Wondrous weeds

Wondrous weeds

Herb Robert and scarlet pimpernel by Rosemary Winnall

Admire the beauty of Rosemary's collection of 'weeds'...
Purple flower of self-heal by Rosemary Winnall

Self-heal by Rosemary Winnall

My husband and I love to encourage wildlife in our garden and so we welcome some of the wild plants that appear in our herbaceous borders. We let cow parsley flower amongst the Persicaria in the spring and watch teasels, foxgloves and mulleins growing in the summer. But it is the small weeds that I most admire. They arrive unannounced and are often overlooked until they flower in a blaze of colour. We find speedwells, dead-nettles, vetches, scarlet pimpernel, herb bennet, heart's ease, swinecress, and self-heal.

Bush vetch leaf with flower by Rosemary Winnall

Bush vetch by Rosemary Winnall

During the last few months I have had time to look carefully and admire the beauty and diversity of many of the smaller common plants. Herb Robert is exquisite, self-heal is stunning, dandelion seedheads are magical and I love the way that this bush vetch plant is keeping its balance with help from that flimsy blade of grass. It makes me think about all the support that’s going on within our communities during these difficult times when we are all striving to make sense of a changing world.

Rosemary Winnall is a naturalist and lives at Bliss Gate in north Worcestershire where she and husband Tony look after a large rural garden.