The Brits' Green Crystal Ball - A 2013 Forecast for Wildflowers, Shrubs, Food and Wildlife

Food, birds, bees, wildflowers and sturdy little shrubs - English gardeners must be using the same crystal ball as we are here in the Northwest. In an article in Telegraph.co.uk, the predictions of leading Brit gardeners sound familiar...except that their garden centers are flourishing, and they remain shell-shocked after suffering through the wettest summer ever.

A golden-toned wildflower meadow at the Olympic Park in London was a spectacular focal point for the Games. And no wonder - the meadow was the size of ten football fields!  I think the designers' decision to scatter seeds of warm colored flowers, especially during a summer that turned out to be particularly wet and dreary, made the sight so astounding. Picture this in shades of pink and lavender - not nearly the same impact...

The British experts say the wildflower trend is just getting going, in part because seeds are so much less expensive than plants. They admit that the extra-wet summer helped the Olympic Park wildflower meadow to flourish. Also wildflower mixes are growing every more sophisticated and specific, including mixes for beginning gardeners, flower arrangers, pollinators, and naturalizing. 

Not everyone is convinced. “A wild, meadowy and weedy look will remain fashionable until people realise how difficult it is to make it work in a suburban garden along with the barbecue and kids’ football,” says one gardener. And how about invasiveness? Wildflowers tend to spread beyond where you plant them, and persist whether you want them to or not...

Stephen Lacey brings the discussion back to lower maintenance plants; “I would like to see a rediscovery of shrubs,” he says. “They have been booted into the shadows by the grasses and perennial movement and are now well overdue a revival.”

And I love Sarah Raven's concise focus, "“I’m only interested in three ways of gardening: productive, pollinator-friendly and trees. I want to plant more flowering shrubs and trees, low-maintenance elegant stuff that will give my garden good bones to develop and mature around.”

And despite poor harvests in the wet summer of 2012, Brits are continuing to grow-their-own food. “The turn towards self-sufficiency will continue, with more people relying on their gardens for a supply of fresh food....Gardeners will be composting, recycling and making-do. At the very least, they will grow their own herbs and salads," posits one of the experts. 

“I am excited about a resurgence in edible hedges,” says Mark Diacono, a man at the forefront of the English home-grown movement.

The Royal Horticultural Society has launched a "Plants for Bugs" project in part to convince gardeners that not only native plants attract, feed and shelter wildlife...many ornamentals do the job as well.

The article ended on a high note..Garden Centers in England are doing more than ever to entice shoppers to hang around. Sales were up by 11% last year, in part because so many nurseries feature cafes where gardeners and non-gardeners can meet their friends and hang out year-round...and maybe pick up a plant or two on the way back to their car.

 

Comments

[DariaW]

If only wildflower meadows were as easy to maintain as they seem like they should be. Our mutual friend, Ferdi, took me to see a neighbor's on Sinclair Island. We were there at it's peak of bloom and condition and it was heart stoppingly beautiful -- it was like an Impressionist painting that seemed to shimmer. Unluckily for me, the batteries had fallen out of my camera into my jacket pocket, which was still in the boat, anchored off shore, though I doubt I could have done justice to it anyway. But, I was also told that it had to be redone every few years at a cost of thousands of dollars. And then there's always the possibility of introducing invasive aliens. We've all read the lists on the 'wildflower' seed mixes, haven't we? Jeesh.
There's also a national movement afoot to make growing food a legal right. Wouldn't that be nice?

[Plant Plan]

We have had a nightmare over the last year with the most rainfall in years. It did cause havoc with crops as well as plants! I'm definitely of the opinion that we should become more proficient at growing our own food from the garden. We know where it comes from and that is has no pesticides in at least. Gardening is becoming more and more popular over in England now that young and old are doing it. Best of all we're thriving too with our indoor plants business, http://www.plantplan.co.uk/. At least the weather can't effect that too much.