Wildflower patch

[Reverdin]

Wow, there's lots of good stuff going on out there isn't there. Some great looking places for future meadows and butterfly havens.

Jack, if you PM me your address, I could reciprocate your Sanfoin with an envelope of Yellow Rattle.... just chuck it where you want it to grow and watch it go the next year.

[selbypaul]

Selbypaul

I'm definitely a huge fan of Yellow Rattle.

Next week i am moving to a new property and have plans for a mini meadow to replace the rather uninteresting (mainly grass) south east facing front garden. All the advice I have read says that Yellow Rattle is a must. Would I be best to sow seeds in the autumn (apparently the only time to sow as they need winter cold - I will certainly get that) or use plug plants next spring? The latter would give me more time to prepare the ground as of course, when moving into a new place, there are so many other priorities.

So where do you source your Yellow Rattle? I have seen in the wild but would have no idea where to find it in my new area to the south of Nairn, Higland. Or maybe you (or someone else) will have some spare seeds.

Jack

Hi Jack
I also get all my Yellow Rattle from Emorsgate Seeds. My advice is to order lots and lots
Paul

[Jack Harrison]

I have found [what I believe to be] Yellow Rattle growing in profusion along a roadside near where I now live.

If anyone wants seeds, I can supply. Now is the time as they are newly ripe. PM me with a snail mail address if interested.

Jack

[selbypaul]

That is indeed Yellow Rattle Jack

[Jack Harrison]

Tansy

In planning my wildflower patch, I am collecting seeds that occur locally along roadsides.

One attractive plant is Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare. However, it is apparently an insect repellent (how is Tansy pollinated I wonder?) so might not be an ideal inclusion in my garden.

Any comments?

Jack

[bugboy]

Tansy

In planning my wildflower patch, I am collecting seeds that occur locally along roadsides.

One attractive plant is Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare. However, it is apparently an insect repellent (how is Tansy pollinated I wonder?) so might not be an ideal inclusion in my garden.

Any comments?

Jack

I regularly see 'Whites' and 'Browns' feeding on Tansy on my local patch as well as various beetles and Diptera. I suspect the 'repellent' aspect would be chemicals in the leaves to prevent leaf eating insects making a meal of it.

Taken last year

[Jack Harrison]

That makes sense. Thanks.

Jack

[Kip]

It's been 2 years since I updated this thread, and things have moved on, well, a bit! I now have a second section in progress, with Yellow Rattle firmly established, and various plug-plantings from my own seedlings beginning to take hold...
This is the original patch, now providing much of my seed, hence the odd bit of chiken-wire protecting bits and pieces from rabbits...

this is now phase 2, a further approx 10m squared, without weed-proof membrane, which I think deterred ants too much...

Note the lack of butterflies

[Jack Harrison]

I'll send some pictures of my own attempts in due course.

Not a huge success - except for a profusion of Yellow Rattle. But with only some paths that need 6-weekly (high) mowing, at least the patch as a whole requires little maintenance.

Jack

[Kip]

Five years now.... The patch is looking great this year and beginning to expand itself naturally.

These are some of the flowers therein....

I have found the low growing flowers such as sheep's sorrel and thyme have benefitted from my man-made anthills, inspired by those grassy lumps which we find in some ancient meadows....

A chicken wire former is made to the required size and shape... no great care needed, as the next thing after positioning it is to fill/cover it with soil, molehills make a good source... the finer the soil is, the better. Obviously, organic matter is not necessary for the purpose as impoverished is good.
Then a fine front lawn grass seed is sown, and mixed with plug planted BFT, thyme, rockrose and hawksbit... all low growing and liking their raised position.

Small Copper, Brown Argus and now Common Blue are all resident and all have arrived naturally, without surrepticious import. Here is a male icarus I found inflating it's wings..photographed once they had set that is....

... and here is the agestis from a few days ago...

[David M]

Very impressive, Kip. You've done a great job.

[Kip]

Thank you David... I have some better photos today...
The first shows a mound in it's infancy... the chicken wire is there to hold the soil from falling away, and to stop rabbits or moles from disassembling it. I also like to have a large "dimple" in the top so I can have a reservoir of water seep in slowly to start with, until things get well established with long root systems... the dimple disappears in due course.....

The second is more difficult to make out but shows a "mature" mound.... and ants DO make them their home eventually....

The third is what you get for your efforts in one way. Even a small garden could be moulded this way instead of a lawn, if so wished.....

and the fourth, your rewards in another way, as long as you plant lots of BFT...

[Rogerdodge]

Looks fabulous Kip - certainly come on since I last saw it.

[PhilBJohnson]

For annual wild flowers, one management technique was to cut grass and old seed pods in late summer or autumn (where seeds had already dispersed, or was dispersed/collected in the process). A heavy raking/grass thinning, before seed planted straight away, or seed stored, then sown in the following Spring, might have been good for the required flora, but habitat diversity for moth life cycles, might have seen different local areas, managed in different ways, to allow over-wintering pupa, to get to a hibernating place.
Habitat Diverse Local Areas
This was within caterpillar, final instar crawling range, and undisturbed florae hiding places, for over-wintering larvae, that were not exposed, to be found by hunting birds.

PS. “Florae (plural of flora), not “flowers”, if the flower was one end of a plant, looked at for too long.

Kind regards

[Richard Trillo]

I have recently joined, and this is my first post. We're in the southwest London suburbs (Kingston area) and we have a sheltered, well planted back garden, with a patch of lawn that we've decided to leave partly to nature this year in the hope of attracting more insects. I've begun by leaving a semi-circular area (5 metre diameter) facing west, with its longest side along a low brick wall (40cm high) which retains a raised flower bed. At what would be the centre of the circle a mature cherry tree keeps this area shaded in the morning, but it's sunny in the afternoons until late. In this photos you might just about be able to see the area, with taller grass and daisies.

I want to sow some wild flower seeds, more for larval food plants than nectar, though a mix would be nice, and I was planning to simply let the lawn be invaded by new growth once the wild plants become established. What species do people recommend I should sow? Also please recommend a good seed source? And if I simply drill holes across the semi-circle, will that work, or would I do better to disturb the lawn, or even remove the current lawn in that area before sowing?

Many thanks in advance, Richard

[selbypaul]

Hi Richard
Welcome! My strong advice would be to remove the turf (ie the top inch of soil, including the grass). The reason for this is that the top layer will be nutrient rich soil, and wildflowers thrive in nutrient poor soils.

Larval host plants and grasses for butterflies aren't always planted ideally in the meadow. Some are, but not all. For example, the larval host plant for the Brimstone is Common Buckthorn or Alder Buckthorn, which is best planted as a bush or hedge. Similarly, for many of the common garden butterflies (Red Admiral, Small Tortoisehell, Peacock, Comma), you need a large nettle patch (ideally 10 metres square), which needs the opposite conditions of nutrient rich soil. Similarly Holly and Ivy for the Holly Blue.

The main purpose of a wildflower meadow is therefore for nectar rich wildflowers for butterflies and other insects to feed on. Plus fine grasses for the grassland butterfly species that use various types of grass as their larval host plant.

Take a look at this page on UK butterflies (https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/foodplants.php). I'd then order a wildflower mix from a place like Emorsgate Seeds which includes the fine grasses and larval host wildflowers of a few other UK species. Make sure you also include Yellow Rattle, which is a semi-parasite of grasses, and therefore helps to reduce growth of the grasses sufficiently to allow the wildflowers to outcompete them.
Best Wishes
Paul

[Richard Trillo]

Many thanks for your reply Paul. I've updated my notifications (I didn't realise I'd had a reply until this morning). After speaking to a keen gardener, I did in fact do exactly as you suggested, so I now have a semi-circle of bare soil, and I'm trying to settle on the seeds to buy – and probably some shot plants as well, to try to get things started a bit more quickly. Emorsgate looks very good, but possibly slow to deliver at the moment? Have you you used Boston Seeds? They look huge, and claim to be able to deliver quickly. The foodplants list is invaluable, though I'm sadly aware that there's not much point in planting quite a few species in the hope of attracting butterflies to lay if there aren't any recent records of that species of butterfly in my area.

Since I posted my original post, I've also bought a couple of large wooden planters and was planning to bring some nettles from my parents' garden to establish a potential egg-laying site. But would such a small "nettle patch" be rejected by any self-respecting female small tortoiseshell, peacock, red admiral or comma? I've also been considering buying some eggs/larvae and letting them get on with it once the nettles are established. Any thoughts on that? Is there any evidence that such introductions encourage breeding adults to return to the same location?

Many thanks again, and I'm sure more questions will follow.

[Richard Trillo]

Cynosurus cristatus (crested dogstail) seems at first glance like a good grass to choose among the wild flowers. Seed merchants all rate it as important food plant for skipppers and browns (without specifying which species), but the UK butterflies foodplant list (https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/foodplants.php) doesn't mention it at all. I've got much more confidence in the latter. What do you think? This site sounds fairly authoritative, and mentions marbled white and Essex skipper - https://agrobaseapp.com/new-zealand/wee ... -dogs-tail

[Vince Massimo]

Hi Richard, and welcome to UK Butterflies
I'm not allowed to have nettles in the flowerbeds, but have to make do with a single potted plant in a sheltered sunny corner. Whilst this is not enough to attract Small Tortoiseshell or Peacock egg-layers, it is quite suitable for Red Admirals and Commas who have used it regularly over the last few years. Last July there were 8 Comma and 2 Red Admiral larvae on it at the same time, so there is always hope if the plant is in the right location.

Nettle pot - Crawley, Sussex 10-April-2021

Vince

[Richard Trillo]

Hi Vince, thanks for the welcome! That sounds promising, then, if I have a couple of large planters with nettles in, I may get red admiral and comma. I Is that because peacock and small tortoiseshell larvae live in large colonies? So need much more of a spacious nettle patch?