by Dr Viv Rolfe
On Wednesday 22nd April I was invited to speak at an event in London about Arnica montana – the tiny yellow flower in the daisy family that is one of nature’s miracles and contains compounds that relieve bruising, swelling and pain when applied topically. Arnica grows in the Alps and in mountain pastures in Europe but not the UK. For our traditional remedy we’d go to Arnica’s cousin the Daisy (Bellis perennis) as it has similar properties.
Whilst I was walking around the hot and dusty city, I was drawn into Green Park and was delighted to find a wildflower meadow. The “Coronation Meadow” project is a fabulous one with the aim of creating a wild meadow in every UK county. The project now has 90 meadows across 60 counties including the one in Green Park. It was like finding a sanctuary away from the noise.
The meadow is a few years old so I was interested to see who was there, and what plants were battling it out. There were newly planted hawthorn and blackthorn trees in blossom. In the meadow itself were obvious things like cow parsley dandelion, red dead nettle, stinging nettle, buttercup, daisy, and borage. What the project team had done is collect the hay from meadows in other locations and use the seed. So it is perhaps not surprising that these wild plants that signify strength, resilience and courage would be the first to pop up.
Green Park has been a royal park for many centuries – I can imagine that many royal spaniels and corgis have enjoyed their time there. Therefore it will be interesting to see what plants spring-up, as we know that seeds of so called “Rip Van Winkle” plants can lay dormant for many years. I wonder what treasures are beneath the soil.
What was clear was that the bees and insects were loving the space. I think if we all have some open space or corner of our garden, it is a great idea to let it go wild! If you have a larger piece of land and wish to get more specific advice then PlantLife.org.uk would be the people to contact or for super local advice, talk to our local Glorious Grasslands team who collect seed from Gloucestershire meadows.
Leave a Reply