Collings Park Trust

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Collings Park Trust

The Collings Park Trust works to protect and preserve a beautiful community garden in the heart of Plymouth

11/05/2026

The garden is absolutely alive with colour right now, from perfect whites through vibrant purples to lush greens of the ferns.

All this colour isn’t just for show. Flowers use pigments the way we use signs and signals: to attract the right pollinators at the right time.

🐝 Bees see in the ultraviolet range, so many flowers have hidden UV patterns - like landing strips guiding them straight to the nectar.

🦋 Butterflies are drawn to bright reds, pinks and purples.

🦟 Hoverflies love yellows and whites.

The more variety we have, the more species can find exactly what they need.

Those bold colours come from natural pigments like anthocyanins (reds, purples, blues) and carotenoids (yellows and oranges). Together they create the rainbow effect we’re seeing across the garden - a sign of a healthy, thriving ecosystem 🙏

08/05/2026

The irises are putting on their annual show, and there’s no ignoring them in the garden right now 🌸💜

Thank you to Maureen and Malcolm for the great photos.

Fun facts:
🌈 The iris gets its name from the Greek word for rainbow, inspired by the incredible range of colours these flowers can display.

🏰 There are over 300 species of iris, and many of them have been grown for thousands of years, appearing in ancient Egyptian art and a favourite in medieval gardens.

🐝 Irises aren’t just pretty faces - their distinctive drooping and upright petals act like runway lights for pollinators, guiding bees straight to the nectar.

If you spot the irises blooming in the garden this week, take a moment to look closely as these detailed flowers while they’re at their peak.

🌱💜

20/04/2026

🐝 Great news from the apiary – here's a seasonal update from apiarist Paul Hitchens who cares for the hives in the community garden and their VIBee residents.

"Welcome to the 2026 season in the apiary. I would like to say that since our final post of 2025 it has been an uneventful winter, but that is far from the truth. The wet weather through January, February and March has made it really difficult to maintain bee health. Despite feeding and tending the colonies through these months one collapsed and could not be saved, so died away. This left us with one hive to pin our hopes on.

"Up to last week I was unsure if these would pull through but the warmer weather and a lot of feed added to the hive gives a stronger picture this week. It appears the bees are flying and that may indicate the queen has started laying again after winter.

"It’s hard to predict the future when there are so many variables at play, but as of today I am a bit more hopeful that we will have this colony to start the new season and hopefully, by early May, we can spit the hive to create a new colony.

"In the apiary I cut the grass but left an area of dandelion for the bees to forage on. This is a good practice in early spring to help the insects.

"Anyway bee fans, stay tuned.”

🌸🐝🌼As key pollinators, these bees are a precious and important part of the community garden:

• Vital to global food supply by pollinating 1/3 of plants that produce the food we eat.

• Support countless other species by pollinating wild plants that provide them with food and shelter.

• Keep plant communities balanced and resilient.

11/04/2026

🌼 Cowslips are back in bloom in the community garden 🌼

Their presence is reminder that every space can play a part in ecological restoration.

Once so common that fields glowed gold throughout April with them, cowslips suffered an intense decline from the 1950s to 1980s, but are fortunately showing some recovery in some areas.

Cowslips are a sign of healthy soil and vital sources of food for pollinators like the bees in our hives, and especially important for the Duke of Burgundy butterfly, a rare species whose caterpillars feed exclusively on cowslip and primrose.

04/04/2026

🧺 A Big Community Thank You! 💚
A huge shout out to the lovely family on Cranmere Road who generously donated a large picnic table to our garden. Here it is being set up by Malcolm and Andy, who wasted no time getting it into place.

Once the spring weather finally decides to behave, it'll be given a little TLC and it’ll become a brilliant new spot for visitors to enjoy - especially after one of the previous tables was sadly vandalised.

Moments like this remind us what a caring, resilient community we’re part of. Thank you to everyone who helps make the garden such a special place to be 🌿✨

23/03/2026

Thank you Malcolm for beginning work on a second living willow tunnel next to the pond - another great feature we look forward to watching grow and develop - sure to become as gorgeous as the first more established tunnel 💚

20/03/2026

🌼Thank you Lois for this gorgeous photo of the garden's celandines! Tiny but mighty, these bursts of yellow against lush green are:

🐝 Loved by pollinators building up their strength
☀ Glossy, reflective flowers - helping them attract insects
📜 A favourite of William Wordsworth - who wrote not one, but THREE poems celebrating the Celandine
😃 A plant associated with joy and the return of warmer days in folklore.

Next time you're passing through, take a moment to enjoy the blanket of yellow flowers around the borders.

06/03/2026

⭐️ What a great moment for the community garden! ⭐️

Did you catch the ITV News West Country weather report on Tuesday evening? Collings Park Trust were delighted to welcome Charlie Powell to present the region’s weather forecast from right here in the garden, and what nice weather it was! (Do we have Charlie to thank for that?)

03/03/2026

🎥 Keep your eyes peeled on the box this evening, ITV West Country’s Charlie Powell will be presenting tonight’s weather forecast live from the community garden! Tune in around 18:00-18:30.

Can we politely ask you NOT to head to the garden to watch during that time please, to allow them space to do their thing 👍

Let’s hope the forecast promises more of this gorgeous spring weather ☀️ 🌸

18/02/2026

🌸 Quite poetic that the word promise can be found inside primrose - and its quiet assurance of brighter days ahead.

Some primrose facts for early spring lovers:
🌼 Among the earliest flowers to bloom in the UK.

🌼 Their name comes from prima rosa, Latin for “first rose” (despite not being roses at all).

🌼 Early primrose leaves are important food for emerging insects, and later the flowers provide nectar - our bees will be happy. 🐝

🌼In folklore, primroses were symbols of protection and renewal.

So here’s to the humble primrose, a small and steady promise of spring on its way ☀️

(Photos of this year’s emerging primroses and last year’s flowers)

11/02/2026

🌬️🌳 When storms choose violence… nature makes the best of it.

A couple of trees in the garden have fallen in recent strong winds. Because they’re in the designated rewilding area and safely away from paths, they’ll be left where they lie - and it’s actually a great opportunity for boosting biodiversity.

🪵 Decaying wood becomes a micro habitat for funghi, insects, and indeed, funghi-munching insects 🐜

🌳 Fallen trunks provide shelter for birds, amphibians and small mammals.

✨ Nutrients from deadwood returns to the soil naturally, nourishing the surrounding trees and plants.

In some cases the best thing we can do for nature is simply let it be 💚

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Plymouth

Website

http://www.collingsparktrust.org/

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