The aim of our plant gallery is to showcase a range of our native plants throughout the year in order to illustrate just how spectacular they can be, but also to document the changing seasons during the year.

We intend to display plants that are of great benefit to wildlife, and which can be grown by anyone in their own back garden.  

Although we are in the middle of winter there is still plenty of interest in the garden. In the absence of foliage, the cracked and irregularly shaped bark of the familiar silver birch comes to the fore. The bark displays a huge range of colours, from the silverly white and peeling outer layers to the greens, browns and reddish colourations underneath. Silver birch is a great tree for the garden, forming strong architectural forms in the winter months, whilst in the summer months, it creates just a lightly dappled shade which enables a wide range of underplanting.

As we progress through autumn the skeleton structure of the hedgerows reveal themselves. Of particular note are the Blackthorn sloes with their velveteen finish, and colours that can vary on a single tree from a midnight black to a grey-blue. There appears to be a particularly heavy crop of sloes this year. The sloes have culinary uses - as a sloe gin, or, as the French did in the nineteenth century, pickled and used as a subsitute for olives.

The local hedgerows are at their best in the early morning September sunshine. Many are laden with berries, including the massed clumps of red Hawthorn 'haws', the purplish hues of the Blackthorn sloes, and vibrant translusent reds of Geulder Rose. These are all valuable food sources for a range of wildlife from now right through to the winter months. Just think of the impact if every garden fence was a hedge instead?

Is there a better sight than a field full of cornfield wildflowers in August? The field below contains Cornflowers, Corn Marigold, Poppies, and Corn Chamomile. This beautiful display - which only grows on disturbed, or ploughed, ground - is unfortunately a rareity in the British countryside. We currently have a special offer on Cornfield Wildflower seed mixture throughout August.

With its strong scented flowers Honeysuckle is at its fragrant best right now in mid-June. A very versatile climber, the speciman below grows on wire fencing bordering Hedge and Habitat gardens. In the autumn its berries are loved by thrushes.

Whilst they are beginning to come to an end, it has been an excpetional year for Ox-eye daisy flowers, which have put on a spectacular display in many of our local meadows and roadside verges. Ox-eye daisies are an important food source for numerous insects. Mass groupings of Ox-eye daisies - such as below - are often indicative of relatively newly sown meadows.

Finally a prolonged period of rain, and with it one highlights (in our view) of early summer - the creation of a series of small pools on Wild Teasel. A renowned and almost prehistoric looking wildflower loved by wildlife for both its bloom and subsequent seed heads, the reason for it's water collecting abilities remain unclear. Some have argued that the plant gains nutrients from the insects which inevitably fall into the water, whilst others believe that it provides a source of water during times of drought. 

Yellow Rattle wildflowers beginning to form seed pods in the Hedge and Habitat wildflower meadow in May. Yellow or Hay Rattle is excellent for reducing the vigour of dominant grasses (for example in a newly developed area of wildflower meadow) due to its semi-parasitic tendencies, and is also loved by a wide range of insects.

Blackthorn blossom en-masse in March. These flowers were covered in flying insects, and produced a beautiful scented aroma in the early evening sun.

Vibrant Hazel catkins in late winter sunshine.