Nantes welcomes spring with free flowers

Nantes is giving free flower seed kits to residents to plant in the city’s public areas – and around 100 people a day are taking up the offer.

For the fifth year, the mairie has run its “Ma rue en fleurs” operation to decorate public spaces and embrace the beginning of spring.

It has 3,000 kits with more than 17 different types of seeds available free of charge at the mairie and some park reception offices. The offer is open until April 23, or until the packs run out, and anyone wanting to join in must bring a local proof of address.

The flowers are chosen to grow well in the urban environment and the kit includes a planting guide. Residents can then plant the seeds where they wish – off pavements, around trees, on waste ground…

Nantes Service des Espaces Verts told The Connexion that around 100 people ask for kits every day and the city has flowers in 900 streets with much of that effort coming from the Ma rue en fleurs project.

At the weekend we revealed that Nantes, and several other Loire valley towns and cities, had been named the greenest in France.