Getting to know the wildflowers
Looking closely and spotting the differences
Dear reader and flower friends,
How does this early June morning find you? Well, I hope. Round and about I hear some grumbles about the weather, to be expected given that spring was cold, late, wet and windy. But, glimmers of hope, over the past couple of weeks, it really feels as though things are getting started. Watching carp thrashing around the shallows at Gilroy Pond yesterday, it seemed too late for them to be spawning, but they do like the water to warm up a little. The ducklings have grown and moved on and I’m delighted to report the terrapin was NOT in its customary position on the log yesterday! To explain… I’m not sure. I’m just not sure. Did I see a terrapin, sunning itself on that log? My daughter was with me and verified my observations, but the next time I checked it was in EXACTLY the same position. I began to doubt myself. So the fact that, on an overcast day, it was not there, feels like an odd step in the right direction. I’ll report back.
Despite spring being late, we are in June and there’s no way round it, this is early summer. Workwise, I am busy adding new wildflowers to my range of paper craft kits, preparing for the Wirral Open Studio Tour and recruiting for the new series of The Paper Wildflower Course which starts on Tuesday 18th June. Here’s something else to throw into the mix: given the overwhelming sense of excitement building and bubbling up I’m struggling to focus. Yes dear friends, I am a Swiftie, and the prospect of taking my girls to see Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour next week is almost too much! Anyone who has attended a class with me knows I’m a massive fan, and the idea of actually being in the same space as her and - just as exciting - all those other diehards - is immense! So along with everything else I’m planning my outfit…
To calm myself down, and attempting to be in the moment, I take myself out on a walk to the pond. Lately, what can be a brisk forty minute jaunt has been taking over an hour - there’s just so much to look at. The fields, the hedgerows, the waysides, everything is so verdant. The grasses have taken over, and now it’s the turn of the taller plants to push through and upwards. Hogweeds are starting to appear, meadow buttercups can grow as tall as the grasses, bindweed is sending its shoots upwards, winding anti-clockwise around whatever it can find. This is the time when nettles grow like giants - fortunately there always seems to be a dock leaf growing close to hand, or failing that, ribwort plantain, whose leaves have a soothing, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effect and are far better than docks at allaying stings. Has anyone else noticed how tall the plantain has grown this year? And so much of it! What is nature telling us?
It’s also that time of year when the hemlock suddenly explodes - I really don’t remember there ever being so much hemlock, maybe I wasn’t paying attention. Umbellifers are a great example of why it is so important to look really closely - there are so many of them, easily confused. As I walked out yesterday morning I passed at least five different plants, all blessed with the typical, radial flower - dense heads of white flowers on spokes radiating from a central stem, umbrella style. Three are harmless - cow parsley, ground elder, hogweed. The other two are highly toxic - hemlock and hemlock water droplet. Look out for differences in the stems and leaves, but most importantly, if you are not 100% sure, don’t touch. Take a moment to scroll back up and go through the image galleries. I’ve included detailed pictures of Cow Parsley, Ground Elder, Hemlock and Hemlock Water Dropwort.
I hope the images and descriptions are helpful. Foraging wildflowers can be very tempting but - aside from the fact they should be left for the pollinators - it’s not always a great idea if you don’t know what you are picking. In times gone by, children would pick the hollow stems of cow parsley use as pea shooters. Get it wrong and the mistake could be catastrophic. Getting to know the flowers and learning to differentiate between plants is a great way of immersing yourself in nature. Both the Woodland Trust and the Wildlife Trust have useful identification guides, Wikipedia dives deep into both botany and folklore for most plants and flowers, and there are some wonderful books out there. One of my all time favourites for plant identification is the Keeble Martin “Concise British Flora in Colour” (1965) - the illustrations do not date and I find illustrations a more useful form of reference for plants than photographs - but that’s a subject for another letter.
This coming weekend is Wirral Open Studios Tour and I hope some of you will be able to visit my studio at 3, Wood Street, Hoylake CH47 2DU. There are seven artists to visit in this studio building alone, many more in Hoylake alone and a whopping ninety-nine artists across the whole of the Wirral - it will be a Grand Tour!
Hoping to see you then, with love, Ling @paperbydragonfly
Would you like to learn the gentle craft of paper flower making? Join me for The Paper Wildflower Course, starting on Tuesday 18th June with OxEye Daisy - join me at 10am for a 2.5 hour session learning how to craft this iconic British wildflower. The classes are currently offered at a special rate of £30 (full price £35), and you can either opt to book the whole series or individual classes. Spaces are limited - book now to secure your place! This is the first of six sessions and will be followed by harebells, cyclamen, sea thistle, cornflowers and dandelions. Paper flower making is a mindful, relaxing hobby which cannot help but bring you closer to nature. The small classes are a friendly and welcoming space to come into and have some relaxing ‘me time’. Plus - you’ll have a wonderful wildflower bouquet by the end of it!
