Lee Bishop, Course Manager at Burnham Beeches Golf Club in South Buckinghamshire, has said that Limagrain UK’s range of Colour Splash flower mixtures have helped him to transform an unsightly area into a stunning display of vibrant flowers - much to the delight of the members.
Colour Splash at Burnham Beeches Golf Club
Situated in the Thames Valley, Lee has been working at Burnham Beeches for 20 years and has been the Course Manager for the last 10. Along with six other members of staff Lee tends to the course, which is located in a beautiful setting on the edge of the historic Burnham Beeches woodland and is framed by a large number of mature trees.
Surrounded, mostly, by natural beauty there was however one particular area of the course which Lee felt needed improving.
“There was a bit of a wasteland area around our nets and the clubhouse directly overlooked it,” he says. “To be honest it was very scruffy and it wasn’t a great view for our members. It definitely needed a makeover and that is why we thought we would try the Colour Splash mixtures from Limagrain.”
Limagrain UK’s range of Colour Splash flower mixtures are used in a broad range of landscape and amenity areas throughout the UK. The brand was first established over ten years ago where the development of the mixtures were created in the county of Loir-et-Cher, in the centre of France. With nine mixtures in the range, for Burnham Beeches, Lee initially chose Aurora - a medium height mixture which grows to around a half-metre tall. It contains Sunbow Zinnia and Trianon Cosmos which provide effective and long-lasting flowering. After using this mixture for two years running and receiving huge praise from club members, Lee decided to add the Festival mixture this year.
Lee Bishop, Course Manager at Burnham Beeches Golf Club
“The Aurora mixture was really successful and I wanted to enhance the area with another mixture. I used the Festival seed this year because it will add a bit more height and can be seen even more so from a distance. The area is visible from quite a few areas on the golf course so it will be there for everybody to see.
“The members absolutely love it and have been really supportive. Once they saw the stunning array of flowers, and the potential it had, they started pushing for us to do more areas - hence why we are going to do even more areas with the Colour Splash next year.
“It is such a simple process. All I do is hire a rotorvator, use a small bit of weed killer and that is it. The seed mixtures are not expensive whatsoever - you get good, quick germination and I would encourage people to do it.
“I’ve also introduced bees to the area and have installed a couple of hives. There is a lot of press about bees and how scarce they are now so I think it is a great thing to do. We’ve got information boards about the bees on how we need to look after them and how the Colour Splash mixtures will help protect and make them flourish.
“My decision in choosing the Colour Splash was both because of the environmental benefits and the great aesthetics they provide - so if we can give something back to nature at the same time as the course looking great, then I think that is a job well done.”
