A Trough for Wildflowers ~ Responding to a BBC Springwatch SOS

Those of you who read my previous post will know that we visited NT Ickworth some days ago to see the wonderful lambs. The photo above shows the striking rotunda, and if you click the next link, you will see a photo of another rotunda, this time on Belle Isle in the Lake District, which is associated with Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty fame (or infamy). But I digress. 

This post is neither about lambs nor acts of derring-do on the high seas. The photo above shows the walled garden at Ickworth last August, when the wildflowers were abundant. Now you may feel that to grow wildflowers from packaged seed is a bit of a contradiction in terms; but, quite apart from the riot of colour, just think of all the pollen that will be attracting our insects. And we do have a nettle patch at home as well.

[UPDATE on 11 April 2017: at this point it seems a good idea to insert the helpful comment from fellow poet and blogger, Mavis Gulliver, as some of us may wish to follow her advice...  Mavis writes... 'We've been gardening for wild flowers on Islay for 21 years but rather than introduce non-native species and importing seed from the continent we gather local seed and have progressed from 1.2 acres of bracken,rocks and heather clumps to 204 species. Of course some have come of their own accord once our mowing regime encouraged them. Soon we will be leaving for a new challenge where I plan to follow the same principles. Gardening in this way doesn't produce such a colourful show as the packs of wild seed but we are helping to maintain the local flora.' Thank you, Mavis, so much for this important tip.]


I posted the tulip photo below in my previous post, but I am posting it again because it is current, and helps to show the extent of the area covered by poppies, cornflowers and all the other beauties in the photo above. 

The August 2016 photo below, shows blues, yellows, reds, whites and greens of this garden: what a spread for our pollen-gatherers...

... like this one...

Inspired not only by the riot of colour at Ickworth but also by the BBC Springwatch SOS exhortation to have a small wildflower planter within the garden, we bought ourselves a green trough and have planted three packets (quite large ones) of mixed wildflower seed. I have moved the primroses to another place now, and have filled the trough with soil pretty much up to the top. Small green shoots, reminding me of the first flush of mustard and cress from the days when we planted small seeds on blotting paper and squares of flannel, have already started to appear.

Needless to say, I can hardly wait for the first bud to open, and, if all goes according to plan, for the insects to come flying in.

The blackboard below was at Ickworth last summer, and while our own wildflower trough will be minuscule in comparison with the Ickworth garden, it should help to encourage wildlife into our homepatch.

Do drop a comment if you plan to plant a wildflower 'garden', too...
I plan to give intermittent updates on our green trough.

Why so few butterflies on a White Buddleia?

I have been pondering this question for the last few days and weeks, ever since our most recent visit to RSPB Minsmere, when there were masses of butterflies (particularly Red Admiral and Peacock) on the Buddleia bushes by the entrance to the reserve. These bushes, as I recall, were all purple in colour.

Peacock butterfly, Buddleia, RSPB Minsmere

Red Admiral, Buddleia, RSPB MInsmere

Painted Lady, Buddleia, RSPB Minsmere

I am now beginning to reach an answer, although it may be more of a hunch than a scientific fact. If you know about these things, I should be delighted to learn more.

We inherited a large, white (and to date unidentified) Buddleia in our garden. The bush is healthy and full of blooms. The flower heads look beautiful for a day or so, but soon turn to a less attractive 'rust' as the flowers die. I have just started to dead-head the ones within reach.

Friday proved to be a red-letter day for the bush: a single Red Admiral landed on it and spent some minutes nectaring. I grabbed my camera to record this fairly unusual event ...

Red Admiral, home patch, 14 August 2105

Red Admiral, home patch, 14 August 2105

Red Admiral, home patch, 14 August 2105

Red Admiral, home patch, 14 August 2105

So why is this bush usually so neglected? There is even a dedicated nettle patch underneath it in the hope that butterflies might lay their eggs in this part of our garden. And are all white Buddleia bushes less attractive to butterflies?

I understand from Andrew Bullock in an article in the Daily Telegraph by Mary Keen that 'davidii forms ... are much more attractive to butterflies.' In my ignorance I had assumed that all Buddleia bushes in British gardens were davidii, but this is clearly not the case.

Monty Don, writing in the Daily Mail (30 August 2013), says that a considerable number of davidii hybrids do not have as much nectar as the species varieties, adding, however, that this is not the case for some of the white hybrids.

So my tentative conclusions to date are as follows:

• the white Buddleia in our garden probably fails to offer much nectar.
• it is probably not one of the davidii.
• it is possible to buy varieties of white buddleia that are attractive to butterflies. Perhaps we should consider adding in one of these.
• Given that the single Red Admiral alighted on the bush yesterday, I shall continue to keep it under close surveillance to see if other insects follow suit in the next few days. Perhaps the nectar levels are still peaking. 

I should be interested to learn whether any of you have a white variety in your garden that acts as a magnet for butterflies!

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A previous post ... my words on the RSPB Minsmere leaflet