Since the demolition of the old glasshouses, lots of work has been carried out to clear the site and prepare it for our amazing maize maze.
A 1 metre border of sunflowers was planted around the edges of the site on Friday using 5,000 seeds of sunflower 'Bicentenary'. These will provide lots of colour round the outside of the maze and will also provide plenty of food for the birds later in the year.
Today we are sowing a staggering 60,000 'Rising Sun' maize, or sweetcorn, seeds to create the maze itself. We are sowing seeds in rows 45cm apart using a seed drill. As it is pushed along it sows the seeds and marks out the next row at the same time.
In about 3-4 weeks time when the sweetcorn is about knee height, the paths of the maze will be marked out and the relevant plants will be removed. Once that is done we will sow 8,000 Runner Bean 'Painted Lady' seeds along the edges of the paths. The runner beans will climb up the stems of the sweetcorn plants and will have red and white flowers before the beans start to grow.
The shape of the maze is based on the face of a Chinese giant panda and, at the entrance, we will be planting golden bamboo and re-using the wonderful bridge from the old Orchid House.
In the propagation department we will be sowing 5,000 seeds of Rudbeckia 'Toto', 2,000 of Rudbeckia 'Chim Chininee' and 2,000 of Pennisetum 'Purple Majesty'. These will grow into the bedding plants which will be used for a 3 metre wide border in front of the sunflowers along the front of the maze to give an additional splash of colour.
As part of the half term family learning programme we will be inviting children to plant sweetcorn seeds which can be taken home, to help us plant the bedding plants at the front of the maze, and also to help make scarecrows to decorate the maze. So come and join in the fun on the 28th May.
We will keep you posted on the growth of the maze and once the plants are large enough (probably around late July or August), it will be opened up for visitors to wander round. So be sure to come and visit sometime over the summer, it's bound to be amazing!