This Site Map and Gallery is arranged differently to the others. You can find the wild flower in one of the 23 Wild Flower Galleries or if

• you know its name, use the WILD FLOWER PLANT INDEX pages below and to the right
• you know which habitat it lives in, use HABITAT TABLES pages on the right
• you know which family it belongs to, use WILD FLOWER FAMILY PAGES below and to the right
• you have seen its flower or seed, use the Comparison Pages in the Wild Flower Gallery on the left, or
• you have seen its flower, use the Comparison Pages in the Colour Wheel on the left.

There are 1 Plant Description Pages in this Wild Flower Gallery and 5 Family Pages have photos of 47 Plants

• (o)3 Sundew Family - Droseraceae
• 1 (o)1 Tamarisk Family - Tamaricaceae
• Tassel-Pondweed Family - Ruppiaceae
• (o)4 Teasel Family - Dipsacaceae
• (o)21 Thyme (Mint) Family 1 - Labiatae
• (o)18 Thyme (Mint) Family 2 - Labiatae

Each plant named in each of the Wildflower Family Pages may have a link to its Plant Description Page in its Common Name in one of those Wildflower Plant Galleries and will have links to external sites to purchase the plant or seed in its Botanical Name, photos in its Flowering Months and habitat details in its Habitat Column.

The Plight of the Honey Bee from Bee Happy Plants Ltd:-

"In mid summer, our gardens awash with colourful seas of showy blooms, may appear to be a haven for bees. Over the last few decades there has been a garden centre boom in cheap and cheerful bedding plants or cultivars which produce ever more stunning flowers. The trouble is that many of them are of little or no use to honey-bees or bumblebees. Double blooms and many cultivars contain neither pollen nor nectar. Their sole purpose seems to be for us, for that glance across a splash of colour whilst we sip a cool summer drink.

Outside our cities and gardens the situation is not much better; there has been a staggering decline in flower-rich hay meadows, wild spaces and wildflower leys. About 97% of our original flower-rich habitats have been lost in the past 60 years. And with these, fast disappearing from our landscapes, are flowering plants which have evolved over millennia alongside bees and in perfect symbiosis with them. These provide bees with the absolute ideal in terms of pollen, nectar and propolis, with different species flowering in succession throughout the year.

Add to this, bees have their fair share of parasites and diseases; and for a final blow, a new generation of insecticides originally developed in the 1990’s to protect fruit trees from aphid attack are, ironically, apparently harming bees. There is science-based evidence coming out of France which proves that many pesticides, in sub-lethal doses, are harmful to bees.


Bees urgently need our help!

Luckily there is much we can do: Think of bees when you garden. This is so easy because many of bees’ favourite plants are also culinary or medicinal herbs, wildflowers or fruits of every kind. Most of them are unadulterated species plants. These don’t just look good, they do us and the bees good too. We can provide many of these kinds of herbaceous perennials, shrubs and trees. The bees’ favourites are our priority

Checklist for Plants for Bees

There are a just a few keys points to remember when choosing plants for bees:

• Approved by bees - Anecdotal evidence has been collected from all over the world, from many people, beekeepers, entomologists, wildlife enthusiasts and gardeners who have observed bees' foraging preferences. We are also planning scientific field studies for 2012 to confirm which garden plants do prove the most popular with our bees.

• 100% safe for bees - Plants that are grown without the use of pesticides (especially neonicotinoids such as 'Clothianidin', 'Imidacloprid', 'Thiacloprid' or 'Acetamiprid') or other chemicals that may harm bees. Organic (or Biodynamic) plants are 100% safe for bees.

• Species plants - You can't go wrong with natural, 'species' plants that have evolved with bees over millennia. Many artificially bred cultivers or clones, are sterile and often do not produce nectar (for example, the nectaries having been bred into extra petals). Though most fruit cultivars are fine.

• Produces plenty of nectar or pollen - Some of the bees' favourite plants produce greater quantities of pollen or nectar than others - that is the kind of information we will try to include in our plant descriptions - especially after the scientific studies being carried out in our bee sancturay have concluded in 2012.

• Flowers throughout the times of greatest need - There are certain times when pollen or nectar are needed: Early spring is a time of great need for pollen (which triggers egg-laying by the queen); All season from early spring to late Autumn nectar is needed, though there is a 'crisis period' from the end of June until September (in the South of the UK) when adult bees' numbers are at a peak and their need for nectar is vital. This summer period is one we should concentrate on providing copious amounts of nectar in our gardens."

The rarity of each plant as a wild plant in Britain is shown preceeding the Common Name in its Plant Description Page by the following star system:-

• No Star indicates a common and widely distributed plant like Marsh Marigold
• * for a plant that is only locally common like Grass of Parnassus
• ** for a scarce plant, which usually grow in limited areas like Crested Cow-wheat, but may be thinly scattered over a wide area like Narrow Helleborine
• *** are for real rarities, growing in only a few places, and usually rare even there like Cheddar Pink.

Nurseries that grow and sell plants to the Public:-

British Wild Flower Plants ( Burlingham Gardens, 31 Main Road, North Burlingham, Norfolk. NR13 4TA. Tel/Fax: 01603 716615 email office@wildflowers.co.uk website http://www.wildflowers.co.uk) is a family-run nursery started in 1986. They currently stock nearly 400 species of native plants.

John Chambers' Wild Flower Seeds ( 15 Westleigh Road, Barton Seagrave, Kettering, Northants. NN15 5AJ. Tel 01933 652562 Fax: 01933 652576 website John Chambers' Wild Flower Seeds) offers the country's largest and most comprehensive range of seeds for native British produced wild flower species and mixtures; wild, ornamental and cultivated grass species and mixtures. In addition, offers native British produced wild flower plants, seedlings and bulbs; associated books, posters and wallcharts. John Chambers' Wild Flower Garden at the Royal Showground, Stoneleigh, Kenilworth, Warwickshire is open to the public at both the Royal and Town and Country Shows. It shows how effectively plants from different habitats can be incorporated into garden settings. Above all, it demonstrates how colourful, attractive and suitable wild flowers are for use in gardens.

Coblands Nurseries:-
Coblands Nurseries were founded in 1963 growing a wide range of shrubs, herbaceous, grasses, ferns and trees in the ‘coblands’ of Kent. The production nursery extends over 120 acres on a number of sites in and around Tonbridge, growing approximately a million plants at any one time.
www.best4plants.co.uk now brings this wealth of knowledge and expertise to the general public as well as the trade.

BritishFlora (Grange Farm, Widmer End, High Wycombe, Bucks. HP15 6AE. Tel 01494 718203 Fax 01494 718989 Email: info@britishflora.co.uk website www.britishflora.co.uk ) is the leading provider of horticultural solutions to civil engineering problems encountered in major conservation, environmental, remediation, translocation and renewal schemes in habitats as diverse as highways, business parks, landfill sites, nature reserves, and the banks of tidal estuaries, rivers, canals, lakes and ponds as well as heath and salt marshes. With over 300 species held in stock (PDF list of available plants available from their Wildflower and Aquatic Plants Page of the Products and Services Section), they produce over 5 million native wild flower and aquatic plants including 1 million reeds annually.