Did you know that British wild flowers are in danger of extinction? In the past 70 years we have lost 97% of our wild flower meadows. This loss has changed the look of the British countryside… it’s still green but not half as colourful as it used to be!
The bad news is that losing most of our wild flower meadows has also affected our insects, birds and small mammals. They need pollen, nectar, seeds and leaves to provide them with food and shelter. Without the wild flowers some of our beautiful wild insects and tiny creatures simply can’t survive. And that affects everything.
The good news is that we can reverse the situation by planting the wild flowers that our wild creatures need.
Do you want to do something to help out?
Would you like some free wild flower seeds?
Kew Gardens has joined forces with the Big Lottery Fund to provide free seeds to help get our wild flowers going again.
Their aim is to turn unloved spaces into wildlife friendly havens.
The GROW WILD UK scheme has thousands of free seed kits to give away.
There’s an application form on their website and any groups can apply… organisations, community groups and schools.
Each kit has 5 packets of seeds and each packet will cover at least 2 square metres.
Groups can apply for up to 20 seed kits and they will be posted to you in spring 2016.
***UPDATE MARCH 2016 The Grow Wild offer has now closed so I have removed the link***
What’s not to like? You can plant some wild flowers and help our wildlife in the process!
Many British wild flowers are annuals. They grow, flower, set seed then die in the same year. If you’ve never grown them before I can thoroughly recommend them. They are really easy to grow and often flower just 10 to 12 weeks after sowing. Results are fast so they are brilliant for new gardeners and even small children to grow. You can’t go wrong with these flowers!
FREE SEEDS: If you would prefer to grow some flowers in your own garden rather than as part of a community group then I will happily send you some free seeds. For more information about what our wildlife needs just click the hedgehog. The link to the Free Seeds is at the bottom of that page.
***UPDATE 28th FEBRUARY 2016***
My free seeds offer has now closed. Thanks very much to everyone who applied from November 2015 to February 2016. Your seeds will be posted to you in March. I’m looking forward to seeing the results!
For HOW TO GROW WILD FLOWERS click this photo.
What’s your favourite British wild flower?
Happy Gardening. Gillian 🙂
Oooo. Wonder would they post to Ireland?
My favourite wild flower here at the minute is the wild pansy. It’s always a lovely surprise spotting the tiny blooms.
I think so. Just fill in the form and see what they say!
It’s so important to maintain plant diversity. Thanks for posting! Have you ever read any articles on extinct plants brought back from ancient seeds? One flower was from the Jurassic era, another was a Jerusalem Date tree that was from before the time of Christ, and the latest was an extinct squash that i think was last seen like 600 years ago. It’s fascinating!
I didn’t know about the examples you mentioned but I do know that there is a global strategy for plant conservation and the Millenium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place stores frozen seeds for use in the future so it seems that anything is possible. Science is amazing isn’t it?
It really is! You just reminded me I have to go collect all my garden seeds soon 🙂
I think my favourite is orange hawkweed. We’ve got a few growing in a scrappy bit of garden and I’m always pleased to see it.
Well anything that sows itself is very welcome isn’t it Matt? Especially orange flowers!
Great post – thanks for sharing this. Am definitely going to apply for some seeds. On the subject of wildflowers and the implications of their loss for bees, have you read the book ‘The Bees’. It’s a weird premise (written from the point of view of a bumblebee) but brilliantly written and so engaging. Kind of like Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale but with bees. I’m not doing it justice but check it out.
I went to this arts festival in Edinburgh this summer where they had the most incredible installation on the fate of bees. It was a combination of video and the most stunning floral installation I’ve ever seen. One of the makers was the florists Pyrus who do absolutely stunning work and champion homegrown local flowers. Wish you could have seen it – I sat there for about an hour just mesmerised. There’s a short clip from it here, not as good as the real thing but better than nothing: http://hiddendoorblog.org/2015/01/06/teaser-adventures-in-light/
Thanks very much Ella and thanks for sharing your knowledge too. Sadly it’s not just bees that are in decline. We have lost 30% of our hedgehogs in the UK in the past 10 years and populations of two thirds of our other wild creatures (frogs/birds/butterflies/dragonflies) and wild plants are in decline too. That’s where gardeners come in. We can all do a little bit to help out by growing flowers, leaving some places undisturbed in the garden and by not using chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides.
Wow I hadn’t realised the other losses had been so extreme- is it due to building and development? So sad – you should def do more posts on this stuff and how people can help combat. Due to Beatrix Potter hedgehogs will always have a special place in my heart but never see them round here (all about the foxes in London)
It’s a combination of factors – change in agriculture, loss of hedges and green corridors from one safe place to the next, solid fences/walls between gardens, gardeners using chemicals to kill slugs which the creatures eat and apparently hedgehogs are Badgers favourite food and they are thriving.