A Gardener's Miscellany

Gardening’s king of trivia and brain-teasers, Graham Clarke

- Graham Clarke

This week it’s:

British Flowers Week

Celebrating Britain’s finest native blooms

NEXT week is British Flowers Week (14-20 June), a campaign run by London’s New Covent Garden Market, to celebrate the beauty and variety of British-grown flowers, foliage and plants for the floristry trade. In truth, the cut-flower business has little to do with amateur gardening so, for this week’s Miscellany, I thought it might be interesting to expand the idea to find some facts and stories about plants that are native to Britain. Let’s take a look.

This year, because of Covid restrictions, organisers of British Flowers Week are encouraging businesses and the public to decorate their windows with British flowers, at home or work, preferably where passers-by can enjoy them.

6 of the best: British wildflowers

SOME British wildflowers are absolutely beautiful and, being native, all have some benefit to wildlife, be it leaves for caterpillars or flowers for pollinators.

These six are my favourites, but it would be interesting to know if they are the same as yours!