This spring, at Plantlife we are urging gardeners to go native and start a new love affair.
It’s time embrace the jewels of our own countryside, celebrate the Best of British and go wild!
We want nature to have its wicked way with you! Take a sneaky look at our gorgeous new website “The Wildflower Garden”.
Here you can get insider tips from the UK’s leading botanical experts who will introduce you to some real beauties, help show you what grows best and where, and then when you’ve fallen head over heels in love (you will!) they’ll show you the best places to see your most beloved wildflowers growing in the countryside!
Why grow wild flowers?
Wild flowers and plants are not only beautiful – they are an essential part of our lives.
They provide food for humans and animals, and are the basis for many medicines. Without plants, bees, birds, butterflies and other wildlife would not exist.
But, take heed. Once you’ve fallen in love with native wildflowers they will break your heart. These beauties may thrive in your garden but in the wild many of them they are in real trouble – vanishing from the countryside at an alarming rate.
Plantlife’s Botanical Specialist Dr Trevor Dines, only grows native wildflowers and plants in his own garden: “Did you know that many of our garden favourites, like Box, Pasqueflower and Welsh poppy 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 by a plant of Shrubby Cinquefoil, but this same species is a beautiful native wildflower restricted to just two small areas in Britain.
“Plantlife’s Wildflower Garden aims to celebrate the native flowers we probably already grow, introduce you to a few new ones (anyone fancy at bit of Bogbean with its frilly party-girl flowers?) and discover the fascinating stories behind them as British wild flowers; did you know for example that, according to ledged, Pasqueflower grows from the blood of buried Viking warriors?
And you don’t need to let your garden become overgrown and tatty to enjoy them; wild plants and flowers can be woven into the tapestry of all garden styles, from cottage to formal. Now, time to clip that native box hedge…”
BEWARE: Native wildflowers in your garden will dazzle you with their beauty, seduce you with their scent, entice wonderful wildlife and create a garden you’re friends will envy!
