Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Wild native plants  (Read 2534 times)

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Wild native plants
« on: June 01, 2015, 12:20:16 pm »
Not for the garden but for some new woodland we are establishing, with the help of a grant to buy the trees.

We planted baby trees last year and are now thinking about some wildflowers.  The ground is mostly too wet at the moment, but there's a bank that will like some primroses, I am sure, and I am assuming that as the trees grow on, the ground will dry a little as the trees drink loads of water.

So far it seems I would want to buy wild primroses as plug plants, to plant out in September / October.  Would I need to pot the plug plants on, and harden them off, before planting out, or can I just plant plugs directly into the bank? 

Next, bluebells.  Of course I can't buy wild bluebells, it's illegal to sell them.  (As an aside, doesn't that just mean that people who want bluebells are forced to buy the Spanish type, which then escape and hybridise with our native ones? ???

It's also illegal to remove bluebell bulbs from your own land. 

Q1.  Is it legal to lift a clump of bluebells growing on your own land, split them and plant one half back where you got it from and the other somewhere else on your own ground?

Q2.  Does anyone have experience of growing bluebells from seed?  I've tried collecting seed pods and establishing bluebells elsewhere in the past, and have never had any success - but maybe it just takes so many years and I've never been in one place long enough?

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Wild native plants
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2015, 03:57:03 pm »
Hi Sally

What a lovely idea  8)

You can buy the bulbs for English Bluebells from companies like Chase Organics. There must be somewhere that cultivates them for selling.  They are fairly expensive - something like £20 for 75 (that's off the top of my head)  You set them out in the Autumn.

For plug plants, often they are only supplied at the right time for planting out, but in fact you would think they could go out anytime, as long as they're well watered in - not much of a problem then  :D.  Harden them off in the trays they're in ie outside for a week, inside if very windy or hard frost (something seriously wrong if we get one of those for a month or two  :o)  If it will be longer than that before you can plant them then, yes, you would need to pot them on.  Ultimately they would be more effort to plant out from larger pots.  If you plant them out now, clear an area around them of rank grass or they could be swamped before they establish.

We sent off for some apparently cheap wild primroses sold by a charity.  They said they were well established from last year's stock.  However, when they arrived, they had clearly been divided just a few weeks before - then kept in a sack somewhere.  We planted them all out, except the ones with no root, but only spring time will tell if anything survives.  At the moment I can spot TWO  :roflanim:

Don't forget though that while the trees are small, you won't have the same shade in summer, so real woodland plants might struggle a bit.

I don't think the bluebell police will be after you if you move a few ;D
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Wild native plants
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2015, 06:30:23 pm »
Bluntly if you have your own woodlnd as a source I'd mark some areas and then dig deep clods of (say) a square foot of starting material and move it to the new site.
Whether that is legal is another mater - it's certainly moral from the viewpoint of spreadng the love.

Add wild strawberries, aconites and those white flowers i've forgotten the name of.

(if you're short of thistles, brambles, nettles and docks i can supply)

I don't know how it'll do your way .. but as a diehard nutter I'd be burying sweet chestnuts, filberts, almonds, walnuts etc all over the new planting.. sourced from friends with those trees - and let them take their chances.

Ghdp

  • Joined Aug 2014
  • Conwy
Re: Wild native plants
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2015, 06:38:22 pm »
And wild garlic?

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Wild native plants
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2015, 11:34:59 pm »
Thanks all!

I'll look into those sources for bluebell bulbs, thanks FW.  And order some primrose plugs - the one place is giving late August delivery; intuitively it would feel as though September might be a good time to plant out, so that sounds about right.

We're too wet, acid and cold here for wild strawberries, I think, but as the area is fenced off from livestock I may be successful with bilberries.  Good thought   :thumbsup:

I was looking about in other woodland in our area today, I'm sure I could re-site some bugle and water avens.  The bugle is magnificent this year, I've never seen it so thick or so tall.

Aconite and windflower / wood anemone might not like it so acidic and wet had they?  But definitely worth looking into, thanks.  I used to love the carpet of wood anemones in Westonbirt Arboretum when I lived near there.

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS