Butterfly Conservation is pointing to where we can get some free wild-flower seeds:
Claim your FREE packet of wild flower seeds | Grow Wild
Here's their regular newsletter:
It's not
the end of the butterfly season just yet. With forecasters suggesting September
could see record-breaking temperatures it's likely that our common species will
be hanging around gardens and hedgerows for a few weeks yet. Migrant butterflies
and moths are particularly prevalent at this time of year. Discover what to look
out for when you are out-and-about this month. We've also got some great offers
for you - why not take a few minutes to apply for some free wildflower seeds and
enter our fantastic glamping
competition?
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Painted Ladies Put In An
Appearance
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Warm
air fronts pushing north have coincided with an upsurge in Painted Lady
sightings after a very quiet year so far for this butterfly.
The
number of Painted Ladies that make it to the UK from Europe varies greatly from
year to year. A mass migration occurred in 2009 with more than 10 million
butterflies arriving on our shores in late spring, but numbers have been far
lower in subsequent years.
If
the current spell of mild weather continues, this month could be your best
chance to see a Painted Lady in 2016.
Keep
an eye out in your garden as they will visit to feed on nectar but their most
common habitat is Thistle-covered heaths, dunes and downland.
Don't
stop butterfly spotting this September as many species will still be on the wing
well into autumn. Find out which butterflies to look for and where to find
them...
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Dig It: Autumn
Harvest
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Grow
Wild, the national outreach initiative of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is
giving away thousands of free packets of pollinator-friendly wild flower
seeds.
Each seed packet contains country specific native
wild flower seeds - and autumn is a great time to get sowing. To get your free
seed packet visit the Grow Wild
website.
You
can get free seeds without going online by harvesting them from your garden.
Extend the life of plants you already have or share your seeds with friends and
introduce them to butterfly-friendly flowers.
The
Secret Gardener reveals which plants provide seeds in
September.
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Look Out For: Migrant
Moths
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The wingspan
of the Convolvulus Hawk-moth can reach 12cm, making it one of the largest moths
found in Europe. This distinctive moth isn't a UK resident but is a regular
visitor and September is a great time to try and spot one.
The
Convolvulus will fly towards light at night but because of its size it is pretty
conspicuous in daylight hours too. In recent days this moth has been found on
washing lines, bicycles and fence posts!
Many moths
travel long distances before arriving in the UK. Other immigrant species to look
out for this month include the Crimson Speckled, Vestal and Death's-head
Hawk-moth.
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Butterfly Conservation - Home
A poineer in butterfly gardening was the late Miriam Rothschild:
Excerpt from `Meadow Miracle’ by Mark Griffiths, who traces the remarkable story of `Miriam’s Meadows’. The full article is below.
“Dame Miriam was the great pioneer of wildflower gardening… She dared to entertain the idea (heresy in the 1970s) that is was not only beautiful but beneficial to find a corn poppy or a corn cockle lurking – like some hidden jewel – in a field of wheat. She described her conversion to `wildflower and grass gardening’, as she called it, as a `complete and drastic metamorphosis’. `One day the penny dropped and I realised with dismay that wild flowers had been drained, bulldozed, weed-killered and fertilised out of the fields and that we were now in a countryside reminiscent of a snooker table, and must do something about it.’”
Reproduced courtesy of Country Life – issue January 17th 2008.
Link: www.countrylife.co.uk for subscriptions
Excerpt from Dame Miram’s obituary:
“She campaigned to introduce wild flowers to gardens, parks and motorways, producing her own seed-mix - "Farmer's Nightmare" - for the purpose. The Prince of Wales sought her advice, and she helped to sow an extensive wild-flower meadow at Highgrove. With Clive Farrell, she wrote The Butterfly Gardener (1983), which further promoted interest in wild-flower planting. In her own garden, at Ashton Wold, near Oundle, she mingled the wild with the cultivated - speedwell with cherry blossom, tulips with ragwort - sowing wild-flower meadows in place of lawns. "I do not much care," she would say, "for living on a snooker table." Her kitchen garden was carpeted with pyramids of harebells, with banks of daisies and poppies, lupins and silverweed.”
Miriam Rothschild’s Wildflower seed project | Survive Cancer
The Butterfly Gardener - a book by Miriam Rothschild and Clive Farrell of Butterfly World
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