Sowing the seeds of love

When a good idea blooms into a great company, the result is something that's as pretty as s Pictorial Meadow

This is the inspirational story of how one man went to sow a meadow — and ended up establishing one of the most innovative meadow seed and meadow turf companies in the UK. To begin, let's go back 20 years to when Professor Nigel Dunnett became involved in an intensive research programme at the University of Sheffield, the world's leading centre on naturalistic planting. The project aimed to develop meadows that could thrive in garden and urban settings, making it possible for anyone to achieve the spectacular variety a meadow offers. A new approach was born. Today, the expertise of landscape architects, researchers, horticulturists and landscape managers is brought together under the name Pictorial Meadows, a company formed by the University of Sheffield in conjunction with social enterprise, Green Estate. Thanks to its passion, knowledge and highly innovative products, Pictorial Meadows is now helping the nation's gardeners and landowners produce and care for beautiful displays of naturalistic planting right across the UK, and increasingly Europe. As well as home gardeners, councils, commercial organisations and many sporting arenas now regularly buy Pictorial Meadow's products, and rely on them for sowing and maintenance advice. the company's success was sealed when its seeds were used to create a striking meadow landscape for the Olympic Park in 2012. It became a stunning example of how to create a visually exciting landscape by taking inspiration from nature — and surprised the millions of visitors who saw its bold colour. But perhaps the biggest testament of all is the company's growing number of happy customers. If you like wildflower meadows, you're going to love Pictorial Meadows.