Center Parcs flip for the Pancake House's new green roof

A sustainable green roof at the new £250 million Center Parcs is set to thrive after Shropshire-based Boningale Nurseries supplied more than 7,000 plants for the extensive green roof.

The new resort, which opened at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, in 2014, features a green roof on top of the Pancake House, one of the restaurants on site.

The Albrighton-based nursery, one of the UK’s largest nurseries and environmental horticultural specialists, was asked by green roofing installers ABG to supply the SkyPlugs – robust plant plugs that Boningale Greensky, its green roof division, has developed specifically for green roofs – for the 353 m2 sustainable roof space.

The company provided nine different species of sedum, each of which has a strong and developed rootball and is grown in the Boningale GreenSky substrate, a growing medium that is tailored to suit the environment in which the plants are being grown.

Maggie Fennell, Manager of Boningale GreenSky, said the green roof would benefit the local environment, would be long-lasting and be visually stunning for years to come with minimal maintenance.

“Using a mix of plants, rather than planting large numbers of a single species improves the roof’s performance by making it more resilient to changing weather patterns year on year; we also selected nine varieties with different foliage and flower colours that would look fantastic before the site was ready to open to the public,” she said.

“They established themselves in the roof substrate very quickly and the roots spread into the substrate to ensure the plants will grow healthily without ongoing requirement for regular watering and feeding.”

The living roof had to conform to a range of environmental initiatives and also provide maximum value for money.

A tight growing and delivery schedule saw Boningale Nurseries deliver the plants for the green roof in its own vehicles to ensure timing and paperwork requirements were met.

Following delivery and planting, the site was awarded “considerate constructors’ approval”.