NEWS
A 'long flowering season meadow mix' is now available. Also, Tufted Vetch plug plants.
A new seed mix for Spring 2013 - Long Flowering Season meadow mix.
& Tufted Vetch plug plants are ready - soon to be added to the Plug Plants department - if you wish to buy some, please email us.
PREVIOUSLY:
We are currently giving free P&P on orders of just Yellow Rattle seed.
Devil's Bit Scabious is still flowering in Sussex in October. Not that surprising - just thought you might be interested. A good species to include in a garden or meadow. It particularly favours dampish soils. Not many species are still flowering now - perhaps Yarrow and some of the yellow flowered plants such as Autumn Hawkbit, Rough Hawkbit and Bristly Oxtongue.
WE ARE PLEASED TO HAVE BEEN A SUPPLIER OF WILDFLOWER PLUG PLANTS TO THE OLYMPICS PARK, LONDON.
Now is the ideal time to plant bulbs and plug plants, as the soil is at its warmest in the autumn and so seed should germinate (given some rainfall as well) and roots of plants continue growing even as the tops die back for the winter.
FREE P&P UNTIL 31ST AUGUST 2012 ON ANY QUANTITY OF CORNFIELD ANNUALS SEED PURCHASED ON ITS OWN - ALSO, ON ANY ORDER OF £100 OR MORE UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER.
Good news! The 'extinct' short-haired bumblebee is being re-introduced to the UK. See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18194778
The bee needs plants such as Red Clover and Vipers Bugloss (above).
Available, but not featured on the website (so you will need to email us if you wish to order them) are plug plants of Pignut, Thrift and Cow Parsley.
We had a stand at the Floral Fringe Fair, Bignor Park, West Sussex 19th-20th May and met lots of interesting people.
Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) plug plants are sold in April. The next time you can establish this plant is in the autumn by sowing seed.
"Bees, Butterflies & Blooms" programme has made people aware of the dire need to plant flowers that provide nectar and pollen for our bees, butterflies and other insects. Without these our crops will not be pollinated and we are the poorer for their disappearance. Other wildlife further up the chain, such as birds, also suffer. We are losing so much of our wildlife and must take action.
For a list of some of the best plants, go to our Downloads section under ADVICE.
26th November to 4th December 2011 is National Tree Week -
National Tree Week takes place at the start of the tree planting season. For advice or inspiration take a look at either of these two sites:www.woodlandtrust.org.uk or www.treecouncil.org.uk.
News - October 2011- Entomologist Steven Falk has conducted a study of bees on the Sussex Downs and one of the species of solitary bees, Halictus eurygnathus, which has not been recorded for the last 65 years and was thought to be extinct has been found to be present at seven sites. Mr Falk said "I discovered that the main requirement of the bee is an abundance of Greater Knapweed, which is one of the special flowers of chalk grassland."
We have brought out a brand new seed mix to attract a host of different wildlife to your garden - particularly bees, butterflies and other insects.
All seed mixes are available, and Yellow Rattle seed is best sown before Christmas.
Flowering now in the south of England are Chicory, Harebell, Teasel, Yarrow, Greater Knapweed, Common Toadflax, Lady's Bedstraw, Cat's Ear, Musk Mallow and Cornfield Annuals if they were not sown until April.
Pictured below is of course a Common Poppy, which has attracted a large number of hoverflies...
Identification of British Plants Course 29th - 31st March 2010
The Field Studies Council in association with the Natural History Museum is running a course on plant identification in Lyme Regis, Dorset - you can find the details by going to their website - right click on the following link and open in a new tab/window: http://www.field-studies-council.org/2010/walkingandgeology/jurassiccoast.aspx and scroll down to the bottom of the page for the link.
If you can spare just 3 minutes you ought to take a look at the Autumn slideshow on the www.bbc.co.uk website - photographs of glorious autumn scenes accompanied by extracts of poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and John Clare. Right click on the following link and open it in a new tab or window: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8345213.stm
Poppies, usually seen in full flower in July, have appeared following a ploughing
earlier this year of land owned by the farmer and conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Many people have been stopping to take photographs of this unusual site at the time of year (October 2009).
Customers in Tisbury, Wiltshire, sowed our Wild Flower Meadow Mix and Cornfield Annuals seed in early April and have been thrilled with the results in July (see picture below).
The flowers you see are the annual ones which give tremendous colour in the first year whilst the perennial wild flower meadow species germinate and will take over next year.
Now it is necessary to take a cut - and remove the cuttings - to give space and light for the emerging perennial seedlings.
Cornfield Annuals seed can be sown in Autumn or Spring and will flower the following June/July.