| Gallery: Flora of the 'margins' |  |
Some plants are so versatile that they can crop up in nearly any situation - they are opportunists, often growing like 'weeds'. Many of them are also amongst our most beautiful flowers.
Pictures
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The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is a personal favourite of mine; not just for its beauty, but because to it represents, better than any other plant, the freedom that wildlife gardening can you to enjoy plants normally regarded as weeds. These ones are growing in a container on some decking.
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Beautiful and rich in folklore, the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) has its place in my garden, though, as with many other plants, I limit where it grows.
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Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are opportunists that will exploit even the most seemingly unfavourable niches. Here it is growing on top of a wall in my garden.
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Compact clumps of daisy-like flowers make our native Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) an attractive plant, both to us and to many insects.
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The unusual colour sets fox and cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca) apart from other dandelion-like flowers. In my garden it sows itself freely - often occurring in my front-lawn which I manage, in part, as a meadow.
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Welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) are one of the delights of my garden; seeding themselves and popping up anywhere.
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Variable in colour, I get both yellow and orange Welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) in my garden.
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Purple toadflax (Linaria purpurea) occurs as a welcome self-sown native in my garden.
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Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) is a very prolific native in my garden. It's a delightful cranesbill with little pink flowers and a lovely rosette of delicate leaves which can turn blood-red. If you don't like where its growing, it comes up with the gentlest of tugs. It's only downside is its smell, which is rank!
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Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) is a good workhorse in the garden - seeding itself freely and providing good early spring colour and food for insects. | | Click to enlarge | |
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One of my garden favourites; the native foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) takes some beating. It sows itself prolifically but unwanted plants are easily pulled up. The tall purple/pink flower spikes are very attractive to bumblebees and very beautiful. Plants with completely white flowers also regularly crop up.
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Corn marigold (Chrysanthemum segetum) from a 'cornfield annuals' seed mix which I purchased from Landlife Wildflowers. The flowers of these plants were a real magnet for a whole array of hoverflies, beetles and other insects.
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Garden Lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) is a great workhorse in the garden - superb for providing groundcover. In my garden it seeds itself profusely unless the flowers are removed before they have a chance to do so. (It's worth doing because the seedlings are not easily pulled up.)
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Corn-cockle (Agrostemma githago) is an extremely rare wild plant in Britain now, but it is an easy and tremendously rewarding plant to grow in the garden. Here it is growing with corn marigold (Chrysanthemum segetum) from a 'cornfield annuals' seed mix which I purchased from Landlife Wildflowers.
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