Favourite wildflowers

I love to smell wild honeysuckle, particularly in the evening. I used to love sucking the nectar out when I was a kid, too.

I had a non-wild honeysuckle in my garden for a while. It flowered (purple) for about 5 days a year, had no scent and grew like mad, so I was always cutting it back. I ended up hacking it out. You can't beat the wild variety.

My favourite is the lady slipper orchid. 

The saga to see this plant is one of my most infamous escapedes. Not only was my phone smashed to pieces in the process, but I didn't even see the native plant due to exhaustion. I'm not supposed to know where it is but, for various reasons, I do. 

I saw this plant in May 2024, travelling to Lancaster by train and on to Gargrave. The main line was blocked due to a derailment, but I managed to slip through. Once at Gargrave, I was nearly run over by a car and then my phone got destroyed in a bike accident. So, in the end, I was left without navigation in unfamiliar terrain. I decided to grit my teeth and found my way to the site purely from memory despite never being here before. 

All of the orchids in the flush had gone over, and I did sort of end up trespassing for a better colony located nearby. After this, I retraced my steps to Gargrave, miraculously not getting lost along the way. 

It’s gotta be wild quinine 

though swamp candle, obedience plant, and black eyed Susan are all close contenders for the throne. America really does have a way with words.

I enjoy Verbascum thapsus, Common Mullein.

It is a biennial with large hairy rosettes of leaves.

Some years it can grow yellow flower spikes 2 m / 6' 6" tall.

The middles of forget-me-nots change colour when they've been polinated so as bees don't waste time looking for nectar when there's none.

I like forget me nots, they're easy to miss, you have to look closely, they're tiny but so beautiful! 

Horse chestnut trees have good flowers, but I assume you mean herbaceous plants and not trees or shrubs.

Marsh orchids (dactylorhiza), an expanse of loosestrife (lythrum) and little forget-me-nots are quite good.

I was going to say yellow flag iris but it can be an invasive nuisance.

I've had Welsh honeysuckle wine. It was wonderful.

I love both of those, I love so many wildflowers although I can't name most of them, I love to see wild honeysuckle.

I like blue bells their so pretty in the woods under the trees