Wildflower Hunt

Do you love wild flowers? Would you like to know more about them? And help save them for the future? So would we.

About the Wildflower Hunt

People have less contact with wild flowers than previous generations. There are fewer flowers around us and we seem to have less time to enjoy them.

Taking part in the GBWFH is a great way to enjoy flowers, whether you’re familiar with them or not. And by letting Plantlife know what you’re found, you’ll help our work to make sure that there are more flowers and that people can enjoy them.

www.plantlife.org.uk/wildflowerhunt/

Primrose Day

Tomorrow, 19th April, is Primrose Day. This is when primroses are placed by Disraeli’s statue outside Westminster Abbey. This is to commemorate the death of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, in 1881. Primroses were his favorite flower.

The name Primrose comes from the Latin meaning “first rose”; they herald in the spring season. At New Ferry Butterfly Park spring is well on its way, with primroses in full flower amongst the coppice stools in Embankment Coppice. There are approximately 45 primroses in flower. 50 primroses were plug planted into the embankment using money from a Love Wirral Grant in 2014. Nearly all of the primroses have survived and there are many small immature primroses coming up too. This planting has been very successful and they are starting to spread of their own accord. This location on thin skeletal soils in amongst the coppice stools with summer shade has proved to be ideal habitat for them.

The early nectar source provided by the primrose flowers is appreciated by early flying butterflies with long proboscises (tongues) such as Brimstone and Small Tortoiseshell. Long tongues are required to reach down the 10mm long corolla (flower tube) to reach the nectar at the bottom of the flower. The early flying queen bumble bees, especially the common carder and the hairy-footed flower bee, a recent arrival at the park in 2014, will also make use of the primrose flowers.

Following this successful project, it is hope to extend this primrose area by further planting along the embankment. En masse they will produce a wonderful floral display. This area lies in the sanctuary area of the park, so the pale yellow flowers with the egg yolk centres will be enjoyed undisturbed by the wildlife and by Merseyrail passengers as the trains coast slowly past the railway embankment decelerating towards Bebington Station.

Paul Loughnane

Grafters

Hedge laying spectators are often surprised how much wood is cut through to bend down the stems. The hawthorn stem should be cut 80% through so that the upright stem can be bent over. There is enough of the cambium layer left for the bent stem to survive and give maximum regrowth from the stool. Even more of a miracle for them would be apple grafting, cutting an apple variety stem, the scion, completely and then grafting it on to a root stock. Wirral Countryside Volunteers and Wirral Tree Wardens held an apple grafting day at New Ferry Butterfly Park with an impressive total of 18 varieties of scions which came from orchards in Malpas, Willaston and Chester.

Despite the cold, 3^oC with snow and wind which made the fingers numb and stiff, under the gentle tutelage of David Ellwand 36 apple scions were grafted to either dwarfing or semi-dwarfing stocks. This was achieved using the whip-and-tongue groove method and then firmly bound with tape. Lining up the scion can be difficult and if the rootstock is larger than the scion you have to graft the scion to one side for the graft to be successful, making sure the cambium layers of both knit together so there is a free flow of sap.

Several Cheshire varieties of apple were grafted. There are no named Wirral apple varieties. The nearest name variety is the Elton Beauty, raised at Ince Nursery in 1954. However, one apple seedling at the park was thought worthy of grafting the “Adam and Eve tree” which produces a crisp dessert apple, with a good, sweet flavour. This was christened the “Adam and Eve” tree by raconteur Mel Roberts, the Park’s founder. The story goes the tree arose following a domestic argument; when the green grocer’s wife dumped the green grocer’s produce including apples in the park when it was abandoned land.

David Elwand took a tour of the park assessing the apple trees growing there. They were bought as wild crab apple trees but turned out to be varieties of apple trees. He gave us advice on pruning them. Right at the north end of the park up the steep embankment, David was rewarded; identifying a golden hornet crab tree, the apples of which would be very useful for his Pomona cider project.

The grafted trees are well-labelled, potted up and placed in a shady corner in the park to slow growth just in time for the union to take before the scion comes into full leaf and draws on the rootstock. In addition to cloning the apple varieties, the dwarfing rootstocks were propagated by both coppice stooling and trench layering.

Paul Loughnane

Wildlife Identification Workshops

RECORD are very excited to announce they are now taking bookings for the first batch of Wildlife Identification Workshops as part of their new Community Nature Hub project.

To book onto the workshops please follow the links and book via Eventbrite.

14th April 2018 - Reptile Identification

26th May 2018 - Slugs and Snails Identification

23rd June 2018 - Shieldbug Identification

30th June 2018 - Wildflower Identification

If you would like to be kept informed about the project and upcoming Wildlife Workshops and Recording Days, please subscribe to the Community Nature Hub mailing list here.