Blooming in the city
As the RHS Urban Show comes to Manchester (18 – 21 April 2024), we take a look at the people and stories of the growing urban greening movement, from the urban farmers to the houseplant lovers
The city plant seller
Lucy Thorniley has owned and run Northern Flower in the heart of Manchester’s Northern Quarter for 18 years. As well as creating fabulous floral arrangements, she’s an unofficial ‘plant dealer’ to the residents of the city centre and she’s seen first-hand the changing trend towards urban gardening among her customers, cramming their rooms with houseplants, as well as the re-greening of Manchester as a whole.
Dani, Lucy, Sian and Ellie from Northern Flower
Lucy says, “I’ve always stocked a good selection of flowers and plants, both indoor and outdoor, as a lot of people in the city centre have balconies. I’ve seen a massive surge in interest, especially during lockdown, people really got the plant bug. Now people want to decorate their work from home space.”
Lots of people come in saying I daren’t go home with another plant, my boyfriend will kill me, my house is like a jungle!
What are people buying?
Lucy says the shop has demand all-year round from people wanting to green their space, “Even before we went into lockdown, plants just took off, and the more unusual the better, people want to see different things. There’s always been a good mix of people coming to the shop, a lot of young professionals that live in a city, but also a lot of students, they love having plants in their room.
“Now that people are working from home more, it’s nice for them to have something to nurture, and people are knowledgeable about the benefits of having plants in the house. In spring, people want plants for their balconies, because the weather’s better and they’re outside more. The Cloud Gardener (Jason Williams) comes to the shop sometimes, he’s lovely, and I think what he’s doing is brilliant, getting people to appreciate greener things, whether it’s inside or outside.”
Greening the city
In the time that she has had the shop, Lucy says that the surrounding environment has also changed, as developers have become more sympathetic to the idea of communal green spaces. “Now there are more cool urban gardening initiatives like Plant Noma that are encouraging people to volunteer and getting kids involved in gardening.”
Green spaces in Manchester City Centre
“They’ve taken away a lot of the planting that’s been done previously – evergreen stuff that serves a purpose, but is not changeable or interesting, and they’re slowly replacing that with things that people can get involved in, which is really great. People want to enjoy green spaces more, and there isn’t much vandalism of green areas either, people see that it’s looked after, so they don’t mess with it.”
Lucy’s top tip for houseplants
“The mistake most people make is over watering. When people come in with a plant problem, we always ask, does it have good drainage? When was it last repotted? Is it sat in stagnant water? People put them in decorative pots, but don’t always know that their roots don’t like to be wet. Just make sure everything’s got good drainage and don’t think if it looks a bit sad that the solution is just to give it water because sometimes that’s what’s been the problem. Sometimes we ask people how often they water and they say every day!”