Picking on wildflowers

Here's an article that causes me some difficulty : fad-for-wildflowers-is-ruining-formal-gardening-warns-Professor-of-Horticulture

There is much in it that is absolutely correct and needed saying, and there are parts that seem at best misguided and at worst a deliberate attempt to upset as many people as possible. To be fair to Prof Hitchmough, I know how the media work and I appreciate that what you might say is not always what appears in print. So I'll cut him some slack.

Let's look at the good bits first.

'Non-native planting can be just as good for wildlife'

Absolutely! Habitat specialist species are always going to need their lowland heaths and ancient woodlands, but a lot of generalists are perfectly happy utilising non-native species. Nectar, for instance, is sugar solution whether it comes from a dandelion or a dahlia.

'One of the most important things is to have 'diversity’ so that nectar is available throughout the year.' 

Yup, and the beauty of non-native planting is that you can 'design in' the flowering season, targeting times of the year when forage might be scarce elsewhere. Native meadow species, on the other hand, have spent thousands of years timing their flowering and seed production to coincide with an August hay cut, after which they kind of fizzle.

'The trend for wildlife gardening and Government targets on 'biodiversity’ means that traditional horticulture such as herbaceous borders full of exotic flowers is frowned upon.'

Well, yes, to a certain extent. I myself spent 20 years in the conservation sector preaching the doctrine of 'native is best', and in a way it is gratifying to see so many greenspace managers repeating it. But now I'm old and less idealistic I'm much more inclined to take the view that it's horses for courses. In a rural setting of course native species are the way to go, and local provenance natives if possible. After all, there may well be areas of semi-natural habitat nearby, and the best way to encourage functional ecosystems is to join the best remaining bits together with something appropriate.

And in an urban setting, if you want to try and recreate a native hay meadow, then why not? I for one would not complain. But let's not pretend that it's anything other than another kind of gardening. And if I want to plant a pollinator bed of non-natives, I'd appreciate it if I received the same response; go ahead, why not?

But what I'm finding more and more is that managers of very obviously artificial urban sites, often miles removed from any surviving semi-natural habitat, are repeating the unquestioning mantra - 'native is best'. So it's maybe a little misleading to say that herbaceous borders are frowned upon - there are still plenty around, go and have a look - but certainly when it comes to any provision for wildlife, the message is still very often the same: 'native is best'. And that is in the face of complaints from the public about the tatty look of the meadow in autumn, when flowering has finished and the man on the mower hasn't yet visited.

So those are the good bits; let's have a quick look at the parts I'm not so comfortable with.

Firstly, the headline: 'fad for wildflowers is ruining formal gardening'

Almost certainly journalist-speak, but not very helpful. For a start, it's hardly a fad - it's taken decades for conservationists to get planners and land managers to even think about wildflowers, so let's pray to God they continue, but in an informed way. And in my experience the wildflower bias doesn't affect formal gardening; I haven't come across any park manager insisting that his floral clock be made up of nothing but native species and I can't see it happening.

'Gardens are our nature reserves.'

Well, no, they're not really. They're gardens - that's the point. They can be fantastic or terrible for wildlife, depending on how they're managed, but they aren't a replacement for nature reserves and shouldn't be seen as such. And just as we should expect nature reserve managers to apply best current practice to the management of NNRs, so we should aim to encourage best practice in the garden. The Wildlife Gardening Forum is particularly good at disseminating research in this area.

'the art of cultivating species from around the world carefully managing their growth could die out.'

Hmmm... probably a statement that could only come from someone who's job title is Professor of Horticulture. After all, you've got to watch your back, haven't you?

Bee-friendly Plant of the Month - Onions

Plants of the onion family have spent millions of years evolving a cocktail of sulphur-based compounds designed to make them unpalatable to predators. These compounds, when released into the air, react with water to form a weak solution of sulphuric acid, hence their eyewatering reputation. Imagine their disappointment, then, when humans decided that this pungency was a desirable characteristic rather than a deterrent.

Since so many members of the genus Allium share this distinctive flavour and, as members of the Lily family, have attractive flowers, they have become popular garden plants both as vegetables and as ornamentals.  The Chive is one of the most familiar and is long established in cultivation; often said to have been introduced by the Romans, it is almost certainly native to parts of western and northern Britain, where it grows on limestone rocks and cliff faces.

There are several other species of wild onion, some native and some certainly introduced, but the majority are relatively scarce or downright rare, such as the Round-headed Leek found only on the rocks of the Avon Gorge. But one member of this distinctive family is both widespread and very obvious in the landscape.

Wild garlic - Allium ursinum - differs from its cousins in having a broad oval leaf, but one sniff is all that is needed to confirm its family affinities. Known variously as Ramsons, Devil’s Posy, Stinking Nanny and Gipsy’s Gibbles, this plant of damp woods and stream banks will, when happy, carpet huge areas with its fresh green leaves and star-like white flowers. The scent is so pungent that large colonies are almost always smelled before they are seen, but the flavour of the leaves is surprisingly mild and they have become a fashionable addition to salads and pasta sauces in up-market restaurants.

Sufficiently different to have been consigned to its own genus, Nectaroscordum siculum is an elegant architectural plant with nodding, bell-like flowers in shades of pink and gold. The foliage has a less pleasant smell than many of the onions, but the flowers have a honey scent and the abundant nectar they produce makes them very popular with bees.