Why can’t children learn about nature via nature walks and looking at the flowers? why do they need to pick them? if every child picked a small bunch then there would soon be none left. Not only for today but in years to come. nothing left to self seed and bulbs not getting fed by the dieting back leaves. most people don’t live where there are big natural woodlands. They might be lucky and have a few smaller areas where nature rules but these are at threat all the time with so much land being lost to new housing estates it won’t be that many years before the only green left is the green artificial grass popping up everywhere.
i know where I live that in the 5 years I have lived here there has been several new housing developments all on what we’re green sites not brown. The local conservation group is in a contestant struggle to preserve what little we have.
if every primary school in the area took one class each to pick flowers on it then it would be empty by the end of the week.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
I think I'm in the no pick camp too. I was brought up in the town and wild flowers were everywhere when I was small, every scrap of wasteland was covered in them. It's different now and I don't see the harm in explaining that we need to look after our wildflowers to small children and encouraging them to study and learn about the flowers where they grow. I always tell my grandchildren to leave them for the bees as that's how they get their food and they are really happy with that explanation.
Why can’t children learn about nature via nature walks and looking at the flowers? why do they need to pick them? if every child picked a small bunch then there would soon be none left. Not only for today but in years to come. nothing left to self seed and bulbs not getting fed by the dieting back leaves.............
............if every primary school in the area took one class each to pick flowers on it then it would be empty by the end of the week.
I'm glad that I live in Scotland where we have hundreds of thousands of acres still untouched my man where wildflowers abound. But even here, our councils have made a dedicated effort in the last few years to replace the 'normal' council bedding in some of the parks and roundabouts, by wildflower plantings - and very nice it is too. Even along grass verges in villages they have planted loads of wild flowers. In our village there is a group of guerilla gardeners who go round and sow wildflower seed on some of the verges. So my feelings for those of you not so fortunate is to leave the children to do as children should - explore and learn - but offset that by 'adopting' grass verges and waste ground, and I'm sure there is plenty of that, and sowing your own wildflower meadows.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
From an urban setting, I'm sorry to say that some of the comments here are almost verging on hysterical. Like Hogweed's council, there have been big efforts in the councils here leaving verges untouched and allowing many areas to grow wild deliberately.
Year on year, flowers have been increasing. I doubt that a few children from parents that allow them to pick the odd flower will kill them off forever. If anything, parents and some teachers at school are far from interested in flowers. This is the reality. Therefore, many of the flowers growing either wild or deliberately planted will not be seen as 'cool' let alone getting picked.
I do understand that from a gardener's point of view, it feels like their beautiful and pleasant land has been attacked, but the attack is from lack of care for gardening whether you have a garden or not. It would be the decision makers that choose how to plant free green space, if they feel that is a priority. Not a few parents that allow their children to pick the odd flower in spring and summer.
In the south east there is not so much waste ground left. Where I am I am lucky that the bits of land around me are part of a conservation area with holm oaks. Lucky as the trees are over 150 years old and beautiful even if I have to put up with the dropped leaves but as it is part of a conservation area the council would frown upon us if we desired to go scattering wildflower seeds. The area is strictly controlled due to these oaks. grass verge planting sound lovely but when you are talking about verges in residential streets and not pretty lanes it is somewhat different. Cars will park with their wheels on the verges, the council comes along with its ride on mower and chops the lot. They are not going to steer around a few flowers or come back once the flowers have past. i live in a nice area but still the sheer volume of traffic is a nightmare. With most household having more than one car parking on verges is common.
Most roundabouts have been leased out. The lease holder maintains the roundabout in exchange for putting an advertising board on it. A few of the larger roundabouts are still council maintained and they are kept very nice with mature planting of mainly shrubs.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
For those of you who didn't hear the programme or who haven't read the link ... there is a list and photos of a few wild flowers that the Plantlife charity, as a result of their research, believes that it's ok for children to pick a few of . They are
Greater stitchwort primrose red campion common dog-violet Ox-eye daisy Cow parsley Meadow buttercup Common knapweed Daisy Yarrow Dandelion
There are also sheets of photos of other flowers which they can find, record on their sheets and go home and log into the site and report their finds and the location ... adding to Plantlife's records of our wild flowers.
If children can't pick cow parsley, what do they feed their pet rabbits on? We spent many happy hours scouring the roadside verges for cow parsley, milk thistles, clover, vetch and hog weed for our pets ... or is that wrong now? Have pet rabbits got to eat only processed food nowadays?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If every child in the country was picking handfuls of flowers I agree it might be a problem. Unfortunately very few of them have the means, opportunity or desire to, so I’m all for letting those that have an interest in it doing so. If they are happy to admire them from afar then all well and good, but children like to touch, explore and experiment with things, that’s what piques their interest. The ones that are interested in wildflowers now are the ecologists, gardeners and conservationist of the future, and am pretty sure will more than make up for picking a few flowers that will do the plant no harm at all in the long run when they are planting and looking after their own
Well it certainly gave rise to an interesting discussion on here. If that was their intention then it worked. The responses seem to me to have been well reasoned and apposite not hysterical in the least. We each have our own opinions and experiences and it is very interesting to be able to read yours.
Posts
why do they need to pick them?
if every child picked a small bunch then there would soon be none left. Not only for today but in years to come. nothing left to self seed and bulbs not getting fed by the dieting back leaves.
most people don’t live where there are big natural woodlands. They might be lucky and have a few smaller areas where nature rules but these are at threat all the time
with so much land being lost to new housing estates it won’t be that many years before the only green left is the green artificial grass popping up everywhere.
i know where I live that in the 5 years I have lived here there has been several new housing developments all on what we’re green sites not brown. The local conservation group is in a contestant struggle to preserve what little we have.
if every primary school in the area took one class each to pick flowers on it then it would be empty by the end of the week.
But even here, our councils have made a dedicated effort in the last few years to replace the 'normal' council bedding in some of the parks and roundabouts, by wildflower plantings - and very nice it is too. Even along grass verges in villages they have planted loads of wild flowers. In our village there is a group of guerilla gardeners who go round and sow wildflower seed on some of the verges.
So my feelings for those of you not so fortunate is to leave the children to do as children should - explore and learn - but offset that by 'adopting' grass verges and waste ground, and I'm sure there is plenty of that, and sowing your own wildflower meadows.
Year on year, flowers have been increasing. I doubt that a few children from parents that allow them to pick the odd flower will kill them off forever. If anything, parents and some teachers at school are far from interested in flowers. This is the reality. Therefore, many of the flowers growing either wild or deliberately planted will not be seen as 'cool' let alone getting picked.
I do understand that from a gardener's point of view, it feels like their beautiful and pleasant land has been attacked, but the attack is from lack of care for gardening whether you have a garden or not. It would be the decision makers that choose how to plant free green space, if they feel that is a priority. Not a few parents that allow their children to pick the odd flower in spring and summer.
grass verge planting sound lovely but when you are talking about verges in residential streets and not pretty lanes it is somewhat different. Cars will park with their wheels on the verges, the council comes along with its ride on mower and chops the lot. They are not going to steer around a few flowers or come back once the flowers have past.
i live in a nice area but still the sheer volume of traffic is a nightmare. With most household having more than one car parking on verges is common.
Most roundabouts have been leased out. The lease holder maintains the roundabout in exchange for putting an advertising board on it. A few of the larger roundabouts are still council maintained and they are kept very nice with mature planting of mainly shrubs.
Greater stitchwort
primrose
red campion
common dog-violet
Ox-eye daisy
Cow parsley
Meadow buttercup
Common knapweed
Daisy
Yarrow
Dandelion
There are also sheets of photos of other flowers which they can find, record on their sheets and go home and log into the site and report their finds and the location ... adding to Plantlife's records of our wild flowers.
If children can't pick cow parsley, what do they feed their pet rabbits on? We spent many happy hours scouring the roadside verges for cow parsley, milk thistles, clover, vetch and hog weed for our pets ... or is that wrong now? Have pet rabbits got to eat only processed food nowadays?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If they are happy to admire them from afar then all well and good, but children like to touch, explore and experiment with things, that’s what piques their interest.
The ones that are interested in wildflowers now are the ecologists, gardeners and conservationist of the future, and am pretty sure will more than make up for picking a few flowers that will do the plant no harm at all in the long run when they are planting and looking after their own
The responses seem to me to have been well reasoned and apposite not hysterical in the least.
We each have our own opinions and experiences and it is very interesting to be able to read yours.