PROJECT: Birmingham Library

CLIENT: Frosts Landscape Construction Ltd

OVERVIEW: Boningale Nurseries were awarded the contract to contract grow and deliver 10,000 plants made up of 150 varieties for the roof garden at Birmingham’s prestigious £188.8 million library development.

The planting scheme was an integral part of the eco-rating of the library, the varieties chosen directly contributed towards the architects’ aim for the scheme to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.

Dutch architects, Macanoo, specifically called for shade-tolerant, indigenous plants because the terraces are shaded by other buildings. The architects wanted to create a ‘carpet’ effect with contrasting foliage, interesting movement and long flowering periods.

After carefully examining the brief, we selected 150 suitable varieties and spent the past year growing all the plants to specification to ensure that the customer’s aspirations were fulfilled.

Fruit, herbs and vegetables were selected to create “an allotment in the sky” on one roof, while the other is filled with varieties of indigenous woodland plants such as Liriope, Lamium, Tiarella, Geranium and Hosta to produce the colour and texture for the carpet effect.

Aidan Lane, Commercial Director from Frosts Landscape Construction Ltd said “As part of our sustainability policy, Frosts always try to source stock locally so were delighted to partner with Boningale for this prestigious project. The benefits of contract growing on this scale were easy to see in the quality of plants delivered. We look forward to working with Boningale in the future.”

“Boningale are increasingly supplying these ‘high calibre’ and prestigious schemes throughout the UK,” added Frank Sanford, Boningale’s Sales Director. “It has been very exciting for everyone at Boningale to be involved in such a prestigious scheme on our doorstep and we now look forward to seeing the library officially open to the public.”

www.frostslandscapes.co.uk