Hope for the Lappinch

An early morning Spring walk (more of which in a later post), revealed a surprising number of wildflowers, nestling in the protection of our hedges.

Hedgerows are often described as linear woodland and the flowers we found reflect this – being more typically associated with woodlands than the open grasslands that make up most of the farm.

Tithe maps show our hedges have been in place since at least the early 1800s and perhaps longer, and we suspect these wildflowers have quietly been doing their thing each Spring for hundreds of years, protected by the thorns of the hedgerow above them. It’s evidence of the tenacity of native nature given the right habitat and something that would be all too easy to miss if one did not take the time to look carefully. I can’t help but find it somewhat ironic that, in a grassland farm that should be alive with meadow and farmland flowers, it is the wildflowers of the wood that have managed to cling on and endure.

Can you name them all?