"Bees, Butterflies and Blooms" BBC 2

[Susie]

The fields they are building on were primarily used for organic beef so no great loss but the hedgerows are amazing and support dormice, snakes and all sorts as well as the butterflies which is why they're supposed to be protected.

[ChrisC]

well i can now agree with Susies earlier post, no food plants, no advice or ideas on nest sites, and i can't help feeling that attracting flying insects to central reservations may not be the best idea.

CHris

[NickB]

Horsham Council has won awards for the wild flower planting they have put in over the last few years and it is nice to see. They are doubling the size of our village and building on mainly agricultural land. I am a bit concerned oh how so many people will affect the nearby SsSi which is High Wood (the housing will run right up to it) and also the flood plain along the arun though. My other concern is the local hedgerows which do support a lot of butterflies as these are being chopped back and in some places ripped out even though as being ancient hedgerow it was supposed to be protected! These hedges support purple, white letter and brown hairstreak.

And when it does happen, it is always no one's fault!
Until it costs the people who develop these areas money, the bottom line will always be that wildlife and habitat is compromised as part of the process!
If prosecution for their actions (or the actions of their contractors) in destroying ancient hedgerows was high-enough on the agenda and cost them money....?
Do you think they may take more interest?

Why should we always accept that ...."it was the sub-contractor wot got it wrong....." as an excuse?
It must be someone's job to certify the work-done is in the right place, at the right time and appropriate for the area - and pay them for it?

In the world where I live, if the job is not delivered to specification = no happy customers = no pay........

Rant over

[Susie]

Well said, Nick!

well i can now agree with Susies earlier post, no food plants, no advice or ideas on nest sites, and i can't help feeling that attracting flying insects to central reservations may not be the best idea.

CHris

Overall I thought the programmess were a good starting place and I hope they encourage some people to plant more insect friendly plants.

That's how I started and only over time did I start planting more food plants.

[essexbuzzard]

I enjoyed the progamme. I was impressed with the Sheffied sites,in particular. I always thought it was a bit narrow minded to plant just native species. A blend with carefully selected introduced flowers,to extend the season,seems to please the wider public taste. The Olimpic park looked good,too.

[Dave McCormick]

I just saw the last episode yesterday as I recorded it, was impressed by the Olympic meadows and the city flower meadows looked great. Made me think. The title of the show was "Bees Butterflies and Blooms" and there has been less about butterflies than there was bees and hoverflies. In a time when butterflies are way down in numbers, I did hope for more on them. I did agree though that having places which wild flowers can calm you down or make you act differently, especially if you see a butterfly, dragonfly, bee or other insects fluttering around the flowers. I still remember the days when I was a child in 1993-95 running through a wild flower meadow not far from my grandparents house and seeing the red admirals, common blues, six-spot burnet moths and small copper butterflies. Did that last year again in the same meadow (still there) and was surprised by the numbers of dark-green fritillary there and seeing common blues chasing the fritillaries. Always good to do that at a young age and show these places to young children.

They showed the mixes like "Candytuft" or all natives and made me think of truely where the wildflower mix seeds actually originate. Are they true native or same species but not native to the country or geographical area your in? In Ireland this is something that some are concerned about polluting the native wildflowers with brought in wildplant seeds which are same species but non native gene stock.

Yesterday I was sent an e-mail about a place that deals in only true Irish wildflower seeds and they have rescued the true Irish cornflower from extinction as most seen in Ireland these days are non native English ones, and the true native one is very rare. Since I live in Northern Ireland, I wanted only native plants, and had a look at their mixes and they have all sorts including Cornfield annuals, orchard, woodland, hedgerow, seaside, wetlands, species rich grassland, lanes, stone walls, drumlins, clay soils, lime soils, brown earth, infertile subsoils etc...

Their mixes seemed similar to the ones seen in the programme, most have all native plants, but the odd one has a couple of non natives to extend the flowering season. I am now getting their bog mix of wildplants which includes:

Bell Heather, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Bog Asphodel, Bog Cotton, Burdock, Bush Vetch, Corn Chamomile, Corn Marigold, Corn Poppy, Corncockle, Cornflower, Devil's bit Scabious, Eyebright, Fleabane, Foxglove, Greater Trefoil, Hoary Plantain, Lesser Knapweed, Marsh Bedstraw, Marsh Cinquefoil, Marsh Ragwort, Marsh Thistle, Meadow Buttercup, Meadowsweet, Ox-eye Daisy. Pokeweed, Purple Loosestrife, Ragged Robin, Red Bartsia, Red Campion, Red Clover, Red Rattle, Redshank, Ribwort Plantain, Rough Hawksbit, Scented Mayweed, Sheep's Sorrell, Sorrel, Water Avens, Wild Angelica, Wild Carrot, Yarrow, Yellow Flag Iris, Yellow Loosestrife, Yellow Rattle.

Also plan to ask my relatives who own an area of cutover bog, if I could sow some of these in areas of the bog that have been a little damaged by the peat cutting in the past, which has now stopped A lot of these plants don't exist in the bog but a few used to. Hopefully if successful, will bring lots more insect life to the area. Not sure what "pokeweed" is though.

Also I mentioned in a previous post, the lack of foodplants mentioned in the programmes, but thinking on it, besides a few non flowery plants like nettles, docks, bog cotten etc... most butterflies/moths feed on "showy" native flowering plants like devils-bit scabious, birds-foot trefoil, dog violet, wild pansy etc... so its not all bad when it comes to that. There just has to be allowance for these other plants like nettles, sorrel, docks. I remember once seeing a wet meadow and in the middle of it was a sort of small mound covered in about 200 nettles, this area had peacock/small tortoiseshell butterflies everywhere. Saw hundreds of cats on the nettles but everywhere else looked great with the ragged robin, birds-foot trefoil, vetches, ox-eye daisies etc...

The fields they are building on were primarily used for organic beef so no great loss but the hedgerows are amazing and support dormice, snakes and all sorts as well as the butterflies which is why they're supposed to be protected.

Don't know how David Cameron could say this government is going to be the greenest government ever and wants to protect the environment and wildlife when things like this if the hedgerows are not protected properly and HS2 are going ahead. YOu can have sustainable housing and keep wildlife areas, if its done right, but it doesn't seem that much of the time people consider this.