Wildflowers for the Queen 2021 by tpr media consultants

Wildflowers for the Queen Evaluation and cuttings

Media Evaluation of campaign by tpr media consultants May 2021 +44 (0)20 8347 7020 | sophie@tpr-media.com www.tpr-media.com

Wildflowers for the Queen Overview Wildflowers for the Queen, a largeformat art title by fineart photographer, Hugo Rittson Thomas, celebrates the Coronation Wildflower Meadows initiative. This was established by the charity Plantlife under the patronage of HRH Prince Charles to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation and highlight the shocking loss of wildflower meadows which now account for only 1% of land across the UK. Plantlife’s Botanical Specialist, Trevor Dines, wrote the main commentary for the book and there were a number of highprofile contributors including Philip Mould, Nicholas Coleridge and Julian Fellowes.

PR Campaign Overview tpr media carried out a broad ranging, highvisibility campaign, working for a year on the project. We first discussed strategy in March 2020, to prepare for longlead media placement with monthly magazines to tie in with the original publication date of October 2020. This was later rescheduled to February 2021. We explored a range of angles including: art, the royals, conservation, biodiversity, gardening and photography. This enabled us to connect to journalists across the media landscape and political spectrum with a highimpact campaign. There were over 50 pieces of coverage, including highprofile radio. Martha Kearney from The Today Programme on Radio 4, interviewed Hugo Rittson Thomas and Trevor Dines (this rocketed the book to becoming an Amazon top #1 best seller in the Lifestyle and Photography and Botany and Plant Sciences) and there was also an interview on Cotswolds Radio. There were five features across the nationals, including a one by the doyen of gardening, Robin Lane Fox in the Financial Times, a spread in The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Mail, The Telegraph. We had seven monthly magazine features, including World of Interiors (feature and inside cover), Country Life (front cover and feature), Tatler (feature in magazine and online), Country and Townhouse (feature and podcast) and The English Garden (features in UK and US editions). There were also profile interviews with Hugo Rittson Thomas, glowing reviews (House and Garden/Gardens Illustrated) and a number of news stories (Gardeners’ World). The campaign reached just under 10 million people, with a news value of more than £1.15 million. Please see analytics below – these exclude radio coverage and podcasts.

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Analytics Total News Reach

Total Items

Total News Value

10/6/2021

9.68m

1.15m

Wildflowers for the Queen – Top 20 Sources by Value Source Name

Article Value (£)

Mail Online UK (Web)

269,640

The World of Interiors

191,459.1

The Sunday Times

111,239.68

Daily Mail (Scotland)

96,508.23

Daily Mail

95,411.13

Financial Times

52,229.32

The Guardian.Com (Web)

52,186

Country Life

44,230.06

House And Garden

39,739.98

The Daily Telegraph Online

30,500

Yahoo! UK and Ireland (Web)

27,668

Tatler

16,154.37

The Sunday Times (Ireland)

14,389.32

Country Town House

14,023.79

BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

14,018.49

Gardens Illustrated This Is Money (Web) BBC Countryfile Cotswold Life MSN UK (Web) All Others

11,954.3 11,350 10,617.5 10,614.24 8,872 17

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Wildflowers for the Queen – Top 20 Sources by Reach Source Name

Article Reach

Mail Online UK (Web)

2,009,108

The Guardian.Com (Web)

1,944,228

The Daily Telegraph Online

1,136,292

Daily Mail

1,133,268

Yahoo! UK and Ireland (Web)

1,030,766

The Sunday Times

653,340

FT.Com (Web)

226,904

This Is Money (Web)

211,409

Bbc Gardeners' World Magazine

208,262

MSN UK (Web)

165,252

Financial Times

163,324

House and Garden

113,182

Tatler

84,515

Daily Mail (Scotland)

67,921

The Sunday Times (Ireland)

66,191

Country Town House

60,000

The World Of Interiors

58,069

House Garden (Web)

53,780

BBC Countryfile

45,384

Country Life

41,314

All Others

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Radio and Podcasts Martha Kearney interviewed Hugo Rittson Thomas and Trevor Dines on the Today Programme 18 January 2021

This interview helped the book become Amazon top #1 best seller in the Lifestyle and Photography and Botany and Plant Sciences #1 Best Seller

Hugo Rittson Thomas

in Lifestyle Photography

#1 Best Seller

Trevor Dines

in Botany and Plant Sciences

Number 1 bestseller Amazon – lifestyle photography

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Breakout Culture – Country and Town House podcast with Ed Vaizey and Charlotte Metcalfe 14 March 2021

Cotswolds Radio – Book Club programme interview with Hugo Rittson Thomas 13 February 2021

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National coverage FT – column by Robin Lane Fox 24 April 2021 In print and online. The FT has a highvalue, international audience of more than 1 million

Opinion Gardens

A royal rescue for wild flowers in peril Meadows have been depleted by councils and farmers but Prince Charles and others are seeking to redress the balance ROBIN LANE FOX

Purple loosestrife and white heath bedstraw at Haunn Meadow, Treshnish Farm, Isle of Mull © Hugo Rittson Thomas

Robin Lane Fox APRIL 24 2021

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Even in England, wild flowers are beginning their finest weeks. Primroses have been excellent. The woodland anemones have run them close and now cowslips are up and opening on road verges. Those supreme wonders, the snake’s head fritillaries, have lasted well in damp meadows since early April’s weather turned glacial. It will soon be time for bluebells to take over, as lovely a sight as any in nature. Meanwhile, humans have been hell for wild flowers. They have farmed 97 per cent of Britain’s flowery meadows out of existence since the 1930s. In recent decades, local councils have joined the killing, sending out mechanised cutters as soon as the wild flowers on roadsides begin to become tall and colourful. Have wild flowerrelated accidents, if any, on country lanes fallen significantly as a result? The supreme folly has been this cutting’s timing. In gardens, wild meadows should not be cut before August, so that wild flowers have a chance to seed themselves and multiply. Verge-slashing in May is idiotic, at odds with councils’ professed commitment to the “environment” or even “indigenous” planting. The tide may at last be turning, helped by the charity Plantlife, which has put together a good booklet on “Managing Grassland Road Verges” (plantlife.org.uk). Finally, councils have begun to review their “best practice” and delay their cutting or limit it to a single narrow strip beside each road. Meanwhile, flowery meadows have more friends than ever. Do we have to lose something in order to value it fully? One of their best friends is the Prince of Wales. Since its early beginnings, open spaces in his country garden at Highgrove, in Gloucestershire, have featured wild flowers, of which the most vigorous, as usual, have been white ox-eye daisies. In 2012, the Prince marked the 60th anniversary of his mother’s coronation by launching a plan for Coronation Meadows, sites across Britain in which wild flowers would be fostered. I do not think they were a particular brief of his father, Prince Philip. In the next six weeks, Coronation Meadows will be reaching a peak. Wild flowers are wonderfully indifferent to human death, reminding us that life goes on nonetheless. I hope these meadows may be a consolation to the royal family after their recent loss.

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Joans’ Hill Farm, Herefordshire © Hugo Rittson Thomas

The Prince has just written a foreword to a notable new book on them, Wildflowers for the Queen (Wildflower Press, £50). Ninety Coronation Meadows, he remarks, have already been designated, ranging from the Isle of Mull to Cornwall. More can still join the scheme (coronationmeadows.org.uk for details). They do not have to be in wild, open country. In September 2016, the Queen’s Meadow was inaugurated by schoolchildren with the help of the Prince himself in a corner of London’s Green Park. So far it has been most notable for ox-eye daisies, as irrepressible as ever, and meadow buttercups, which are about to light up nonCoronation grassland anyway. Profits from this big book will go to the charity Plantlife. The compendium’s mastermind is the photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas, known for his camera portraits of members of the royal family, including a mirror-image of the Queen, and for three photobooks on gardens, one on great gardens of London, two on “secret” gardens elsewhere. From Cornwall to Scotland, he has travelled to catch Coronation Meadows in the light that most appeals to him. He quotes Ted Hughes on how dawn “squeezes the fire at the core of the heart”. It never squeezes mine, red hot though it can be from 10am onwards. The dawn light has given some of the book’s big photos too dramatic a look, catching the meadows at Sandringham or the chalkland at Darland Banks in Kent or the culm grassland at Greena Moor in Cornwall at a time that conflicts with when flower lovers see them during many more hours in the day.

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Meadows are not easy to photograph, least of all in close-up. Rittson Thomas likes dark backgrounds for his sprays of individually picked meadow flowers. Against one, the good old echium, or viper’s bugloss, looks decidedly unnatural to my mundane eye.

Cowslips at Sheepleas Meadow, West Horsley, Surrey © Hugo Rittson Thomas

Descriptions of the meadows are broken up by brief sections on celebrities’ experiences of meadow gardening, all in a good cause. From Julian Fellowes to Nicholas Coleridge, chair of the V&A museum, they are full of interest. Like many of us, Alan Titchmarsh remarks how he rebelled against advice to strip off the rich top soil on his two acres of newly bought farmland and remove it before sowing meadow flowers into the layer beneath. Instead, he had the existing soil “freshly tilled” and then sowed wild-flower seed directly into it by hand from a bucket.

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“I marvel each year at the changing scene,” he writes, beginning with a “rash of cowslips” and progressing through ox-eye daisies (yet again), pale blue scabious, marjoram and, recently, some orchids. However, he sowed on to Hampshire chalkland, not rich Lincolnshire loam. He was helped, surely, by its relative poverty. Novice meadow-makers should not expect to match his results on richer soils elsewhere. They need expert advice first, which this book is not written to provide.

Highclere meadow, Hampshire © Hugo Rittson Thomas

Art dealer and TV art star Philip Mould describes a slower progress. After a failed first year, he learnt about yellow rattle, the spreading roots of which combat vigorous grasses and are essential to most meadows’ success. Enjoying the eventual results, he quotes with approval from Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, in which four girls in “gauzy skirts had brushed up from the grass innumerable flies and butterflies which . . . remained caged in the transparent tissue as in an aviary”. Steady on, Mould: chapter 23 is pregnant, I would say, with suppressed itching. The girls were in their Sunday best, en route to morning church, when they found themselves blocked by an overnight flood. Happily, gorgeous Angel Clare chanced to be coming down their road in a pair of sensible boots, thereupon “four hearts gave a big throb”. To help them, he lifted each one across the flood, spurred on by Tess “meeting his glance radiantly”.

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property market, distinctive architecture, interior design and gardens.

I do not want midges in my underpants. In

them only at their best. In the Coronation

late summer, meadows are messy. They are fine for farmers, but this book focuses on scheme, orchids proliferate, from man orchids in Surrey to green-winged orchids at Marden Meadow.

In one day, mechanised farmers can destroy a meadow-flora that has taken decades to develop. It is great that the landowners in this book, often with big estates, are fostering replacements, but a full reinstatement of our losses is still beyond most agricultural budgets. Even ragged robin is becoming an imperilled species. Follow @FTProperty on Twitter or @ft_houseandhome on Instagram to find out about our latest stories first

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Helen Davies: Sunday Times Home section – exclusive Highgrove extract and a section on how to create your own wildflower window box by Trevor Dines 24 January 2021

WHERE THE WILD THINGS

GROW

‘A

the autumn, have resulted in the meadows that delight so many of our visitors. Slowly, the wildflowers have established and started to spread, the yellow rattle within the mix helping to suppress the grasses. Even more satisfyingly, new species have arrived and naturalised as the conditions suited them. There is no doubting the scale of the appalling loss of meadows from the British countryside, with over 97 per cent having vanished since the 1930s. In an attempt to stem this terrible loss, I asked Plantlife to lead the Coronation Meadows partnership with the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and the Rare Breeds AS/ALAMY

walk through a wildflower meadow at the height of its midsummer glory is at once intoxicating and restorative; bringing both joy and peace into our busy lives. The tragedy is that this is an increasingly rare experience. My own meadows at Highgrove are home to over 70 different wildflowers and grasses — from the humble ox-eye daisy, cock’s-foot or bird’s-foot trefoil, through to the glamour of the seven species of orchid that have now become established. But there is hard work behind a meadow’s soft tapestry. The meadows at Highgrove were created around 35 years ago from a seed mix devised by Dame Miriam Rothschild to replicate the natural flora for the old meadows of Gloucestershire that had been lost over time. Years of patient care, including a traditional annual hay cut followed by grazing in

Survival Trust, all of which I am patron of. The idea of the

RUNO BUSTABAD GARCIA/ANDREA EDWARDS/MICHAEL MEIJER/GETTY IMAGES; MARIANTHI LAINA

HRH The Prince of Wales on how we can save Britain’s wildflower dflower meadows and reviving the flora at his Gloucestershire home me Coronation Meadows initiative was a simple one: to find the best surviving meadow in each county and to use seed from that meadow to create a new one. Plantlife and its partners have put the spotlight on these fragile fragments of our heritage, creating an awareness and renewed energy around meadowmaking. The success of the Coronation Meadows shows just what it is possible to achieve with dedication and patience. To do so will also have the great and added advantage of benefiting a host of pollinating insects and bees which are also under such threat . . . To step into a wildflower meadow is to step out of time. Whether a cherished area of one’s garden or part of the wider farmed landscape, meadows hold a special place in our hearts.” Extracted from Wildflowers for the Queen: A Visual Celebration

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of Britain’s Coronation Meadows, photographed by Hugo Rittson Thomas, with a foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales, published by Wildflower Press (£50) with proceeds from sales going to Plantlife; plantlife.org.uk

Right and far right, some of the wildflower meadows at Highgrove

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Robert Hardman – contributor to the book. Daily Mail pictureled doublepage spread and book oﬀer in paper and Mail Online 8 February 2021 o the world as Downton

Mellow yellow: Muker Meadows, North Yorkshire, Hugo’s favourite. Below left, a Bee Orchid

Talking point: A dramatic banked setting for the wildflowers at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. Inset, a Monkey Orchid

Can’t picture a summer’s day? Then delight in Prince Charles’s 2013 brainwave to mark 60 years since his mother’s coronation by carpeting the nation with majestic wildflowers

HOW I SEE IT

by Robert Hardman

AREBELL, Loosestrife, Bird’s-foot Trefoil . . . They could be characters from a Shakespeare comedy, or Thomas Hardy, or else, perhaps, an exotic spy novel.

In fact they all star in an enchanting h ti new book b k on one off the most precious, spectacular and vulnerable features of the British countryside — the wildflower meadow — thanks to an idea by the Prince of Wales. It was back in 2013, as Britain was marking the 60th anniversary of the

Coronation, that he proposed an enduring celebration. Called Coronation Meadows, the idea was to identify the best surviving meadow— a traditional flower-rich grazing area — in each county and then use its seeds to plant another one. The scheme could not be introduced a moment too soon, given that intensive post-war farming methods had wiped out 97 per cent of the British meadows which existed in the 1930s. Since flowers played Si fl l d such h a central t l role l in the Queen’s 1953 Coronation — with the national flowers of all the home nations and of the Commonwealth lovingly embroidered on her gown — it seemed an appropriate moment to return the gesture. The idea also inspired the photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas to capture the project for posterity. The result is Wildflowers For The Queen, a book full of mesmerising photographs of magnificent meadows new and old — including the Prince’s own gardens at Highgrove and the new meadow he has created at Sandringham.

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g It includes contributions from meadow owners including the Earl of Carnarvon, whose Highclere Castle home is known to the world as Downton Abbey. There are studies of magnificent entr individual specimens (who knew tion the UK was home to such a pano- aid ply of orchids?) and the sort of char hazy, happy floral chaos to make a patr bett locked-down city-dweller drool. I must declare an interest, of wi having contributed a very modest For

entry on the Coronation connection, but the whole exercise is in aid of Plantlife (the wild-plant charity of which the Prince is patron) and I can think of no better antidote to this bleakest of winters. For at a time when it seems as if

nothing will ever be the same again, these pictures remind us of the eternal joys our meadows will deliver us once again this summer — just as long as we don’t plough them up and drench them with herbicides. ‘These are the most flower-rich, bee-rich habitats in Britain and hey used to be at the centre of ural life,’ says Plantlife’s Dr Trevor Dines. ‘It wasn’t “One man went to mow a meadow”. It would be the whole community who would mow it to feed their ivestock through the winter.’ Capturing so many meadows at their best — on a summer’s dawn — meant plenty of early starts for Hugo Rittson Thomas. ‘It is nature at its most theatrical,’ he tells me. ‘I was struck by how enthusiastic people are. I got to Highclere at 4am and there was

the Earl excitedly waiting to show me his meadow.’ Among the most dramatic scenes is the floral panorama at philanthropist Wafic Said’s Tu s m o r e Pa r k , w h e r e t h e Coronation Meadow now supports more than 100 beehives, and the haze of wildflowers stretching into the distance at Muker Meadows in North Yorkshire — Hugo’s favourite. There were some exasperating moments, too. He spent two days tracking down an extremely rare orchid in a meadow in Kent before returning in the early hours to film it at first light. ‘Suddenly there was this crash-bang-wallop and a herd of deer came charging through and flattened it in front of me,’ he says. ‘Fortunately, I found another one nearby.’

O PHOTOGRAPHS from Wildflowers For The Queen by Hugo Rittson Thomas (Wildflower Press, £50), published in partnership with conservation charity Plantlife and with a foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales. © Hugo Rittson Thomas To order a copy for £44 (offer valid to 16/2/21; free UK P&P), go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3308 9193. Profits from sales go to Plantlife.

Fit for a monarch: The Queen’s Meadow at Green Park, hard to believe it’s in Central London

Purple reign: Sunrise at Prince Charles’s Highgrove home

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Abbey days: Dawn mist at Highclere, known to the world as Downton

Mellow yellow: Muker Meadows, North Yorkshire, Hugo’s favourite. Below left, a Bee Orchid

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Patrick Barkham, Natural history writer, Guardian – on the importance of protecting wildflower meadows also featured in paper as front inside cover entitled ‘Flower Power’ 28 January 2021

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Magazines Features Country Life – Front cover and threepage article featuring images and extracts from Magdalen College Oxford chapter, including Nicholas Coleridge’s extract January 2021

A snake’s-head fritillary in the grass Once equivocal about wildflowers, Nicholas Coleridge’s mind was opened to their natural beauty by Fritillaria meleagris, which carpets the grounds at Magdalen College in Oxford, as he explains in this extract from Wildflowers for The Queen

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Magdalen College, Oxford, Oxfordshire

S part of Oxford University, many would associate Magdalen College with education and English tradition. But for those who know it well it may also conjure the memory of the water meadow in its grounds filled with the nodding heads of the rare snake’s-head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris), writes Dr Trevor Dines, Plantlife botanist. Every spring in the water meadow this bell-like flower can be seen by the thousand, blooming on slender stems in uniquely chequered purple, pink and white colours. The meadow is an island in the River Cherwell which often floods after heavy rainfall. The result is an abundance of snake’s-head fritillaries creating a rich magentapurple scene. These flowers once were plentiful but changing farm practices have made them a rare sight. To be able to see the flowers at the college is a delight. To fully enable visitors to appreciate the true beauty of the fritillaries, the water meadow is surrounded by Addison’s Walk, a circular path. The picturesque route allows spectators to marvel at the glorious snake’s-head fritillaries offset by beautiful English woodland. This location has a quintessentially English feel, which may be why Addison’s Walk was a favourite of English writer C. S. Lewis, who would often be accompanied by J. R. R. Tolkien; the walk inspired Lewis’s poem What the Bird Said Early in the Year. ‘I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear:/This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.’ Staff of Magdalen College have conserved this site, giving its rare flower space to bloom and spread, while allowing the public to wander and enjoy English countryside at its magical best. Left: The bejewelled meadows of Magdalen. In box: The gate motif echoes the fritillaries

TBC

NTIL my epiphany, I was for years ambivalent about wildflowers. They struck me in every way as inferior to ‘proper’ cultivated flowers in a proper garden, organised in height order in a herbaceous border. Wildflowers were capricious: their randomness, their unpredictability of habitat, the fact that wildflowers grow in their own sweet way without any intervention by human hand, made them seem second rate. Hardly better than weeds. You found a patch of this or a patch of that in a wood or a meadow, but there was no artful display. Wildflowers were too much like happenchance.

It was wild foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) and then the common fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris), often known as the snake’s-head fritillary, which opened my mind. The beauty of wildflowers in their natural setting eclipses their domesticated cousins in a flowerbed. Overnight, I became a convert, recognising an authenticity and fragile gloriousness I had never seen before. In an instant, flowers in a garden felt like captives, or hostages paraded in ranks by prison guards, their gardeners.

The very wilfulness and unpredictability of wildflowers invests them with character A wildflower is free range, a garden flower like a battery chicken. The very wilfulness and unpredictability of wildflowers invests them with character, flourishing where their windblown seed takes root, clustering in patterns dictated by nature rather than the diktats of a garden designer.

The aesthetic (and moral) superiority of the wildflower over the garden flower is a conviction with its roots in the mid 17th century, which, by the early 18th century, was widely adopted by persons of taste. In the National Art Library at the V&A Museum is a threevolume set of illustrated books of extraordinary beauty, and I urge you to order them up from the archives, and inspect them for yourself. Flora Londinensis: plates and descriptions of such plants as grow wild in the environs of London, with a description of each plant in Latin and English, to which are added their several uses in medicine, agriculture, the rural economy and other arts, was edited by William Curtis (and dedicated to his patron John Stuart, Earl of Bute). It was published in 1777. The book contains several hundred of the most delicate and fastidious paintings of wildflowers—lesser butterfly orchids (then Orchis bifolia, now Platanthera bifolia), bitter willow (Salix monandra), marsh valerian (Valeriana dioica), all three of which I swear I have spotted growing wild in the desolate waterlands of Stratford East. There are dozens and dozens of different grasses in the book, all exquisite. They made me want to scatter

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their seeds over our Worcestershire meadows, all of them; I couldn’t choose which I liked best. And then comes the tiny, purple bastard pimpernel (Centunculus minimus) and comfrey (Symphytum officinale), once apparently ‘a very common plant by London riversides and on the edge of wet ditches’, before riversides and ditches were swept away by the building of the Chelsea and Westminster embankment. So many wildflowers which once clearly flourished in London are all but gone: primroses (Primula vulgaris), fritillaries, the longheaded poppy (Papaver dubium). ‘In Battersea Fields,’ says Curtis, ‘where the soil is light, the dubium is common.’ But, in Worcestershire, the sharp-eyed can still find arrays of them, as well as violets (Viola sp.), cowslips (Primula veris), oxslip (Primula elatior), dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) and meadow crowfoot (Ranunculus acris), often known as meadow buttercup. And banks of foxgloves lurking in the deepest recess of the wood, in lightdappled clearings. In his 1875 book British Wild Flowers in Relation to Insects, Sir John Lubbock, the Member of Parliament for Maidstone, is vehement on the primary importance of wild species, ‘The forms and colours have been modified [over time]… by the unconscious selection exercised by insects, [as opposed to breeding by horticulturalists]’. He echoes William Robinson in his 1844 volume The Wild Garden, who applauds the sight of wildflowers ‘in their favoured (natural) habitat’ over anything else. Both men were 100% right; I’m only sorry it took me so long to recognise it. Nicholas Coleridge is chairman of the V&A Museum and a contributor to ‘Wildflowers for The Queen: A Visual Celebration of Britain’s Coronation Meadows’ by Hugo Rittson Thomas. Produced in partnership with Plantlife (which will receive all profits from sales), with a foreword by its patron, The Prince of Wales, the book is out on February 4 (Wildflower Press, £50)

Fritillaria meleagris Nothing quite matches the sight, on an early spring morning, of a dew-jewelled meadow thickly carpeted with the hanging lanterns of snake’s-head fritillary. One of our classic meadow flowers, it epitomises our English water meadows and was once so abundant in meadows beside the River Thames that armfuls were collected for sale in the markets of Covent Garden. The blooms appear early in spring—usually April and May— and are decorated with unique chequerboard markings in purple and pink; white forms are not uncommon and are exceptionally beautiful. It’s likely that snake’shead fritillaries are not native to Britain; this outstanding and conspicuous plant was not noticed growing in the wild until 1736, but was being imported by European bulb sellers in the 1560s. Genetically, British plants match those in northern Europe so it’s likely it arrived here as a garden plant and became established in our damp hay meadows. This doesn’t detract from its value as a cherished and much-loved wildflower—snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), poppies (Papaver sp.) and white deadnettle (Lamium album) have all been brought to our islands. Like them, it’s a welcome addition to our flora.

We might interpret Fritillaria meleagris as snake’s-head, but the Latin meleagris actually means ‘spotted like a guineafowl’

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Country and Town House – ran fourpage feature with an introduction on conservation by Trevor Dines and images and text for Joan’s Hill (Plantlife Meadow) and Green Park March 2021

Seeds of PHOTO: UNSPLASH

CHANGE For decades, the UK’s wildﬂower meadows were decimated in the quest for production agricultural land. TREVOR DINES explains why ﬂowers are so important for the earth’s biodiversity, and how conservation charity Plantlife is creating new meadows in both town and countryside

March/April 2021 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 73

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PHOTOS: XXXXXXXXX

t’s a sparkling spring morning and I’m knee-deep in a field of flowers. Thousands of blooms are woven through the sward and there are even a few orchids, sprinkled around like priceless amethysts in a box of jewels. But what’s most remarkable is that just five years ago this field was devoid of colour. Like so many of our fields it was just a sea of grass. This wholesale bleaching of colour from our countryside began in the 1930s, when flower-rich pastures and meadows began to be viewed as a sign of slovenly agriculture. Instead, it was recommended they should be ploughed up and the land used to grow crops or sown with quick-growing mixtures of ryegrass and white clover. These grass ‘leys’ can be cut for silage several times a year and grazed continually for many months, especially if heavily fertilised. The result has been catastrophic for wildlife. Over 97 per cent of wildflower meadows and flower-rich pastures have been destroyed. That’s 7.5 million acres gone, an area 1.5 times the size of Wales. It’s difficult to grasp the impact on our countryside, but a colleague once told me their grandfather had been able to walk the 25 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham without placing a foot outside a flowerrich field. Today, probably less than a dozen of those fields survive. By repeatedly cutting silage fields and grazing grassland too hard, wild flowers are prevented from blooming and setting seed. This simple, continual act of emasculation quickly extinguishes the diversity of life, reducing the number of species from around 30 per square yard in a wild flower meadow – one of the richest plant communities in Britain – to less than six. And we’ve lost far more than just the flowers. Astonishingly, over 1,400 different species of butterflies, moths, beetles, bugs, grasshoppers and flies come to feed on the leaves, stems, flowers, fruits and roots. These insects in turn provide a feast for myriad other wildlife, from voles to meadow pipits. From the first dandelions of February to the last ragworts of November, the ebb and flow of flowers reaches a crescendo in late May, when an acre of meadow can be home to two million

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Marden Meadow in Kent; Muker Meadow in the Yorkshire Dales; Haunn Meadow on the Isle of Mull; another angle of Muker Meadow

74 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | March/April 2021

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HOW TO HELP

individual flowers. These blooms produce over two pounds in weight of nectar sugar every day, enough to support nearly 83,000 pollinating bees. No wonder these meadows vibrate to the sound of insects as the air shimmers with their dances above the blooms. In 2013, wildlife conservation charity Plantlife raised a clarion call over the fate of the UK’s meadows and its patron, HRH The Prince of Wales, suggested his mother’s coronation anniversary could be celebrated with ‘the creation of at least one new meadow in every county’. The idea behind the Coronation Meadows is beautifully simple. An ancient flower-rich meadow has been selected as the flagship Coronation Meadow for each county, such as Joan’s Hill Farm for Herefordshire. Seed from this meadow is then harvested and used to create new Coronation Meadows nearby. This process, known as ‘natural seeding’, ensures new meadows establish quickly and preserves their local character and identity. After all, a Kent meadow with green-winged orchids and dyer’s-greenweed is very different to a Yorkshire meadow with wood crane’s-bill and melancholy thistle. Today, over a hundred new meadows have been created, all the way from Consett in Northumberland to Green Park in the very heart of London. With these and other initiatives such as Magnificent Meadows, Plantlife has led the creation of over 12,000 acres of new wildflower meadows in the last seven years. I’m extremely lucky that one of these is my own, created at our home in north Wales using seed from the Conwy Coronation Meadow. It’s been an inspirational journey involving Highland cows, cutting hay and hours of detailed monitoring. I’ve been amazed how quickly the meadow has evolved since we started in 2015. Nearly a hundred species have now appeared, including betony, oxeye daisies and Devil’s-bit scabious along with rarer knotted clover and even, last year, the angel-like blooms of the greater butterfly orchid. But it’s the sheer abundance of flowers that takes your breath away. On that spring morning I was knee deep in a carpet of buttercups, cat’s-ear, red clover and yellow rattle, a meadow of nine million blooms. If we just give them a chance, the flowers will return.

Creating even the smallest wildﬂower area in your garden can really help. Always use good quality seed from a reputable supplier and choose mixtures of genuine perennial meadow plants rather than cornﬁeld annuals like poppies. The Plantlife website plantlife.org.uk has lots of advice for success.

Try leaving an unmown section of lawn, to allow ﬂowers like clover and selfheal to bloom. Plantlife’s Every Flower Counts citizen science survey has shown that an average square yard of lawn produces enough nectar sugar to sustain 3.8 honeybees per day. If you stash your mower in the shed for ‘No Mow May’ you can support more than double that number.

Visit your local Coronation Meadow or one of the many other meadow nature reserves managed by conservation charities such as Plantlife and support their work to preserve these precious wildlife habitats across the UK.

March/April 2021 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 75

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JOAN’S HILL FARM WOOLHOPE, HEREFORDSHIRE

Bucolic Joan’s Hill Farm, set in the green splendour of the Wye Valley

Most surviving ancient meadows are rare and tiny fragments of colour; small fields dotted here and there in the landscape. But Joan’s Hill Farm is different. It’s a landscape of colour, with field after rolling field filled with flowers. Surrounded by a thick barrier of dense woodland, it’s a secret, special place that recalls the spirit of former agricultural times. The sheer quantity of common spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) in some places is breathtaking. Their lilac flowers are so thick on the ground that at times it’s impossible to put a foot down and you find yourself momentarily rooted to the spot. Common bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), cat’s-ear (Hypochaeris radicata), tormentil (Potentilla erecta) and buttercups (Ranunculus sp.) provide a vibrant yellow counterpoint. Softened by clouds of oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare), the whole effect is mesmerising. Rarer treasures nestle in the sward too. Dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria), with spikes of gorse-like flowers, has been used since Saxon times to colour wool yellow or, when mixed with woad (Isatis tinctoria), a rich green colour. Greater butterfly orchids (Platanthera chlorantha) inexplicably appeared in one field recently and are gently spreading, raising their white angel-like flowers to the sky. And in autumn meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale) burst from the ground, their vibrant pink flowers appearing without leaves and thus earning themselves the moniker of ‘naked ladies’. Once the hay is harvested in late summer, cattle graze the grass before winter arrives. They’re allowed to roam as they like from field to field and it seems they take the flowers with them; many meadow plants are popping up in new homes.

T H E M A K I N G O F T W O M E A D OW S Green Park in London was sown with seeds from nearby ancient meadows

THE QUEEN’S MEADOW GREEN PARK, LONDON

In September 2016, a team of ‘meadow makers’ – powerful horses, machines, a royal prince and people with excitement in their hearts – made their way to the very centre of London. Celebrating the Queen’s ninetieth birthday and the creation of over a thousand acres of new meadows across the UK, their aim was to sow the ninetieth new Coronation Meadow in a bustling corner of Green Park. Preparations began early in the morning with a tractor breaking the ground with a power harrow. But a magnificent pair of shire horses – Aragon and Royale – stole the limelight, pulling an ancient set of harrows and scarifying the grass ready for seeding. Seed for The Queen’s Meadow came from several ancient meadows in and around London, rich in flowers such as dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria), yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), common knapweed (Centaurea nigra) and oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). With the precious seed loaded into wooden trugs, local children took centre stage, scattering seed onto the warm soil. They were helped in their endeavours by HRH The Prince of Wales and some of the farmers, meadow owners, volunteers and meadow champions involved with the Coronation Meadows project. After the excitement of the day, a quiet calm descended on Green Park as the flowers started their invisible growth beneath the earth. It’s still early days for this young meadow – floral tapestries take time to be woven – but already The Queen’s Meadow is awash with oxeye daisy, yellow rattle, red clover (Trifolium pratense) and meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris).

Wildflowers for The Queen: A Visual Celebration of Britain’s Coronation Meadows by Hugo Rittson Thomas. In partnership with Plantlife and with a foreword by their patron HRH The Prince of Wales (Wildflower Press, £50). All profits go to Plantlife n

76 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | March/April 2021

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THE WORLD OF

EXTERIOR S JULY 2021

World of Interiors sixpage feature and front cover supplement cover in the World for Exteriors section July 2021

GARDENS, PLANTS AND OUTDOOR LIVING

NEW LEAS OF LIFE Ablaze with wild flowers, buzzing with insects, Britain’s Coronation Meadows have proved a boon for all sorts of species in summer months. None of these precious habitats is more vibrant than the one seen here in Yorkshire, where the landscape has remained unaltered for centuries. Inspired by a new book, Susan Owens takes a stroll through betony, purple loosestrife and red clover. Photography: Hugo Rittson Thomas

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The Muker Meadows form a ribbon at the bottom of a valley side in Swaledale, the northernmost of the Yorkshire Dales, and are home to many types of native wild flowers

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Above: dry-stone barns have stored hay from the meadows for centuries. Below: the delicate violet-blue petals of wood crane’s-bill, a kind of geranium. Opposite: red clover, common sorrel and buttercup are among other flowers that thrive in Muker Meadows

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IT IS EARLY

on a September morning, and the shire horses Aragon and Royale have just been put into harness. With a ground-shaking stamp and a creak of ancient wood and leather they take their first powerful steps and begin to pull a set of harrows over the grass, scarifying it and making it ready for seeding with ox-eye daisy, yellow rattle, red clover and buttercup. It is a meadow in the making, with the promise of a first glorious crop of wild flowers the following summer. So where was this age-old rural ritual unfolding that morning – in a quiet corner of Herefordshire, perhaps? Or one of the remoter regions of Suffolk? Neither. The seeds were sown in a section of Green Park, behind the Bomber Command Memorial and within sight and hearing of Piccadilly. Three years earlier, in 2013, the Prince of Wales had called for a network of wild-flower meadows to be created across the British Isles to mark the 60th anniversary of the coronation. By a happy combination of chance and design this was the 90th new meadow, and so was planted close to Buckingham Palace in celebration of the Queen’s 90th birthday. The beauty of meadows is deeply rooted in our cultural DNA. As far back as 1300, when most people were too busy labouring on the land to reflect on its prettiness, you can still find a writer rhapsodising about a ‘fair Medwe… with swete floures’. Nothing dreadful can happen to us in a meadow, we feel. While pasture is roamed by unpredictable livestock and on arable land one is all too likely to encounter a combine harvester, surely the worst that can befall us in a meadow is to be stung by a bee – which would, arguably, be our own fault. No wonder, then, that these symbols of pastoral tranquillity became a touchstone for artists and writers, especially those trying to capture an elusive essence of the countryside. Meadows may no longer be cut with scythes each summer, but they still preserve a centuries-old way of farming. Victorian paintings, created for the swelling numbers of town-dwellers nostalgic for the country, are thronged with young children picking flowers and cheerful folk busy with the annual haymaking. In the years around World War I, meadowland became even more precious. When in June 1914 Edward Thomas’s express train stopped unexpectedly at the village of Adlestrop in Gloucestershire, he looked up and saw through the window ‘willows, willow-herb, and grass, / And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry’. Turning this moment into a poem two years later – by which time he was in the Artists Rifles – he infused this chance sighting with a piercingly elegiac note. If you were looking for the heart of the British countryside, you might well find it in a wild-flower meadow. And yet the number of meadows in the UK has been falling catastrophically. Domesday lists well over 10,000 entries which mention varying acreages of this type of field. Since the 1930s, however, over 97 per cent of them have disappeared. The ploughing up of a meadow, especially after it has been cut for hay, is not as obvious as the felling of an ancient wood and so usually goes unnoticed and unopposed. This gradual depredation has not

only had consequences for the 800 species of wild plants that flourish in meadows, but also for the bees, butterflies and countless other pollinating insects with which they buzz, hum and sparkle with colour every spring and summer. Since the Prince of Wales’s brainwave in 2013, the conservation charity Plantlife, along with the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, has been reversing the trend by establishing new Coronation Meadows up and down the land. The new patches are planted with seed taken from an established meadow in the same county, each of which has its own particular soil and climate. Purple loosestrife and white heath bedstraw thrive on the damp soil of Treshnish Farm on the Isle of Mull, and orchids too: northern marsh, heath spotted and greater butterfly. Ragged robin and wild angelica appear at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire when the Wye floods the water meadows. Dry conditions attract an entirely different crowd. During World War II the chalk downland of Darland Banks in Kent was excavated and anti-aircraft gun emplacements built – not so good for wildlife, you might think. But when the trenches were filled, the plants raced to move back in. Now thyme, salad burnet and wild marjoram scent the air alongside quaking-grass, bird’sfoot trefoil and the largest colony of man orchid in the UK (disconcertingly, each flower resembles a tiny dangling human figure sporting a large flat cap). There are rarities in urban settings: the water meadow of Magdalen College in Oxford, on an island in the Cherwell, is famous for its snake’s-head fritillaries with their chequerboard petals. And yet sometimes it is the glorious abundance of common flowers that brings the most joy. In summer the Muker Meadows at the base of a steep valley side in Swaledale are alive with wood crane’s-bill, pignut, betony, red clover and melancholy thistle; a stone-flagged footpath leads you right through the middle of this riot of scent, colour and busy insect noise. Its name deriving from the Old Norse mjor-aker, the narrow acre, Muker reminds us of the deep history of some of Britain’s meadowlands. There are few places one can stand and contemplate a view people saw more than a thousand years ago: this is one. Merely walking through a wild-flower meadow is not always enough. Sometimes we need to lie down among the prickly stalks and breathe it in. Gerard Manley Hopkins was so entranced by a bluebell wood – they ‘come in falls of sky-colour’, he mused – that he found himself nibbling a flower. It smelled of honey and tasted of sweet gum. Even the names enchant: there is viper’s-bugloss, so-called because of the snaky way its flower spikes uncoil and its sharp sting. And the stubby-rooted devil’s-bit scabious, supposedly awarded its name when Satan, furious at its healing properties, chewed its roots off. They are lovely to say: bog asphodel; tufted vetch; pepper saxifrage. The Coronation Meadows project is seeking to preserve a rich heritage that is not only botanical but cultural too – and to inspire yet more meadow-making $ ‘Wildflowers for the Queen: A Visual Celebration of Britain’s Coronation Meadows’, by Hugo Rittson Thomas, is published by Wildflower Press, rrp £50

Above: a flagged path leads from the village of Muker through the meadows, which are a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Opposite: one of them is seen here in high summer prior to mowing, which takes place every July. The hay is used as winter fodder for livestock

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Tatler – featured Blenheim Palace’s wildflower meadows in the magazine’s monthly gardening column by Louisa Parker Bowles May 2021

SOCIETY A field of meadow clary at Blenheim

BLUE BLOOD The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. Right, the blue flowers of meadow clary – or meadow sage

WILD ABOUT BLENHEIM Among the neat gardens at the Marlborough family seat, one area is returning to nature – by royal invitation

PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAN DAVIDSON/SHUTTERSTOCK; HUGO RITTSON THOMAS

By LOUISA PARKER BOWLES

‘WE HOPE WE SUCCEEDED in restoring some of the magic,’ says Charles James Spencer-Churchill, styled Earl of Sunderland until 1972, Marquess of Blandford until 2014 and now the 12th Duke of Marlborough. The duke – or Jamie, as he announces himself when he telephones my landline – is talking about the wildf lower meadow at his 12,000-acre estate, but five minutes into our conversation, he asks: ‘Are you watching the television?’ I’m not, but I frantically reach for the remote, wondering what breaking news I’m missing. ‘There I am with Trump,’ the duke says matter-of-factly. I nde e d he i s. T he BBC i s playing footage of the balmy summer evening in July 2018 when Jamie welcomed President Trump and the First Lady to his family seat, Blenheim Palace, for a dinner hosted by the then prime minister, Theresa May. (May did the seating plan: Jamie on her right and his TATLER

wife, Edla, next to Trump.) It’s a surreal scene: the president’s stretch limousine – ‘The Beast’ – roaring over the horizon towards the palace courtyard, much to car-loving Jamie’s delight, while guardsmen march in full regalia and a piper plays Amazing Grace. British pomp and ceremony at its best. ‘Before dinner, Trump wanted to look at the Churchill exhibition,’ says Jamie. Secret Servicemen looked on in terror as the president tinkered with Churchill’s Boer War pistols. There’s a historical as well as a horticultural significance to the 2,400 acres of gardens and parklands at Jamie’s ancestral home. Created over three centuries by revered garden designers including Henry Wise and Achille Duchêne, the formal gardens include water terraces, the duke’s private Italian garden, the tranquil secret garden, a rose garden and a memorial garden for Churchill, who was born, baptised and betrothed at Blenheim, where he spent his youth exploring the vast grounds. ‘When he left the trenches of the First World War in 1916, the first thing he wanted to do was come to Blenheim Palace to paint and be inspired,’ says Jamie. He is a charming raconteur and rattles of f stories of roya lt y,

Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of the Duke of Marlborough

rock stars and the ruling elite without pausing for breath. One thing becomes quickly apparent: this duke is happiest when he is working with long-standing, trusted friends. A nd now, in charge of the only non-royal palace in the country, a Unesco World Heritage Site that is larger than both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, he is enjoying himself, sowing the seeds for a bountiful future at Blenheim. The wildflower meadow is just one example. In June 2013, the Prince of Wales invited Jamie and other meadow owners from across the UK to Highgrove to celebrate the launch of his idea to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation. ‘The idea of the Coronation Meadows initiative was a simple one: to f ind the best surviving meadow in each county and use seed from that meadow to create a new one,’ the prince explained. So began a new chapter for the majestic gardens at Blenheim.

Roya l photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas has captured the picturesque results of this project in Wildflowers for the Queen, a new book produced in collaboration with conservation charity Plantlife, of which the Prince of Wales is patron. ‘This book not only brings their diverse beauty to life, but, remarkably, does them justice,’ the prince notes in the foreword. It is a feeling echoed by Jamie, who is also quoted in the book: ‘The meadows have become home to bees, butterf lies and various other wildlife. The park is home to hidden treasures of all kinds and it is a great source of inspiration, enjoyed for its beauty and peace.’ Ju st ly proud, t he Du ke of Marlborough is bringing colour and character to Blenheim Palace once more.( Wildflowers for the Queen: A Visual Celebration of Britain’s Coronation Meadows by Hugo Rittson Thomas is available to purchase now (Wildflower Press, £50). All profits go to Plantlife 39

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plant lıfe

WILD FLOWERS FOR THE QUEEN Celebrating Britain’s Coronation Meadows

Issue 89 Spring 2021

GARDENING

Plantlife – the member’s magazine ran a 4page feature and special oﬀer for readers Spring 2021

How to create a stumpery

HALCYON DAYS

A film-maker’s urban heaven

PLUS... Join us on Members’ Day; betony in the spotlight; how do we decide which species to save?

The Snowdonia Shepherdess Meet young farmer Teleri Fielden

Wild ﬂowers

for The Queen In his book, Wildﬂowers for the Queen, renowned photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas captures the stunning results of the Coronation Meadows conservation project, a partnership initiative led by Plantlife

T Layer upon layer of plants, such as green-winged orchid (Orchis morio), are found in meadows, all reaching for the sun

Plant Life

SPRING 2021

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o celebrate the coronation of H The Prince of W of new wildﬂow 2013, the Coron born with a team of ‘mead which resulted in the crea new meadows across the “What better time to ap the success of Prince Cha prescient and generous vi the Coronation Meadows, success and value of Plan celebrated its 30th year in with a visual celebration o ﬂowers of the Coronation say Hugo Rittson Thomas treasures have become m thanks to the culture of th the inspiration for the boo and admiration of, the rea

CORONATION MEADOWS

The cowslip’s Latin name, Primula veris, comes from prima rosa meaning ‘ﬁrst rose’, while veris means ‘of the spring’.

“I was first inspired by Plantlife’s ‘Flower Power’ o celebrate the 60th anniversary of the event at the Chelsea Physic Garden and by the fervent coronation of Her Majesty The Queen, HRH message then delivered by HRH Prince Charles in his The Prince of Wales called for the creation video about Plantlife and its aims. A seed was sown in of new wildflower meadows. And so, in my imagination and that seed blossomed into a plan 2013, the Coronation Meadows project was of action to help and support the ongoing work and born with a team of ‘meadow makers’ led by Plantlife, success of Plantlife and its initiatives. which resulted in the creation of over 1,000 acres of “My idea was that I could try to new meadows across the UK. ‘The sheer diversity of recapture in images the magic and “What better time to applaud the success of Prince Charles’s meadows is their joy, inspiration that I had felt as a child nature. The premise and aim prescient and generous vision behind a wild abundance of exploring of the book is to ‘make the invisible the Coronation Meadows, and the flowers. They lift visible’, to celebrate the rich botanical success and value of Plantlife, having heritage of the wild flowers and unique celebrated its 30th year in 2019, than the heart and meadows of Britain. By focusing on with a visual celebration of the wild nourish the soul’ the exhilarating patterns, colours, flowers of the Coronation Meadows,” textures and shapes of these flower gems, I hope say Hugo Rittson Thomas. “These rare and endangered to reveal them more intimately and to have them treasures have become more evident and visible become more appreciated and admired, and to see as thanks to the culture of the Coronation Meadows, and William Blake saw, “the world in a grain of sand and the inspiration for the book is my passionate belief in, heaven in a wild flower”. and admiration of, the realisation of that vision. ▶

Plant Life

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Haunn Meadow, Treshnish Farm, Isle of Mull Remote and exposed, the Treshnish peninsula commands an imposing position over the Atlantic. But this dramatic coastline was once closely connected with distant shores: the name Haunn is derived from a long-vanished Norse settlement that once stood where the meadow now grows. The varied topography at Haunn allows many different types of plants to grow together, including harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), or Scottish bluebell – which relishes the thin, infertile soils – and eyebright (Euphrasia sp., left), once used as a cure for eye infections. Dr Trevor Dines, Plantlife’s Botanical Specialist, provided descriptions of the meadows and species in the book

The Queen’s Meadow, Green Park, London In September 2016, a team of meadow makers – horses, machines, a prince and people with excitement in their hearts – made their way to the centre of London. Celebrating The Queen’s 90th birthday, their aim was to sow the 90th new Coronation Meadow in a bustling corner of Green Park. Seed for the meadow came from several ancient meadows, rich in ﬂowers, which local children scattered onto the warm soil. They were helped in their endeavours by HRH The Prince of Wales, and assisted by some of the farmers, meadow owners, volunteers and meadow champions involved with the Coronation Meadows project. It’s still early days for this young meadow – ﬂoral tapestries take time to be woven – but already, against the backdrop of the Royal Guard, it is awash with a swathe of oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare).

Plant Life

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CORONATION MEADOWS

“G “U

ntil my epiphany, I was for years ambivalent about wild flowers. They struck me in every way as inferior to ‘proper’ cultivated flowers in a proper garden, organised in height order in a herbaceous border. Wild flowers were capricious: their randomness, their unpredictability of habitat, the fact that wild flowers grow in their own sweet way without any intervention by human hand, made them seem second rate. Hardly better than weeds. “It was wild foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) and the common fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris), often known as the snake’s-head fritillary, that opened my mind. The beauty of wild flowers in their natural setting far eclipses their domesticated cousins in a flowerbed. Overnight, I became a convert, recognising an authenticity and fragile gloriousness I had never seen before. The very wilfulness and unpredictability of wild flowers invests them with character, flourishing where their windblown seed takes root, clustering in patterns dictated by nature rather than the diktats of a garden designer.” Nicholas Coleridge CBE, Chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum

We might interpret Fritillaria meleagris as snake’s-head, but the Latin name paints a different picture; meleagris means ‘spotted like a guineafowl’.

ardens are our sacred spaces, ground meant for beauty and pleasure and freed from the pressures of production. I have come to love the wildﬂower meadows of Highclere, the home of Downton Abbey, and I hope to create one. “The college water meadows of my old alma mater, Cambridge, are an inspiration too. Untouched by herbicide and managed for a traditional hay crop and grazing, they are ﬁelds of snake’s-head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) and common spotted orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) in early summer. Didn’t Repton say, ‘All nature is a garden?’ If he did, then I agree with him.” Julian Fellowes, award-winning actor, writer, director and producer, and creator of Downton Abbey

Wildﬂowers for The Queen: A Visual Celebration of Britain’s Coronation Meadows by BUY Hugo Rittson YOUR Thomas COPY (published by TODAY... Wildﬂower Press, £50) is available to buy from all good bookshops nationwide. However, Hugo is kindly offering a 20% discount to all Plantlife supporters. Order your copy at https://www. hugorittsonthomasphotography. com and quote PLANTLIFE. Offer closes 31 May 2021.

Plant Life

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THE

english

GARDEN For everyone who loves beautiful gardens

MARCH 2021

The English Garden – the UK edition ran a sixpage feature focusing on Highgrove, Highclere and Blenheim Palace March 2021

www.theenglishgarden.co.uk

Treasures of

SPRING Delightful gardens and seasonal plants

NEW SERIES

Fast flowers

Troy Scott Smith’s monthly guide to gardening

Colourful climbers to grow from seed Spring cheer for March

£4.95

FRONT GARDEN tips and tricks l TOP 10 plants for early ﬂowers

Q&A l

Benmore’s Victorian FERNERY Charming heritage DAFFODILS

Photographed by Hugo Rittson Thomas, Wildflowers for the Queen celebrates the achievements of the Coronation Meadows established by HRH The Prince of Wales What makes these meadows so distinctive?

The Plantlife Coronation Meadows have unique combinations of location, soil and climate, so you have whole meadows dedicated to particular plants. Each one has a special feature that touches the heartstrings. If people consult the map in the book, they can go on a magical journey around the UK and take inspiration from the joys of nature. There are 20 meadows proﬁled in the book and the intention is to have a Coronation Meadow in every county. Which meadows stand out for you?

If I were to pick two for their sheer, pristine exuberance, one would be Muker in North Yorkshire, which has the dramatic setting of a deep glacial valley and a path that seems to lead on forever. The other would be Joan’s Hill, in Hertfordshire. The colour range of the ﬂowers there is dazzling and it is a reminder of how farms used to be. The meadows at Blenheim Palace appeal in a very different way. After World War I, Winston Churchill sought refuge there and found his touch of humanity again. He beneﬁtted from the healing power of nature, which is now well documented. What did you hope to achieve with this book?

I wanted to highlight the unique meadows of England and our wildﬂower inheritance. I wanted to show that our native wildﬂowers, which have exotic and often charming names like creeping ladies’ tresses and snake’s head fritillary, are irreplaceable and valuable forms of life on our green planet. There is a map of all the meadows in the book and there will be a meadow near everyone. The Coronation Meadows managed by the charity Plantlife have public access, and all the others are open to the public, putting them within everyone’s grasp.

How did your experience of portraiture inﬂuence the way you photographed the wildﬂowers in the book?

Two of my heroes are the Queen and the Dalai Lama, and to have been given a chance to photograph both of them was a photographer’s dream. I’ve used some of the same studio techniques on the plant portraits as I did when photographing Her Majesty. The idea is to turn the ﬂowers into the supermodels I think they are. I’d like to photograph more of the orchids in this country. The monkey orchid was so hard to ﬁnd that, when I did, I couldn’t believe it.

INTERVIEW VIVIENNE HAMBLY

What is the state of our meadows presently?

Unlike trees and woods, wildflower meadows are not protected by wildlife legislation at all. Collectively, meadows of all kinds support 800 different flowers and 1,400 pollinators, so on the basis of what they’re achieving in terms of biodiversity, their legal status needs to be changed. Wildflower meadows are as important a part of our heritage as Buckingham Palace or St Paul’s Cathedral.

How long did you spend working on this project?

Shooting took place over one summer. It was only possible to achieve this with the help of Dr Trevor Dines and Joanna Bromley of Plantlife. Timing had to be precise because there was such a small window of opportunity for catching the meadows in far-ﬂung places at anywhere near their peak, in the correct light conditions. That was the biggest challenge. n

Wildflowers for the Queen by Hugo Rittson Thomas. Wildflower Press, £50. Profits go to British conservation charity Plantlife.

MARCH 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 109

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SIX BRITISH GARDENS BURSTING WITH BLOSSOM AND BULBS

THE

english

GARDEN MAY 2021

The English Garden – the US edition ran sixpage Q&A with Hugo Rittson Thomas May 2021

For everyone who loves beautiful gardens

Discover the Queen’s wildﬂower meadows

The thrill of

SPRING

Revel in the season’s bright new colours

Explore Dorset’s charming gardens $7.99

MEADOWS Highgrove House shares an intimate relationship with its wildﬂower meadow, which is awash with the russet tones of common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) and ox-eye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare).

lowers for the Queen Marking the 60th anniversary of The Queen’s enthronement, the Coronation Meadows, established by Prince Charles with environmental charity Plantlife, celebrate Britain’s floral diversity. Their beauty is revealed in this exclusive extract from Wildflowers for the Queen PHOTOGRAPHS HUGO RITTSON THOMAS

“M

y own meadows at Highgrove are home to over seventy different wildflowers and grasses – from the humble ox-eye daisy, cock’s-foot or bird’s-foot trefoil, through to the glamour of the seven species of orchids that have now become established. A walk through a wild flower meadow at the height of its midsummer glory is at once intoxicating and restorative; bringing both joy and peace into our busy lives. The tragedy is that this is an increasingly rare experience. There is no doubting the scale of the appalling loss of meadows from the British countryside, with over 97% having vanished since the 1930s. In an attempt to stem this terrible loss, I asked Plantlife to lead the Coronation Meadows partnership with the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, all of which I am Patron. To step into a wildflower meadow is to step out of time. Whether a cherished area of one’s garden or part of the wider farmed landscape, meadows hold a special place in our hearts.” HRH The Prince of Wales

78 THE ENGLISH GARDEN MAY 2021

MAY 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 79

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MEADOWS Left Common spotted

orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) ﬂower in abundance. Bee orchids (Ophrys apifera) also bloom at Highgrove. Below Lupins and other ornamentals provide additional seasonal colour to the meadow.

HIGHGROVE Gloucestershire

Created over thirty years ago, the wildflower meadow at Highgrove has a wonderfully secluded and intimate atmosphere. Tall trees provide a back-drop and the meadow wraps itself around the more formal walled gardens of Highgrove House; the connection between meadow and formal garden is enhanced by cut-outs in the hedges, while closely mown paths carry you through the swathes of wildflowers. The meadow was the brainchild of HRH The Prince of Wales and Dame Miriam Rothschild, who sowed a mix of over one hundred species typical of Gloucestershire to replicate the old meadows that had been lost over time. Since then, seed-rich green hay from Clattinger Farm, the flag-ship Coronation Meadow for Wiltshire, has been strewn on the meadow each year. Today, the meadow is a tightly woven tapestry of wildflowers; seventy different species were found by botanists on a single visit. Early in the year cowslips (Primula veris), cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis), sometimes called lady’s smock, and pignut (Conopodium majus) colour the sward, but by late spring the meadow is in full throttle, a riot of meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris), common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) and yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor). Ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) and common knapweed (Centaurea nigra) abound and here and there are other jewels: great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis), betony (Betonica officinalis), field scabious (Knautia arvensis) and meadow crane’s-bill (Geranium pratense). But it’s the common spotted orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) that steal the show. Relatively recent arrivals, they’ve found it to their liking and have romped through the meadow, a host of nearly six thousand lilac maidens in the grass. They aren’t alone. Southern marsh orchids (Dactylorhiza praetermissa) also grow here, hybridising with common spotted orchids when they meet, and in several spots pyramidal (Anacamptis pyramidalis), bee (Ophrys apifera) and green-winged (Anacamptis morio) orchids sparkle in the sun. 80 THE ENGLISH GARDEN MAY 2021

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WORDS TREVOR DINES

HRH The Prince of Wales

The impressive and familiar outline of Highclere Castle is softened by meadow crane’s-bill (Geranium pratense) and a wealth of other wildﬂowers.

WORDS TREVOR DINES

Mist shrouds the valley and, as Highclere’s meadows approach the end of their season, field scabious (Knautia arvensis) puts on a final flourish before the hay is cut.

HIGHCLERE CASTLE Wiltshire Earl of Carnarvon

My wife and I began to create the wildflower meadow here at Highclere Castle over ten years ago. We prepared the ground by harrowing for two years to break up the existing grass so that the wild flower seeds could establish themselves with less competition. The mixes of seeds chosen were geared towards traditional Hampshire chalk grassland species and, over the years, it has developed, changing in colour and deepening in variety. In mid-October we harvest the seeds, which are packaged for sale in our gift shop, before we cut and remove the hay to maintain the low fertility of the area, which is vital for the wildflowers. We have a diverse collection of around forty wildflowers and grasses including the rare bee orchid (Ophrys apifera), field scabious (Knautia arvensis), bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), vetch (Vicia sp.), eyebright (Euphrasia sp.) and milkwort (Polygala sp.). Many of them have traditional uses: Lady’s bedstraw (Galium verum) repels fleas in mattresses as well as giving a yellow dye used to colour cheese such as Double Gloucester, while common vetch MAY 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 81

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MEADOWS

The formal gardens and parkland at Blenheim Palace cover a landscape of 975 hectares and include spectacular ﬂoodplain meadows and ﬂower-rich pastures.

BLENHEIM PALACE Oxfordshire Duke of Marlborough

(Vicia sativa), for example, has been used for fattening cattle or perhaps as part of an early diet for people. We mow a broad, winding path running through the meadow diagonally for visitors to enjoy. In the season it is full of colour and is a haven for insects: this year we had so many bees in high summer there was a continual, audible hum from the ﬁeld! A true testament to the wildﬂower meadow’s success.

Top Greater knapweed

(Centaurea scabiosa) adores soil that is rich in chalk or limestone and produces its pompon ﬂowers well into autumn. Above The long, pointed seedheads of Geranium pratense give this plant its common name of meadow crane’s-bill.

Blenheim Palace is over 300 years old and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, making it a place of great historical importance. We see heritage as our legacy from the past, what we live with today and what we pass on to future generations. At Blenheim we are fully committed to protecting not just the Palace and buildings but also the Estate, which is home to an abundance of life including the wildflowers that have taken root in our meadows on the Estate. We are proud the Estate is managed under one of the most diverse Environmental Stewardship Agreements in the country. The wildflowers that once comprised ‘the colourful mantle of our green and pleasant land’ were greatly sacrificed during the Second World War to support the war effort. The protection and continued life of over fifty different species found here is vitally important to us: they are our life support and the meadows have become home to bees, butterflies and various other wildlife. The

82 THE ENGLISH GARDEN MAY 2021

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Wildflowers for The Queen: A Visual Celebration of Britain’s Coronation Meadows by Hugo Rittson Thomas. In partnership with Plantlife and with a foreword by their patron HRH The Prince of Wales. Profits go to British conservation charity Plantlife (Wildflower Press, £50).

Below Rare meadow

clary (Salvia pratensis) steals the botanical show at Blenheim, one of just a handful of sites for this plant in Britain.

park is home to hidden treasures of all kinds and it is a great source of inspiration, enjoyed for its beauty and peace. Winston Churchill, who was born, baptised and got engaged at Blenheim, spent his young years exploring the park and gardens. When he left the trenches of the First World War in 1916 the ﬁrst thing he wanted to do was come to Blenheim Palace to paint and again be inspired. We hope we have succeeded in restoring some of that magic. n MAY 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 83

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Cotswold Life ran a Q&A with Hugo plus a selection of images May 2021

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Magazines Reviews and news stories House and Garden commissioned a lead book review on Wildflowers for the Queen by garden designer and author Matt ReesWarren

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Gardens Illustrated Reviews commissioned a book review by gardener and TV presenter Matthew Biggs and used a photograph of Loughborough Big Meadow was on the front cover of their ‘Downtools’ section flagging the book

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Lucy Hall – Gardeners’ World – news story on ‘clippings’ page with large meadow image

BBC leads tree planting ‘for every child’

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aims to plant 50 million trees by 2025, the National Trust 20 million by 2030, and Trees for Cities is one of the first environmental projects to be awarded a grant from the Government’s new £80 million Green Recovery Challenge Fund. The Government is about to publish its Tree Strategy for England, with plans to increase tree cover in England from 10 to 12 per cent by 2050. It has also pledged to plant 30,000 hectares of trees across the UK each year by 2025. “It’s hugely ambitious and requires us to do things on a scale we’ve not done before,” Environment Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith told us. New funding includes £4 million for pilot studies looking at ways to plant trees outside existing woodlands. One pilot is testing ‘Miyawaki’ forests – densely planted, speciesrich mini-woodlands the size of a tennis court – in city centres. “It’s more expensive to plant in cities, but the benefits are bigger,” says Lord Goldsmith. “They create links between different wildlife areas and give people access, too.” Plant a tree and add it to the Countryfile log. You can also apply for a Golden Ticket to plant a tree with a Countryfile presenter at a Woodland Trust site. For details, visit bit.ly/plant-britain

Planting a tree means leaving a FOR THElasting legacy

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BOOKF SHEL

BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine readers have been putting enforced time at home due to the pandemic to good use by turning their gardens into wildlife havens, according to results from our latest GW Mag wildlife questionnaire. 27 per cent of readers questioned saw more wildlife in their garden in 2020 than in 2019. However, there was a worrying drop in sightings of some birds, with fewer of you seeing chaffinches, fieldfares or dunnocks. Three-quarters of readers have installed wildlife-friendly features, including hedgehog houses, insect hotels and bat boxes. But only 17 per cent have cut holes in their fences to let hedgehogs travel between gardens. Our Wildlife Editor Kate Bradbury says that linking gardens together creates a network of habitats that’s much bigger than individual gardens. Read the full details on p76.

Plant species declared extinct

Bumblebees make unexpected visits

Eleven plant species were declared extinct last year by the IUCN BRITAIN’S PARKS (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) – that’s more than GO GREEN a third of the 31 species on its 2020 extinction list. One-third of the world’s oak tree species are also at of risk of extinction A record number Green Flags due to habitat loss and climate change. But 26 plant and animal were awarded last year, to overspecies are now ‘recovering’ thanks to conservation efforts. Find out more at iucn.org 2,000 well-managed parks and green spaces, recognised by the charity Keep Britain Tidy. Make your dream greenflagaward.orggarden virtual

Bumblebees visit fewer than half the most commonly recommended plants for pollinators, says new research from citizen science project, BeeWatch. Agapanthus, deutzia and petunias were among plants found to be unexpected bee magnets. The RHS is reviewing its Plants for Pollinators list. “Plant lists are a starting point,” says RHS horticultural advisor, Helen Bostock. “What you see on the flowers in your garden gives you the best data.” Visit beewatch.abdn.ac.uk

PASQUE FLOWERS THE GENUS Celebrating Britain’s meadows PULSATILLA

gardenersworld.com

February 2021

1 Celebrating Britain’s meadows “The British Isles are blessed with a native flora of infinite variety and quiet but exceptional beauty,” says Alan Titchmarsh in his contribution to a new book: Wildflowers for The Queen: A Visual Celebration of Britain’s Coronation Meadows by Hugo Rittson Thomas (Wildflower Press, £50, published February 2021), with a foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales.

A new TV series uses virtual reality to show how gardens could be transformed. Garden owners don headsets to step into 3D versions of HARLEQUIN LADYBIRD their dream gardens, created by top designers, including Manoj Malde and CAUSES 2-SPOT DECLINE Tom Massey. “The most exciting thing is the reaction, some were in tears of The invasive harlequin ladybird joy,” says Malde. The six-episode has caused a severe decline series will also show ideas for small budgets. in populations of two-spot Tune in to a new garden design programme, with designs by Your Garden Made ladybirds, an date TBC, BBC2 Manoj Malde, for quick fixes for gardens on a according small budget to Perfect, February 2021

world’s oak tree species are also at risk of extinction due to habitat loss and climate change. But 26 plant and animal species are now WILDFLOWERS THE BOOK FOR THE OF THE ‘recovering’ thanks to conservation efforts. Find out more at iucn.org QUEEN

Hugo Rittson Sally Coulthard Thomas This modest and With a forward by unassuming title HRH The Prince bristles with of Wales, this information sumptuously about the life and A new TV series uses virtual reality illustrated, large natural history to show how gardens could be format book is a of the humble transformed. Garden owners don visual and cultural celebration of Britain’s earthworm. headsets to step into 3D versions of 20 Coronation Meadows founded in 2013. Formatted their gardens, With contributions from artdream historian Philipcreated by top as a series of 43 questions likely to be designers, including Mould, Alan Titchmarsh, designer Dan Manoj Malde and asked about these essential creatures, Massey. “The most exciting thing Pearson and DowntonTom Abbey creator Julian their critical importance to gardeners Fellowes, and imagesisfrom the author andwere in tears of the reaction, some and life on earth is potently revealed, Royal photographer, the supported by trivia panels and joy,”atmosphere says Malde. and The six-episode character of each is evocatively captured illustrated by black and white artworks. series will also show on the page, complemented with artistic The ideal gift for a budding young ideas for small budgets. of individual species and blooms. naturalist alike. programme,depictions Tuneorinseasoned to a newgardener garden design with designs by Your Garden Made Wildflower Press, £50. Apollo/Head of Zeus, Perfect, date TBC, BBC2 Manoj Malde, for£14.99. quick fixes for gardens on a small budget February 2021 ROSA: THE STORY OF THE ROSE

Peter E Kukielski and Charles Phillips The social, cultural and horticultural

Haunn Meadow on the Isle of Mull

Plant species declared extinct

EARTHWORM

February

News in brief

“TheGrey-Wilson British Isles are blessed with a native flora of infinite variety and Christopher This comprehensively quiet but exceptional beauty,” says Alan Titchmarsh in his contribution to illustrated bookbook: is theWildflowers for The Queen: A Visual Celebration of Britain’s a new Haunn Meadow definitiveCoronation guide to this Meadows by Hugo Rittson Thomas (Wildflower Press, £50, on the Isle of Mull group of published spring-flowering February 2021), with a foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales. anemone relatives. Written by an acknowledged botanical author and alpine expert, the authoritative, yet accessible text will Eleven plant prove of great value to thespecies were declared extinct last year by the IUCN £45.the Conservation of Nature) – that’s more than Price:for keen gardener who wants Union (International to identify and learn about From: www.alpinegardensociety.net; thirdandofvarieties. the 31 species on its 2020 extinction list. One-third of the tel: 01386 554790. all theaspecies

PHOTOS: ANDREW CROWLEY; BBC STUDIOS/COUNTRYFILE; GETTY IMAGES/ANDREW HOWE, MARK HEIGHES; PAUL DEBOIS

for rs

Join BBC Countryfile’s nationwide campaign to tackle climate change by planting trees this year

Gardeners across the UK are digging deep for BBC Countryfile’s Plant Britain, a two-year campaign to get the whole nation planting, to help tackle climate change. The first goal is to plant 750,000 trees, one for every child who started primary school last year. The idea has the support of HRH The Prince of Wales, who said it was our ‘duty’ to plant trees for future generations. “Planting a tree means leaving a lasting legacy,” he said. Presenter Matt Baker planted the first tree in the new five-hectare Countryfile Wood at the National Trust’s Quarry Bank, just outside Manchester. The wood is now home to 3,600 native broadleaf tree saplings, from oaks to sweet chestnuts. The programme also supports urban tree-planting schemes in cities such as Bradford, West Yorkshire, where the council is enlisting the help of children to plant 55,000 trees in green spaces around the city. “Children are going to lead the way,” Countryfile’s Anita Rani told Gardeners’ World Magazine. “If you get a child to plant a tree, you’ve got them – you’ve engaged them with nature.” The scheme is one of many tree-planting initiatives across the UK: the Woodland Trust

Lockdown boost for wildlife gardeners

PHOTOS: ANDREW CROWLEY; BBC STUDIOS/COUNTRYFILE; GETTY IMAGES/ANDREW HOWE, MARK HEIGHES; PAUL DEBOIS

Clippings

Our roundup of the month’s latest gardening news and views

Make your dream garden virtual

11-year Swiss study. bit.ly/harlequin-study

3 COVID COMMEMORATION A new garden to commemorate key workers and pandemic victims is to be created in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London. It will feature three rings of blossom trees.

NEW HEAD FOR WILDLIFE TRUSTS Environmental campaigner and TV presenter Liz Bonnin, best known for documentaries such as the BBC’s Drowning in Plastic, is taking over as President of the Wildlife Trusts.

5 156 NEW PLANT SPECIES NAMED Six new UK toadstools are among 156 new plant species officially identified in 2020 by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Orchids account for over a third of them. bit.ly/Kew-new-species

gardenersworld.com tpr media consultants – May 2021

Cotswold Life gardening columnist Mandy Bradshaw mentioned Wildflowers for the Queen in her her Garden Clippings column.

The Coronation Meadows Project, which saw the creation of 90 new meadows throughout the United Kingdom, is celebrated in a new photographic book. The project was launched by Prince Charles to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation and his own wildflower meadow at Highgrove is one of the 20 areas of wildflowers featured in Wildflowers for the Queen. Photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas travels from the Isle of Mull to Cornwall and from Wales to Kent capturing the beauty of these meadows. Alongside these detailed portraits, which include cowslips at Sheepleas in Surrey, and the snake’s-head fritillaries of Magdalen College, Oxford, there are profiles of different wildflowers. There are also contributions from Dan Pearson, Alan Titchmarsh and Julian Fellowes, Wildflowers for the Queen: A Visual Celebration of Britain’s Coronation Meadows is published by Wildflower Press, priced at £50.

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Online Tatler online – news story with images, including quote from HRH Prince of Wales https://www.tatler.com/article/wildflowersforthequeencoﬀeetable bookroyalphotographerhugorittsonthomas

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House and Garden https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/highclerecastle wildflowermeadowwildflowersforthequeenbook

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Sandy Feltham, Reckless Gardener review: https://recklessgardener.co.uk/wildflowersforthe queenreview/

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Quintessentially: https://www.quintessentially.com/noted/wildflowers forthequeen

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Ian Scalter, Artmag review https://artmag.co.uk/magazine/artmag149/#page=27

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Media Evaluation of campaign by tpr media consultants May 2021 +44 (0)20 8347 7020 | sophie@tpr-media.com www.tpr-media.com