What wild flowers have you seen?

[ardcarp]

As there is a bird thread, I thought a wildflower one might be good as spring is in the air. So far down here in the West Country there have been snowdrops (which some don't consider a genuine British wildflower) primroses and...we are lucky here....genuine wild daffodils, tiny and very elegant. I guess as the year progresses loads more will be popping up. Any unusual ones yet?

[french frank]

Lovely idea. One strange thing is that I had a primrose out well before Christmas and it's only now gone over. I'm not sure how 'wild' it was when bought from a garden shop, but it was definitely wildish. No sign yet (ooh, I'll just go and look), no, no sign of bluebell buds yet. I have a little colony of hyacinthoides non-scripta, plenty of leaf but no buds. I have to watch out every year to see that they're coming 'true'.

[umslopogaas]

My garden has some wild grass areas where early purple orchids come up every year. They arent rare. but they are very welcome. I once knew someone in Lewes who had a lizard orchid in his garden. That was special, I made a hundred mile round drive to see it. He said he thought it was pollinated by tiny flying goats, but he was a biologist (as am I) and I think he was taking the urine.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta dont grow round here. Dont know why, perhaps east Devon is too wet.

[Richard Tarleton]

We saw our first wild garlic flowers, aka ramsons, this afternoon....Lesser celandine has been in flower for a while now....

[umslopogaas]

Ramsons are coming out on the verges just down the road, I think, though its a dangerous road to stop on to check. Lesser celandines I havent checked, but there are some out there somewhere.

[Serial_Apologist]

We saw our first wild garlic flowers, aka ramsons, this afternoon....Lesser celandine has been in flower for a while now....

Here too - not in one of our local woods but, believe it or not, lining the bass of a brick wall on the local main road!!!

[ardcarp]

One strange thing is that I had a primrose out well before Christmas

It would have been strange indeed a few years ago, but with global warming (and we had a very mild Autumn..at least we did in the SW) they sometimes appear around Christmas time. A few were indeed out at Christmas, but now they are definitely not 'over' and our lanes and field-banks are still thick and profuse with this loveliest of wild flowers. (They do occasionally hybridise with garden primulas.) It is a dreadful thought that in my childhood, when in church on Mothering Sunday little children gave posies of wild flowers to their mothers, we were encouraged to go out and pick them.

[Mary Chambers]

How lovely to have a wild flower thread. I have been thinking recently how neglected the subject is in general. Programmes such as Springwatch are almost entirely about animals and birds, flowers barely mentioned, and though there are numerous children's books about wildlife I haven't seen one about wild flowers. I must see if I can find one for my grandchildren. On Boxing Day my six-year-old grandson brought me a little bunch of daisies (perhaps he shouldn't have picked them). We were staying with my other son, his uncle, in Buckinghamshire. This is a child whose superb general knowledge is frequently commented on by his teachers. He wasn't sure whether they were daisies or dandelions. I was very shocked! He lives in the heart of London so perhaps there is some excuse, but his general knowledge is not limited to things he encounters in real life.

So far this year, as well as those Boxing Day daisies, I have seen primroses and celandines here in north-west England. Admittedly they are in my garden, but they are wild all the same. It is not at all unusual for the primroses to be out from December onwards. There are lots of bluebell leaves. I am one of the few people round here who doesn't mind bluebells spreading everywhere.

[HighlandDougie]

I once knew someone in Lewes who had a lizard orchid in his garden. ... but he was a biologist (as am I)

I found a lizard orchid in my (French) garden in 2014 but not last year. Wearing your biologist's hat, Umslop, are they one-offs? Or might it re-appear (it's possible that it got mowed last year before flowering)? It was quite something - went well with the (plentiful) lizards and (occasional) snake to be found on the stone walls supposedly shoring up the terraces which make up the garden. The soil here must be orchid-friendly as I currently have around a dozen military orchids flowering in various parts of the garden - they have been increasing in number year-on-year and seem to have done particularly well this year. The dry, sunny weather since New Year has meant that there have been bees around (keeping bees and selling honey is a very important cottage industry round here) which I hope helps the orchids - the bees certainly seem to like them.

[jean]

...I am one of the few people round here who doesn't mind bluebells spreading everywhere.

But there are bluebells and bluebells.

I know it's racist to say it, but we don't want those pale Spanish things taking over, do we?

[Lat-Literal]

But there are bluebells and bluebells.

I know it's racist to say it, but we don't want those pale Spanish things taking over, do we?

See also red squirrel versus grey squirrel and proper bees versus the rest. As for what you specifically mention, the difference is significant with the native bluebell obviously more delicate with a deeper and less washed out looking prettier blue/mauve. I love wild flowers. Human being are more attractive when photographed among them. Ardcarp's point about how we used to pick them is indicative of what was then limited knowledge about rarity, not that most of us would be able to say now which are endangered species. I can recall a cine film, 1960s, made by uncle/godfather of us picking bluebells which he used to reverse so that it looked as if we were putting them in the soil for innocent comic effect.

I am not sure if there is a thread for garden flowers? I have snowdrops, some crushed crocuses and a large display of daffodils which look bedraggled. There are also a lot that are still in bud. All flowers don't quite know where they are meant to be because of the weather, a trend that began in 2007 and has been consistent. The current conditions are such that sadly many are growing and rotting at the same time and I understand that the worst sort of bugs are having a field day in the earth. Still, most ash trees are still standing!

[french frank]

But there are bluebells and bluebells.

I know it's racist to say it, but we don't want those pale Spanish things taking over, do we?

The point is that the two don't co-exist. The non-scripta are readily cross-fertilised with hispanica by insects and gradually lose their beautiful characteristic features. Garden centres don't help by selling hispanica as 'garden bluebells'.

[gurnemanz]

Lesser celandine has been in flower for a while now....

They have got into my garden. Delightful flowers but fiendishly invasive. I'm in a constant battle to stop them taking over - patiently using a weeding fork (and resisting the temptation to apply weapons of mass destruction) to get the pesky little tubers out.

[umslopogaas]

#9 Highland Dougie, my flora says British orchids are perennial, so should come back every year.

[ardcarp]

Ardcarp's point about how we used to pick them is indicative of what was then limited knowledge about rarity,

More likely that wild flowers were generally much more abundant. I am lucky to live in an area where they still are, but some so-called rural areas have been turned into arable industrial landscapes with huge fields frequently plastered with herbicides and fertilisers. Many wild species cannot survive this...and ironically are more likely to be found in ramshackle urban areas.

Someone mentioned Ramsons or wild garlic above. Another member of that family is the Three Cornered Leek/Garlic (sometimes called 'white bluebell') which is described in one book as 'quite rare but locally abundant where winters are mild'. It is definitely very abundant in parts Cornwall, the roadsides being full of the stuff from about now onwards. We also see it in Brittany, and occasionally come across a clump in Devon and Somerset. I wonder if it likes the sniff of sea air. One of our favourite walks in Cornwall begins inland, and ramsons quite suddenly becomes replaced by 3-cornered garlic as we approach the sea. It is easily identified BTW by the flower stems which have 3 prominent edges. The flowers smell of garlic, just the same as ramsons.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=3+cornered+leek&biw=1280&bih=590&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTwsDGuJrLAhVEzxQKHR60DsIQsAQIJg&dpr=1.5

Footnote: I see that views on this flower (which Mrs A and I love) seem to have changed and it is described on some websites as 'an invasive species'. Really?

Has anyone come across them in other parts of the UK?