Floristry degree students take part in Lonely Bouquet campaign

During the festive period a number of degree-level Professional Floristry students took part in the international Lonely Bouquet campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to spread happiness by leaving small bouquets of flowers in different locations for members of the public to adopt.

Professional Floristry student Eiki Shibuya

In December, Writtle floristry students hit the streets of Chelmsford as part of the campaign and were delighted by the results. International student, Eiki Shibuya from Japan, discusses his experience of taking part in this unique event and how the skills and knowledge he has been taught during his course were put into practise!

"We made the bouquets at College and left them in Chelmsford city centre as we wanted the lovely posies to be adopted by local residents. Each posy has a note that said 'Adopt me' and 'I do not want you to be lonely this Christmas.' What we expected was to bring heartfelt vibrations to the city. 

Surprisingly, every bouquet was adopted in 15 minutes! After we finished distributing all of the bouquets, we walked back again to check it. It was interesting to see people's reactions. We still remember a gentleman who was in Chelmsford Cathedral and looking at a bouquet for a while, suspending jogging whilst in there. Finally, he took it and we absolutely felt he was full of happiness.  It was what we had been aspiring to see and realise. We felt proud to be florists!

All of the students that took part are studying a degree in Professional Floristry. As the title shows, the course covers all aspects to become profession in the industry. In classroom, we are enhancing both skills and knowledge. For example, learning principles of design is useful to absorb new ideas and try it.  

You might agree that florists are 'communicators' through flowers. A bunch of flowers would connect people and bring a good atmosphere between them. Flowers are extremely powerful. When people get married, we see the venue full of flowers. When people pass away, florists help people to express dignity and respect. In terms of true communication, we believe it is a more powerful way than just saying 'I love you' via email. Having believed the mysterious but simple power, we have spent ages to let bouquets deliver feelings from a sender to a recipient. We love it!" 

Interested in studying a Professional Floristry degree? Visit our website here: Floristry

If you want to meet our Professional Floristry team, book onto our next Open Day here: Open Day

The challenge of the sea...

This entry comes from the fantastic Writtle conservation team and looks at how the sea impacts on the environment.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Winter is here and wouldn’t it be nice to jet off somewhere exotic and faraway? The Maldives perhaps? Or perhaps not…..it seems that particular island group is under imminent threat from rising sea levels. To be precise, the water around the islands is currently rising at 9mm a year and the islanders may have to leave their homes before the year 2100. 

But sea level rise is affecting us here in Britain as well, although clearly not in such a drastic manner. Have a look at a map of the Essex coast and the contour lines show how very close to sea level many of us live. With slowly rising sea levels and the prospect of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, we have been forced to reconsider how we manage these threats, especially on the east coast of England. 

Image courtesy of federico stevanin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

The attraction of ‘hard’ defences, such as sea walls, has lost some of its appeal, not least because of the huge capital cost associated with constructing and maintaining such defences. So what to do? Over the past 20 years Essex has been at the leading edge of a new approach called ‘managed realignment’. This is a process whereby land which is currently protected by sea walls is returned to the sea by knocking through the walls and letting the water in. This way, the effects of any sea level rise or storm surges can be softened by allowing the water more room to spread out, thus reducing the overall impact, especially further up estuaries where waterways narrow.

The best known realignment sites in Essex are at Tollesbury, Abbotts Hall south of Colchester and now Wallasea Island. The sheer scale of these projects is hugely impressive in itself but this type of management is not always popular due to the loss of land which has previously been farmed. And indeed  those who oppose realignment often refer to it as ‘managed retreat’.

But one habitat which seems almost certain to benefit is that great Essex speciality, saltmarsh. In recent decades our saltmarshes have become squeezed between the sea and the sea walls. But by ‘relaxing’ the entire system of management and allowing the water in, we have begun to create new saltmarsh behind the sea walls where none has existed for (in some cases) several hundred years. We are perhaps, simply returning to the sea what was only ever borrowed.

For more information on our degree-level conservation courses, please visit our website: http://writtle.ac.uk/UG-Conservation-and-Environment

Young Gardeners of the Year 2015 blog - December 2015

Each year, Further Education Horticulture students from six of the UK's leading horticulture college's participate in the renowned Young Gardeners of the Year (YGOY) competition in London. This event provides a platform for aspiring young horticulture students to showcase their skills and knowledge in areas such as garden design, planting and landscaping. 

The YGOY team discussing designs

Writtle College students will be keeping a blog in the build up to the event in March 2015 to share their experiences of being part of such a popular show and demonstrate the amount of hard work that goes into creating a potential award winning garden.

First off, Josh Kemp informs us of the launch event and the excitement surrounding the 'ideas phase'!

"One of the main features of the year, and an event I have personally been looking forward to, is the Ideal Home Show Young Gardener of the Year Award. It was kicked off this year at the Ideal Home Christmas show at Earls Court with a presentation hosted by David Domoney. The competitor in me could not help but size up the competition. The other colleges are equally capable, but I am positive that Writtle can achieve big things this year.

Josh, left, sharing ideas on a Pinterest board

Since the opening presentation, among the Writtle students taking part, the energy surrounding the award has been almost tangible. It is infectious; to be in such a creative and dynamic environment again is extremely refreshing and inspiring. I set up a Pinterest Board so that any ideas can be visually linked between all the other students, helping us to come up with a collective design incorporating input from everyone. Having completed a design module last year, the team and I have been able to give informed ideas and much discussion has taken place giving me full belief in the ability and commitment of everyone involved. I am beyond excited to continue this process and see what we can achieve in the coming weeks and months. Who knows, the next great British designer could be among us…"

For more information on the launch, click here. 

Balancing the need for new homes with wildlife protection (October 2014)

This entry comes from the fantastic Writtle conservation team and looks at modern issues surrounding wildlife and the demand for new homes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conservation is a hugely diverse and interesting subject and Essex has recently been at the forefront of one of the most discussed initiatives of recent years.

People are familiar with the approach to conservation taken by organisations such as the RSPB who are probably best known for nature reserves, which are specially managed, often for rare species.

But that does not mean that even the land immediately adjacent to your own home might not have wildlife interest, for example, reptiles, butterflies and unusual plants. Consideration of the wildlife on any site has been an integral part of the planning process for many years and has come to the forefront as we face the needs to build new houses. 


The Government has been keen to get the economy moving and meet the demand for more houses and, consequently, has been piloting a concept known as 'biodiversity offsetting'. This is a method whereby damage to or loss of wildlife habitat is 'offset' by creating habitat elsewhere as part of the planning agreement. Essex, arguably one of the most biodiverse areas in the UK, has been one of six areas piloting the process.

On the face of it, offsetting seems like a pragmatic solution to a problem which is felt especially keenly in counties such as ours and its supporters claim it offers the benefits of larger and 'better' sites for nature. But the idea has run into some hostility from those in the conservation community and it has been suggested that offsetting cannot work for a number of reasons, among them the fact that natural communities of plants and animals are complex and take time to develop. 

The main issue for everyone is how to balance one set of values against another. For example, last year a huge housing development in Kent was rejected (although planning application submitted by the developer remains in place) due to the extraordinary number of Nightingales found on the site. Was this a "good" decision or a "bad" one? The problem seems to be that we want everything - we demand housing but we also want our wildlife protected. 

So before you think that conservation is something which happens only on a nature reserve, remember that one of the most heated wildlife arguments for many years is currently being acted out right on our doorstep.

Make sure you follow the Writtle conservation team on Twitter: @WrittleCons
Visit our website: http://writtle.ac.uk/UG-Conservation-and-Environment

Plant of the Day blog attracts an international audience!

Dr Jill Raggett of Writtle School of Design is the owner of the very popular imagery blog entitled ‘Plant of the Day’ on social media site Tumblr.

Started in September 2013, Dr Raggett takes time out of her extremely busy schedule to upload one plant per day. The image will always be an original photograph taken during the previous week and this level of dedication helps to ensure the blog is seasonally relevant. The image will also include a fact or comment about cultivation, history, use or design!

Dr Raggett, who is a lecturer in landscape architecture and garden design, explains why she created the blog and why she believes it has an international appeal…

“I devised the blog as a means to encourage students to look at plants wherever they are, whether that is in gardens, parks, public spaces, on the street, or even in supermarket car parks, to observe how plants can be used and add value.

The majority of blog followers are people worldwide who enjoy plants and gardens – from students in community colleges in USA and Canada, students studying landscape design in Canada, Argentinian landscape architects, people interested in plants in Korea and Japan, and the very proactive students of the prestigious Longwood Gardens in the USA, with people in Italy, Romania and Poland.

There is clearly a global appeal for English plants and gardens. I believe the tradition and heritage associated with horticulture in the UK makes the blog particularly desirable to the international followers. 

My hope for the blog is that the ‘Archive’ section will be useful especially to horticultural and design students as it is seasonal (for the UK) and they can view plants by the relevant month of their display value to help inspire and inform with their designs!”

Visit Dr Raggett’s Plant of the Day blog on Tumblr: www.jillraggett.tumblr.com

Visit Writtle School of Design: www.writtle.ac.uk/design

Visit Writtle College: www.writtle.ac.uk

Writtle Wildlife Watch (July 2014)

Welcome back to the latest Writtle Wildlife Watch! We hope you have all been enjoying your summer. Conservation expert, Alan Roscoe, writes about the latest wildlife he has spotted on campus.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you ever noticed that when you see an animal or bird for the very first time, you then begin to see it almost regularly, despite the fact you have never encountered it before? Isn’t that strange? And before anyone else jumps in, I am claiming this phenomenon as ‘Roscoe’s Rule’.

Stoat image: Wikipedia "Mustela erminea upright"
by Steve Hillebrand, USFWS

Rather curiously, this appears to be happening on the College’s main campus area with two species in particular suddenly popping up everywhere. Grass Snake is definitely moving into areas it has not been seen before and the impressive size of the females makes for some exciting sightings for students around the campus gardens.

But the real crowd pleaser has been Stoat which, over the past year or so, has also been plucking up courage and moving further onto the main campus. I have certainly seen more Rabbit recently and my suspicion is that the Stoats are simply following their prey. In fact the latest sighting was last week when a colleague heard a Rabbit squealing in a distressed manner at the sight of Stoat (well you would, wouldn’t you?) although he tells me the result was Rabbit 1 Stoat 0. 

Relatively speaking, Stoat has what is known as a wide ‘ecological amplitude’. In other words, it displays an ability to adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions. For this reason, it is found throughout Britain although an individual animal will not usually survive beyond its second year. And a curious anomaly: Stoats are legally protected in Ireland but not in the UK.

Please also follow us on Twitter @WrittleCons.

Writtle Wildlife Watch (June 2014)

Writtle Wildlife Watch returns for June! Alan Roscoe is at it again and once more keeps track of the fascinating wildlife on campus! 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope most of you caught up with the recent Springwatch programmes from Minsmere. Apparently the visitor numbers were up a staggering 50% as a result of the TV coverage although you do have to wonder whether the additional visitors were more excited about seeing Chris Packham than the wildlife!

It is good to see the BBC committing so much resource to programmes like this although (curmudgeonly grouch face on) just occasionally I wonder whether there is an overemphasis on the birds and the mammals – which, of course, the public enjoy – at the expense of the plants and other groups such as lichens and mosses. These are just as fascinating as the popular animal groups but, perhaps because they do not move, they are less appealing to the general public.

Pyramidal Orchid, Writtle College estate,
26 June 2014, Copyright Alan Roscoe.

We monitor a range of animal species on our own College estate but we also keep an eye open for unusual plants and now is the best time of year for many orchid species. We are lucky enough to have both Bee Orchid and Pyramidal Orchid on our estate and, due to the sharp eyes of a colleague (well spotted Roy), we have found a new site for them this year. Pyramidal is pollinated by moths and butterflies which visit the plant not for nectar, but for a watery liquid which is found inside the ‘spur’ part of the flower. Grains of pollen are then picked up on the insect’s tongue and the perfect symbiosis of this particular species and its pollinating insects was even remarked upon by Charles Darwin himself. 

Please also follow us on Twitter @WrittleCons.