Wild Flowers

[EmsE]

I enjoy being in my garden, mainly the veg bed but have finally incorporated a proper flower bed after a few years of being nagged. This has resulted in a complete restructuring of the garden, leaving only the pond and the raspberries in their original homes. Even the hedge (those green weed things) has been dug up by the roots (sooo satisfying) and are being replaced with a mixed fruiting variety for the wildlife.

I know what types of flowers are growing in my garden, including most of the weeds (they're in as chicken food- honest) but it struck me that I'm not too familiar with those growing in the wild. Most of those I do know (except for the obvious dandelions etc learned from childhood) are those that have been pointed out by other bee keepers such as rosebay willowherb and Himalayan balsam.

I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread to identify flowers, or even to find out if a particular one is friendly to bees.

I took my boy for a bike ride the other day and snapped all the different flowers in the hedgerow that are in flower at the moment, a couple (probably more if I'm honest) I don't know what they are or if honey bees visit them. OK, one of them wasn't in the hedgerow, it was growing out of a wall opposite the hedgerow.
Does anyone know what they are?

[gavin]

Tufted vetch, Vicia cracca - a bee plant but, of course, it is never in great abundance so makes a small contribution. Same family as beans, peas, lupins.

Ivy-leaved toadflax, Cymbalaria muralis - don't know if bees go for this. Usually on walls (hence muralis). Scrophulariaceae family, with snapdragons (flowers look similar), mulleins, figworts.

[marion.orca]

Someone after my own heart ! My garden is my sanctuary - a part of my soul if I'm honest. We moved to this house a little over 2 years ago to a veritable neglected jungle full of rhodedendrons about 20 ft high. So first job was taking it all back to bare roots [ or none at all ] giving me a blank canvas to work on. Then it was my mission to create wildlife habitats for all the wildlife. So first a pond, then wild native hedging and apart from the veggie beds for us, I will only plant native wild flowers which are beneficial to wildlife - in any shape or form. Trial and error has been a big part of it, but so far it is being hugely successful in attracting a large variety of pond-life, a huge variety of insect life, scores of birds, mice, voles and a family of Pine Martens. This year I have noticed that my honeybees come from about 1/4 of a mile away to gorge on the Hemp Agrimony, so I will certainly be propagating that to increase next year. I would recommend that one. I also forage for seeds in the wild [ not too many though ] and throw them into the wild area which is never touched - some succeed, some don't. It's not a huge garden, just jam packed with wild native species and tidy 'ish in an untidy sort of way.

[gavin]

Sounds wonderful, Marion, and unusual for a gardener to be so focussed on natives. Much of the ethos in gardening over a few hundred years has been to introduce the exotic.

That ivy-leaved toadflax looks for the all the world as if it has always been here but apparently was introduced in the 1600s from the Mediterranean and has since spread to all the places in the UK in which it is happy to grow. It is a bit patchy in N Scotland but common elsewhere. Maybe it displaces some natives but it doesn't look like quite the ecological thug (with benefits for pollinators) that Himalayan balsam seems to be.

[marion.orca]

I don't really class [ if that's the right word ] as a gardener as such and I sometimes read with a certain amount of envy, the vast variety of bee forage that exists in other parts of the country, making me think my bees are a wee bit hard done by over here in West. There's a steep bank in front of the house which is cut every week by the council, BUT would be ideal for a wild flower meadow creation [ it currently serves as nothing more than a huge dog toilet for lazy inconsiderate dog owners ]. There are already native bluebells, fox and hounds, buttercups and various other species which grow there and get mown down in their prime and it is my next mission at the end of summer to persuade the community council to leave bank uncut next year, add a few foraged native seeds and let it grow naturally, which can only help the ecosystem. It will also add visual enhancement to the village and could be a scheme that be allowed in other areas. Money saving too.

[chris]

The vetch is a beautiful plant which patches the pastures with very bright colours in the sun. Sheep love it,so do rabbits,so do the hay makers. They all seem to want it at the same time as the bees. Here it flowers at about the same time as the lime, so I never used to see that many bees on it, but this year with the lime not flowering, the bees have had a feast.

and a family of Pine Martens. .

Well, round here the martens are classed as *nuisance* which means we can eliminate them. I know, they look lovely, and they are all part of the ecosystem, but when they slit the throats of all your chickens to suck the blood, or just for fun, then you see things differently. If you keep any bees nearby watch out in winter- I had a floor clawed out by one, and all the bees died off from the disturbance in cold weather.
René has a mean trap for them- back in the '70s, he used to collect £50 per skin.

[chris]

and it is my next mission at the end of summer to persuade the community council to leave bank uncut next year, add a few foraged native seeds and let it grow naturally, which can only help the ecosystem. .

I don't know if anything ever came of it, but a short while back, it was a possible European project to give money to help with hedgerow preservation, and planting bee friendly plants by councils along the roadside. Might be worth trying to check up on it.

[marion.orca]

Thanks Chris - I'll certainly keep my eye out for wild vetch whilst I'm out foraging and put some in the garden as a starter plant. I may have a tussle on my hands where the bank is concerned, it took me over a year to convince the community council, the laird, the neighbours etc. of the benefit of having a hive here. But I am if nothing if not determined, so suceeded eventually. Ah, the martens. They have been awarded full legal protection since 1998 I think it is, due to our persecution of them which put them on the endangered list. Here it is still the second rarest animal, only preceded by the Scottish Wildcat. So, to me that means helping and encouraging them in any way possible. Though I don't keep hens ! I do feed them every night and work on the principle that if they are well fed in my garden, they are less likely to feel the need to kill needlessly elsewhere. I'll check out to see if there are any grants etc. available, but really, fingers crossed, shouldn't need to go down that route.

[Trog]

When I give my wee talk on 'Gardening for Bees', it doesn't take the audience very long to realise that a large number of my photos are of 'weeds'! As our garden's very old, just letting the grass grow allows a great variety of wild flowers to flourish. Once they've finished, they and the long grass are gradually scythed back, a haynet-full per day, and fed to the horse, who kindly provides compost for the veg plot and home-made greenhouse growbags. The bits of the garden she grazes are controlled by electric fence to allow the white clover to flourish. Seems to work well, though a bit labour-intensive (but then, so is mowing every week for those that prefer that way of doing things!)

[marion.orca]

What advice to you give in your talk Trog ? and are there any particular species you would personally recommend for the West coast ? I can see we are going to have to have a wee day trip over to Mull, so that I can peep over your garden fence [ and raid your seeds ] We usually head for Killiechronan, so we can have a look at the sea-eagles. I'm on a red and white clover quest this week - as long as the weather dries up.