Restoration of native plants gets a boost

The Oregonian's Abby Haight spotlights a little nursery, staffed by one manager and volunteers which harvest and propogate wildflowers, grasses and wetland plants.

The Native Plant Center is managed by Marsha Holt-Kingsley and is quoted saying "We're imitating nature," through their painstaking work.

"The knowledge that I'm helping this region that I love so much is fantastic," she said. "I no longer have a garden, but I can garden for the world."

Read complete article at the Ashland Daily Tidings>

Wild flowers on farms the best habitat for wildlife say ecologists

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent

Farmers in Britain are encouraged to sow wild plants on crop margins as part of subsidised environmental schemes.

However a new study has found that grass alone will not help wildlife as much as planting flowers like knapweed, yarrow and bird's-foot trefoil.

Conservationists said the research showed how important it is for farmers to grow more wild flowers, especially for rare birds like yellowhammers and skylarks. Ultimately it will encourage predators like barn owns and kestrels.

The research, published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, found field margins could provide food for animals more cost-effectively than "whole farm practices" such as organic farming – but a variety of margins needs to be managed well to provide food all year round.

Wild flowers provide more seeds for insects and birds. Also hedgerows need to be provided alongside the margins to maximise nesting opportunities for birds and habitat for insects.

Richard Winspear, senior agricultural adviser with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, urged farmers to consider incorporating flowers into margins they sowed this autumn.

"If farmers are planting further margins this autumn, then there are significant further benefits to adding flowers to the mix," he said.

"Flower-rich margins hold the greatest variety and abundance of insects of any margin type. Such margins alongside watercourses could be a simple way for farmers to benefit both wildlife and water quality."

Farmers include field margins alongside their crops as part of agri-environment schemes subsidised by Europe, which pay them to manage their land for the environment.

The RSPB and other groups had wanted farmers to be required to set aside a certain amount of land for wildlife in order to replace the benefits of the old "set-aside" scheme that had benefited wildlife by leaving land fallow.

However the Government has chosen to stick with a voluntary programme, the Campaign for the Farmed Environment, to persuade farmers to leave land for wildlife.

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What’s Blooming in Baltimore-July ‘09

Catherine Mezensky
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Baltimore Gardening Examiner

On this Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day there are plenty of thriving perennial blossoms in Baltimore. These include wildflowers, bulbs, tubers, and flowering shrubs. These different flowers need varying types of care, but most of them provide lots of mid-summer color and plenty of blooms for cutting. To see how flowers like coneflower, hydrangea, and dahlia are faring around the city, view the slideshow at the bottom of this article.

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9NEWS.com | Colorado's Online News Leader | Colors bursting in Colorado high country

SUMMIT COUNTY - It's a beautiful bonus from all the rain and now warm weather in the high country: flowers have started showing off a lot of color.

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9NEWS.com Colorado's Online News Leader Colors bursting in Colorado high country

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Japan Wildflower Video

Brown-eyed Susan is a native of Virginia - dailypress.com

There's a black-eyed Susan and a brown-eyed Susan and both are as pretty as can be. The brown-eyed version, Rudbeckia triloba, is a native Virginia wildflower you see flowering in July, says Helen Hamilton, president of the John Clayton Chapter, Virginia Native Plant Society. It's distinguished from its close relative by smaller, more numerous flowers with shorter and fewer rays, or the tightly packed disk of florets that make up the flower's "eye." Read more:
Brown-eyed Susan is a native of Virginia - dailypress.com Source: dailypress.com

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Wildflowers: return of the natives

www.telegraph.co.uk
By Paul Wilkinson

Half a century ago almost 50 species of wildflowers would decorate a summer cornfield. The vivid blue of corncockle and the gold yellow of corn marigold glittered like a gem-strewn tapestry.

But decades of agri-chemicals have brought such delights to near-extinction. Species with old-world names like Venus’s looking-glass, weasel’s snout and shepherd’s needle – all worthy of salvation for their names alone – teeter on the brink of oblivion.

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