Plant lovers at odds over letting children pick wildflowers
THE thorny problem of picking wildflowers has caused a row in the genteel world of horticulture and beyond.
The practice has been encouraged by the biggest conservation charity, to the annoyance of beekeepers, who say it could damage the countryside.
Plantlife UK has launched a Great British Wildflower Hunt to get children more involved in nature after fears that youngsters are no longer interested in wildlife.
The charity has released a new code of conduct instructing people when it’s acceptable to pick wild flowers, but the move has been called “wrong” by beekeepers who say that the change will cause confusion and risk people digging up plants rather than picking a handful.
Marian Spain, Plantlife’s chief executive, told BBC Radio 4: “We understand that that might sound a little bit unusual from a conservation charity, we work very hard to save flowers and keep them growing, but actually wild flowers are quite resilient and picking one or two from a big patch won’t actually harm that population.
“We’ve published a list of 12 that are very common and very easy to recognise and also a code of conduct on what to do and we understand one of the reasons we are publishing this is because people are going to ask us, they are confused and they don’t know and we think it is important that children do have contact with nature.”
The hunt, which was launched at Easter, includes 68 species to look out for, 12 of which can be picked, with the assurance that you will not do any harm if you follow Plantlife’s code of conduct when it comes to picking.
It is against the law to pick flowers in council parks or on council-maintained roundabouts or verges, as well as any gardens with flowers planted by organisations.
Pete Barrar, from the National Beekeeping Centre for Wales, said: “I think Plantlife do a really great job but I think they’re wrong on this one. We have a Countryside Code that is simple and very clear and it says that we should not damage or destroy or remove features such as rocks, plants and trees from our environment.
“If you go into the woods just now and have a look at the beautiful prim- roses, when does picking a primrose cease and digging up a primrose start?”
Ms Spain said that the code was there to ensure people knew what was right and wrong.
She added: “We are saying something unusual but actually as a nation we’re facing an even bigger risk that our children have less and less contact with wildlife and we think that if we say to children ‘you can’t touch flowers, you can’t pick them’ we turn them off.
“What we want is for people to learn more about wild flowers and know what’s around them. It is OK to bring a few daisies home and make a daisy chain. That’s what we’re encouraging, not wholesale picking.” Last year footage emerged of a police officer confiscating 27 daffodils from two girls who had picked them from a verge in Nottinghamshire.
♦ The Royal Horticultural Society’s fifth garden in Bridgewater is aiming to encourage “Generation Rent” to grow fruit and vegetables in small spaces. Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg hope their kitchen garden will show younger people how to grow produce in flats and on balconies. Ms Harris said: “We’ll be trying out new varieties that can’t be found in the supermarket.”
‘If we say to children you can’t touch flowers, you can’t pick them, we turn them off’
On the day of her Diamond Jubilee, Queen Victoria pressed some lily of the valley between the pages of a book. That book is now in the possession of the Queen. The Queen’s own favourite flower is said to be the primrose, and the primrose is today the subject of controversy. Plantlife, a nature conservation charity, wants children to study flowers and pick the odd primrose or dog violet. Other botanists are aghast at the idea, fearing that hecatombs of endangered plants might be sacrificed to rampaging crowds of seven-year-olds. A middle way can surely be found. A well-kept pressed wildflower book is more likely to instil a love for native flora than barbed wire round every umbel of cow parsley. Daisies must still be made into chains, and the occasional sunlit buttercup be shone on a youngster’s chin.