Blue Daisy Blog

The RHS has recently released an additional plants for pollinators list - this time focusing on native wildflowers - many of which are also good for inclusion in our gardens.

The plight of our pollinators was highlighted in our recent Pledge for Pollinators article. We are passionate about trying to help our pollinators who are in serious trouble right now and whilst the reasons for their decline are varied and complex part of the problem can be attributed to the reduction in the abundance of wildflowers in the countryside.

The new list contains over 200 wildflower plants and the cultivated garden plants list that we linked to in our previous article has now also been extended to include over 400 plants.

Our gardens are becoming increasingly important in the fight to help our pollinators and we can make a real difference by including as many plants as possible in our planting schemes that are good sources of nectar and pollen.

In our last newsletter we asked our Coventry based Blue Daisy clients to take part in a plant pot amnesty.  Thank you to all who took part – it is very much appreciated!  We now have a new selection of plant pots to use when potting up and growing on new seedlings and cuttings and if we can recycle pots it means that we can also keep the price down even further when we sell the plants on.

Apart from keeping plant prices down for you, there is also a bigger, very real reason why we asked you to do this – it's estimated that there are 500 million plant pots introduced into circulation every year, and as yet, there is still no real way of dealing with them once they've been emptied. 

While I wouldn't exactly say I came to horticulture 'late in life' I have come to it after spending many years as an HR professional first.  I'm now loving my new job and in the words of the RHS and Alan Titchmarsh I am honestly just as 'proud of my new career' as I was when I was doing my first one.  I worked just as hard to qualify as a garden designer as I did to achieve my HR qualification – and I still have much to learn in my new chosen field.

Perceptions of Gardeners

It saddens me then to hear and read that the majority of young people's perception of a career in gardening is as one only to be considered if they have 'failed' academically.  In Victorian times gardeners and head gardeners were held in high esteem – it was their knowledge and skill that delivered one of the most coveted of status symbols: a beautiful and bountiful garden. How things have changed.  Nowadays we seem to think that anyone can pick up a lawn mower and it makes them a gardener.