I wrote about a local area of grassland last year, inspired by seeing the Hay Time In The Dales show garden at The RHS Chatsworth Flower Show.
I thought I’d share a few pictures from a recent walk, timed to see the wild lupins in flower.
I imagine the plant diversity in the meadow attracts a wide range of insects, small mammals and lizards. Flowers that thrive there include vetch, yellow rattle, red and white clovers, bird’s foot trefoil, daisies, aqueligias, wild orchids, thistles, dock, ribwort plantain and common bistort, pictured with a bee, above.
Rosa rugosa, probably a garden escapee, was taking advantage of the sunshine on the outskirts of the meadow. Its large, single, bright pink flowers looked like crumpled silk as they unfurled from the buds. A natural underplanting of buttercups and meadow grass made this wild plant look as lovely to me as any I’ve seen in a fancy border. (If that idea doesn’t pass muster with you, half close your eyes, and imagine the grass is crocosmia or iris and the buttercups, potentilla.)
Cee’s Flower of the Day is a wild lupin too. If you liked my picture, you’ll love hers.
That’s wonderful. I’ve never seen wild lupins in England, only in France. Yet this can’t be a million miles from Bolton……
It has a Bolton postcode – it’s overlooking Wayoh Reservoir, about 6 miles from Bolton town centre.
Ah! We’ll have to have a snoop.
Oh, beautiful! Nothing lifts my heart the way a field full of flowers does.
Each flower in itself is almost demure, but put them together and you get fireworks.
You bet!
Beautiful wild flowers. 😀
Thanks, Cee. I thought these lupins looked almost cultivated when I compared them to your picture.
It looks fabulous. I never knew we had wild lupins here. I know the south island in New Zealand is famous for them and they do look amazing.
The lupins are evidently happy there. I’ve seen them growing wild a few times, including near Shifnal / Telford along a slip road on to the M54. These ones have chosen a more peaceful spot.
Are they genuinely native plants or escapees from gardens?
I suspect escapees. They are not very wild-looking, although they are naturalising.
They are not near any signs of a house, that’s the only thing. Often escapees don’t escape very far.
Is there anything prettier than lupins? What a lovely walking spot.
It is well laid out so you can enjoy the flowers and is popular with dog walkers etc.
Fabulous wild flowers. I love those purple lupins.
They seem to be trendy as garden plants at the moment too, or perhaps I’m just noticing them more this year.
Lovely to see wildflower meadows
It’s hard to imagine a place like this is rare – it seems to be something we have internalised, if we had a particular type of childhood.
Wonderful wildflowers!
Thanks, Leya.
Beautiful. Just the burst of colour I need on a grey morning.
Happy to oblige!
So pretty! I love meadow wildflowers – perhaps they originally inspired the first flower gardens?
That’s a lovely thought.
Quite a spectacle with all that variety of flowers, form and colour. You must have been very happy to wander around and enjoy it all.
There is a sign nearby that explains the project ‘aims to increase public awareness, enjoyment and understanding of this internationally important habitat’ and it certainly has that effect on me.
Nice.
Thanks, David.
An excellent wild bouquet
That’s a nice way of putting it.
I could stand (or, more likely, loll) in that meadow for hours. There is the most compelling sense of peace in your photos! That startling blue is gorgeous, but it has a lot of competition. I’ve never heard of most of the plants you list, certainly never heard of the common bistort, and I envy the bee his close-up look. That first photo is a stunner — I think the yellow flowers look like animation superimposed on the meadow! I love the whole of it. I also love the distance beyond the brilliant blue. And, yes, crumpled silk exactly! So much to look at — thank you!
I could have used their botanical names but the folk names are more evocative. I have been feeling the urge to go back again. It is not far from home.
My picture doesn’t really give a good flavour of the amount of lupins in the meadow – 50 or 60 plants, perhaps more.
I cannot imagine that much of such a blue. Woe.
Ooops. Just noticed the typo as I clicked “Send.” Make that a “wow” and not a “woe.”
p.s. Rosa’s life cycle was not lost on me. What buds!
I didn’t think it would be. Lovely long sepals too, with a hint of a curl.