Jewels of the Limestone Landscape: Summer wildflowers are blooming at our Deep Dale reserve.

Joe Costley

Reserves Manager

Our Deep Dale nature reserve in the Derbyshire Dales has a long flowering season, glorious at any time.  Yet when I visited earlier this week, its flora seemed to be at the absolute zenith of its riches.  

Deep Dale

I was there to review grazing management with our tenant farmer, cattle having been turned out earlier than usual this year. This is in line with the way that the dales were farmed historically and we believe that it makes sense to follow that tradition in some years.  Having the same fixed dates every year cannot benefit everything and does not reflect seasonal variations in the way that would have happened historically.  It is early days, but we are pleased with the way things are going so far.

The visit was also an excuse to see lots of wonderful plants, and there were "wow" moments at almost every turn.  The spectacular show of early purple orchid flowers has finished, but these are replaced by a host of others including colombine (blue and white versions), lily-of-the-valley, bird's nest orchid, mountain pansy and common spotted orchid.  Here's few I captured on camera:

Lily-of-the-Valley

Bird's Nest Orchid

Columbine

There were flower buds emerging on the small colony of dark red helleborines and some big plants of moonwort on old mounds of lead spoil.  I was also delighted to find a rosette of saw-wort, which is rare in Derbyshire and has never previously been recorded on the reserve.  This is typical of Deep Dale; never predictable, but always rewarding.

• More information about Plantlife Nature Reserves and how to visit.

The Wildflower Garden

Dr Trevor Dines
Plantlife Botanical Specialist





Did you know that many of our garden favourites, like box (Buxus sempervirens) and Welsh poppy (Meconopsis cambrica) are also some of our rarest native plants?

It always amazes me that you can pop into almost any garden centre, DIY shop or nursery in the country and buy a plant of shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa), but this same species is a beautiful native wildflower restricted to just two small areas of Britain.

It was partly because of this that we decided to launch Plantlife’s Wildflower Garden. It aims to celebrate the rare and common native flowers we probably already grow, introduce you to a few new ones and also uncover the fascinating stories behind them (according to legend, for example, Pasqueflower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) grows from the blood of buried Viking warriors!) We want to celebrate our wild flowers and help you make the most of growing them in your own garden.

We’ll also help you select wild flowers suitable for your own garden and give advice on how best to grow them. You don’t need to let your garden become overgrown and tatty to enjoy wild flowers, they can be woven into the tapestry of all garden styles, from informal cottage to clipped and formal.

The subject is one close to my heart. As well as being Botanical Specialist at Plantlife, I’m also a passionate gardener. I inherited the gardening bug from my grandparents; one of my clearest childhood memories is of my grandmother discovering wild fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris) in water meadows on the farm where I grew up. Back in her own garden she showed me the same flowers she’d planted in the lawn and the connection between garden and the wild has fascinated me ever since.

Watch out for regular updates as we go through the gardening year. We’ll be adding more plant profiles to the list and features with ideas and suggestions on how to make the most of wild flowers in your garden throughout the year.

So what are you waiting for? Why not sit back with a cup of tea and explore our native garden flora…

• The Wildflower Garden

3 Fascinating Floral Facts for Easter

Katie Cameron

Wild About Plants Officer

1. Did you know that the yellow dye extracted from gorse flowers was once used to colour and decorate Easter eggs? Eggstra-ordinary! In Russia, peasants used the nettle to colour eggs yellow on Maundy Thursday. In fact Easter eggs in the Ukraine are decorated with batik designs using nettle dye to this day.

2. Our beautiful native Pasqueflower blooms around Easter: hence the name "Pasque" (meaning "like Paschal", of Easter). Legend has that it grows on the graves of Viking warriors, springing from their blood! It is sadly now declining from its former sites and has been recorded in only 19 sites in England.

3. At one time the English clergy played handball at Easter with male members of their congregation and at the end of the match the winners received tansy cakes (made from a mixture of eggs and the young leaves). Hence the rhyme:

On Easter Sunday be the pudding seen,
To which the tansy lends her sober green.

The leaves were also one of the flavouring ingredients in a rich, custardy Lenten and Easter pudding known as ‘Tansy’ which according to one contemporary writer was ‘a nauseous dish’.

Counting Orchids in North Wales

Posted by Dr Trevor Dines, Plantlife Cymru Conservation Manager

Last Saturday we held a little event in partnership with

the North Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT) in the village hall at Clynnog Fawr, just below our Caeau Tan y Bwlch reserve in Gwynedd. The idea was to raise the profile of the reserve amongst the local community. I gave a talk about meadows in general, looking at their sad demise and the species we’ve lost, such as Globeflower, as a result. As Caeau Tan y Bwlch is the Coronation Meadow for Gwynedd I showed some slides from the launch of this project at Highgrove and went on to illustrate the botanical interest at the reserve. Rob Booth from NWWT then gave a talk about management of the reserve, which was followed by tea, cake and sandwiches. We had a great turn-out from the local community, many of whom didn’t know about the reserve. There were also Plantlife members, NWWT members, and we made a few new members too.

In the afternoon, we made our way up to the “fields below the mountain pass” (the translation of the reserve name) for the annual count of Greater Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera chlorantha), the main feature of the reserve. Rob and I were not quite sure how to organise so many volunteers – 26 in total – we’d never had so many before! We started out with a tour of the fields, where I pointed out the main flowers to be found. There were Meadow Buttercups, Heath Spotted Orchids, Yellow Rattle, Northern Marsh Orchid, Eyebrights of various types and Lady’s-mantle. I love the latin name for this last one, Alchemilla, as it means “little alchemist” and was named for the pure water that collects in the leaves, used by alchemists in their attempts to turn base metals into gold.  We also looked at meadow grasses such as Crested Dog’s-tail, Yorkshire Fog and Sweet Vernal Grass, which gives hay its sweet scent.

For the orchid count I organised everyone along the edge of each field an equal distance apart and, with a rather military approach, got them all to “sweep” the meadow in one line, tallying up orchids as they went. It’s always slightly hap-hazard, with some parts of the line getting ahead of the others and some people veering off towards their neighbours. It’s amazing how territorial people get about the orchids they’re meant to count and good-natured arguments always break out.

After a lot of counting and tallying-up, and a bit of bickering, we reached a grand total of 1,982 Greater Butterfly Orchids in all – 450 more than last year. 

I love the way it varies each year. There are eight fields with Butterfly Orchids and each has a different character; some have shorter grass and more orchids, others are damper with more marsh orchids, others have longer grass and fewer flowers. Two fields had more than twice as many Butterfly orchids than last year, another had nearly half as many. The reasons are inexplicable, the wonderful mystery of orchids. 

It was a great day and a big success, especially in getting the local community more involved at the reserve. We need to tackle bracken encroachment within some of the fields, so hopefully we can get some more volunteers to help out with this too.

Trevor

Road Verge Campaign: The Cutting Edge update

Its always heart-warming to log on to good news. So thank you Liz Anderson for the following message and photograph posted on our Facebook page:

This is a fabulous example of Central Beds. Road Verge Nature Reserves - such an improvement on last years cutting regime they look fantastic and deserve a well done:

We can't help but agree.

We've also received praise for Isle of Wight Council and South Derbyshire District Council. And there was also this lovely tweet from Carl Cornish:

@cornishca: @Love_plants Photo of common spotted orchids on Notified Road Verge at Eaton Wood, Notts:

Alas, according to Steve James, all was not well elsewhere in Nottinghamshire:

@stevejamesPCC: Upper Broughton's top green planted as a wildflower meadow in 2000 was strimmed completely Saturday morning.

And it was happening on the road verges too:

 

Now this is not to take away from the good work that is evidently being done at Eaton Wood Notified Road Verge. But it does beg the question: should a road verge have to be designated as "Notified" or a reserve in order for it to be managed with a bit more care for our wildlife? Please let us know your thoughts in the Comments below.

Elsewhere we received complaints about Leeds and Worcestershire County Councils:

@WildlifeofLeeds: @Love_plants @leedscc mowing down 1000s of meadow buttercups right now on Roundhay Ring Road


@Blacklaceknits: @Love_plants lovely wild verges along A456 being mown to ground level by Worcestershire County Council. Very disappointing.

And some more "Before and After" images to add to our Gallery of Shame: 

Susie Clark on Facebook: I am currently staying in Staffordshire and on way to Fradley South shops from Fradley village witnessed the decimation of a wildflower meadow into a green flattened area.

Before:

After:

But let's end on a more positive note. We received the following image from Charlie Bloom, of a wild flower garden she created to raise awareness of our meadow and road verge flora. It won the RHS Bronze Medal winning Show Garden at BBC Gardeners World Live.

 

Let's hope the message is getting through. As always you can sign the petition and rate your council on the campaign homepage.

Flowers on the Edge: The Cutting Edge

Its been three weeks since we launched our 'Flowers on the Edge' campaign to help save our road verges and the wildlife they support and the response has been immense.

We've received almost two and a half thousand signatures on our petition so far and it seems your voice has been heard - councils have been contacting us, asking for guidance on how to improve their mowing practices and help conserve our road verge wildlife.

Thank you also for all your stories and photos. We've received too many to print here, but we can provide a taste. First of all, a classic example of what we've been campaigning against. Responding to our call for 'Before' and 'After' photos, Andy Williams of Monmouthshire tweeted us the following:

@andy_tyfelin: @Love_plants Maybe you can help me persuade Monmouthshire CC. This taken today: hundreds of kms treated like this:

Attached was a couple of photos of the B 4293 nr Little Cophill Farm, Chepstow. One before...

And one after...

The difference is stark.

That said, it wasn't all bad news. As we're keen to point out, some councils do an exemplary job and many are now contacting us to find out how things can be improved. Here's a few positive posts we received on Twitter:

@sysengshep: Swindon BC have just NOT mowed the bit of verge near my house that I've been trying to let flower:

@leighbgbf: @BridgendCBC (Bridgend Council) Thank you for not mowing all the roadside verges & letting the beautiful wildflowers flourish

@SebInTransition: This verge in #Stroud was left while others were mowndown:

As you can see, we can make a difference! If you've not already done so, please visit our Road Verge Campaign site here and sign the petition and please keep your photos coming!

We'll have another Flowers on the Edge: The Cutting Edge update this time next week.

A Wild Mother’s Day

Posted by Dr Trevor Dines.

I’ve not bought a bunch of flowers for years.

Don’t get me wrong - it’s not that I’m a misery guts or lack any sense of romance or occasion. The symbolism involved with giving and receiving flowers is incredibly powerful (which in itself reveals the deep, subconscious relationship we have with plants; we don’t after all, say it with seagulls). I honestly don’t think there’s any better way, in a very personal manner, to express your love for someone.

But what better way to do this than with a bunch wild flowers that you’ve picked and put together yourself? It’s much more thoughtful than the flaccid forecourt fodder on offer at the local garage. Walk into any supermarket or garden centre this weekend and you’ll be faced with row upon row of the most garish, unseasonal and unnatural blooms. Flown in from all over the world, they remind me more of plastic supermodels dressed for tarty night out in Ibiza. Certainly bright and brash and bold they may be, but such flamboyance fades quickly, offending the eyes by the following morning.

Instead, a bunch of hand-picked wild flowers will mean so much more. It will be unique, personal, and will have a very special local feeling too – a blend of flowers and foliage that reflects where you live rather what some nursery manager in some far-flung continent thought what your mother would like. When you factor in the cost, wild flowers become even more attractive.

Mother’s Day, of course, occurs when many flowers are yet to bloom - it’s just a bit too early in the year. But if you rise to the challenge, the finished product will carry much more meaning. You’ll need to get outside and see what’s around. I did just this yesterday and was surprised at what I could find.

So what kind of seasonal bouquet can I recommend? Rather than big and blousy, I’d suggest keeping it tasteful and refined. A mix of subtle colours and leaf textures can be bought together in a small, hand-tied bouquet. And you don’t have to be purist about it either; other garden flowers that are out now or a small bunch of tasteful blooms from the florist can be brought to life with the addition of some wild, foraged leaves and flowers.

You can see the result of my efforts in the photo above. Here, I’ve put together the following:

• Snowdrops: Although not native flower, they’re beautiful and familiar woodlanders that are wonderfully pure with their white and green nodding flowers.
• Hazel: A sprig of this with some catkins looks very spring-like and very architectural.
• Polypody fern: Evergreen and deeply lobed, these sometimes have bright orange spores on the back.
• Ivy: The flower stems and young berries are very distinctive and architectural.
• Yew: A wonderful evergreen, which flowers early with beautiful pale yellow bobbles that go on to form its red berries.
• Bog myrtle: Dark mahogany coloured stems with distinctive short catkins. Not common but grows in western upland areas.
• Lichen: Small fallen twigs with some lichen can be included for unusual colour and texture.

It all depends on what you find. Keep you eve out for other early flowers such as violets, and primroses, other textures from different ferns, and even dried seed-heads from last-year’s flowers.

But what about picking wild flowers? Isn’t that illegal? Usually it’s not. At Plantlife, we not only endorse but thoroughly encourage people to pick common wild flowers when it legal to do so. For full details, click here.

We want people to literally get back “in touch” with their wild flowers, bring them back into their lives and use them again, making those connections we used to have. So on this Mother’s Day, why not find time to reconnect with wild plants? Your mum will probably be delighted.

• If you want to 'Say it with with flowers' why not consider Adopting a Flower for someone? 
• Follow Dr Trevor Dines on Twitter.

Say it with flowers

Posted by Stephanie Baron 

Honeysuckle represents devoted love.
© Andrew Gagg / Plantlife

Its Valentine's Day this Thursday - the perfect time to give an admiring glance at wild plants which have been linked with love, romance and passion.

Subtle and secret messages have long been passed through the sending or receiving of flowers — a practice known as floriography. The Victorians especially developed the language of flowers and by choosing their bouquets carefully, communicated feelings that the propriety of the times forbid them to speak out loud. Coded bouquets that told of love and attraction were sometimes referred to as a ‘Persian Selam’. Here are a few examples:

• Bluebell - constancy and everlasting
• Honeysuckle - devoted love
• Daisy — innocence and modesty

Perhaps one of the best known flowers associated with romance is the sweet violet, as mentioned in the famous rhyme:

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you.

The poem's origins are obscure, but it dates back at least to 1590 when Sir Edmund Spencer used it in his opus The Fairie Queene:

She bath'd with roses red, and violets blew,

And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.

The sweet violet has a long and romantic history in both European and Asian folklore: the ancient Greeks first used it to make perfume and the Romans to make wine. Ancient Britons used it for cosmetics. For the Medieval French troubadours, it symbolised constancy in their tales of chivalrous love.

Napolean was particularly fond of the flower: Josephine allegedly threw him a posy the first time they met. After his defeat at Waterloo he was permitted to visit her grave one last time, before he was exiled on the island of St Helena. He found sweet violets growing there and picked a few. Upon his death these were found in a locket that hung around his neck.

• Why not ‘say it with flowers’ by Adopting a Flower for your beloved? Click here for more.

Coastal dunes project

Posted by Andy Byfield, Plantlife's Landscape Conservation Manager

Work continues apace at Kenfig to reverse the fortunes of many rare plants that grow there.  Diggers are again on site scraping away coarse vegetation to reveal the all important sand below.  The reason that we – and our partners Bridgend County Borough Council and the Countryside Council for Wales – are doing this is simple: over the millennia our rarer sand dune plants and animals have evolved to cope with the vagaries of ever-shifting sand, yet these days, our dunes have become cloaked by a thick, lush thatch of plant life.  The result: classic species such as petalwort, fen orchid and many other beautiful plants are declining fast, and some are steadily heading towards extinction.

The fen orchid.  Image © Tim Pankhurst

Britain’s sand dunes seem to be changing, as the high hills of blowing sand have ‘greened-over’.  Various factors may be to blame.  Increasing deposition of nitrates and other nutrients are being deposited across our lands as the rains bring industrial and agricultural pollutants back down to earth, feeding coarse vegetation.  There seems to be less sand off shore to feed mobile dunes.  And one can’t help thinking that this year’s excessive rains have simply allowed lush vegetation to become lusher still.

Last year, Plantlife coordinated the clearance of over three hectares of dunescape in the hope of exposing sufficient bare sand to kick-start natural duneland erosion, an as I write this the diggers are in expanding the area to a vast 10 hectares – by far the largest example of sand dune rejuvenation ever undertaken in Britain.

And not surprisingly, the media have been  keen to find out just what is going on.  I have just returned from filming a forthcoming BBC Countryfile item about our work with Matt Baker and his team from the BBC.  If you want to know more, tune into BBC One this coming Sunday evening (27th January).