wild flower seed packets

Hi All!

I do a lot of work with school and other groups encouraging care of wildlife and the environment and I have noticed that where I have been suggesting people leave a small patch of their gardens to “go wild”, more and more are “planting a wild garden” – which I find a bit of a paradox! My concern is that so many seed companies are producing packets of wild flower seeds and selling them indiscriminately all over the country. I have failed to find any indication as to where the plants from which these seeds were gathered originated. Are they even UK varieties?

I have moved around a fair bit - East and West, North and South and I know that the species of wildflowers you find vary considerably in different areas. Not just that but also the ‘milkwort’ for example, you see in Southwest Scotland is subtly different from the variations of the same species you find in Oxfordshire (predominant colours and size of flowers in this case).

Now I realise that if conditions such as climate and soil type do not suit a species in one of these seed packets it simply will not grow. However is there a danger of regional variation being obliterated by the “mixing up” of regional types? Will it happen? Does it matter? Anyone know?

Jenni

God gave us two ears and one mouth for a very good reason!