show the following spring. You can plant bulbs up to January, but these bulbs may not produce quite so many flowers the following spring but will catch up in years to follow.
“If Hornsea residents will join in with the daffodil planting, I believe Hornsea will be transformed into a sea of yellow in the spring of 2023 and help in the creation of a Daffodil Town Walk.”
In addition to the daffodil project HUG planted 2,000 snowdrop bulbs at the Southgate entrance of the Trans Pennine Trail to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
To view the progress, visit the Hornsea Urban Gardens Facebook page.
