A CONVERSATION BETWEEN MYSELF AND ANDY WINFIELD
Andy
I’ll introduce myself. So we’re in the University of Bristol Botanic Garden. My name is Andy Winfield, I’m the senior horticulturist here. I also do the social media and all that stuff. But more importantly, I’m a horticulturist. We’ve started in this area of the garden (ancient woodland), which is down a little dip and it’s been untouched by us since we moved here in 2015. Standing in amongst this hillside, a grassy hillside, are two old oaks that predate all the building work around here. So we’re just allowing this area to do what it’s doing. There were some daffodils planted here before us and a few crocuses, but we’re waiting to see what comes out naturally within this space. So really over the last three or four years, we’ve just let it go wild.
Alina
Have you seen a dramatic change over the years? What kind of ‘weeds’ have been popping up? I can see these wood anemones, and they’re really stunning.
Andy
Yeah they’re spreading a lot. So they existed here before, but they’re really spreading and you’ll find in a month, you know, three weeks to a month, there’ll be all over here. We’ve got two species of wood anemone here, one anemone, blanda, which is the one that we can see behind us. They have many petals, lots of thin petals, and blue and white flowers.
Alina
They stand very proud against their foliage.
Andy
They do! These are really good because when the sun’s not shining, they close up and protect the pollen and then open up again, so you can get good shot with the camera these days. You can get a good time lapse with an iPhone when some are opening and closing when the sun comes out. But we also have another species called Anemone nemorosa, which is an ancient species, which I can’t see from where we’re standing now, but it’s less petals, five petals. [Alina spots one and points] Yes! That’s them! They symbolise ancient woodland. So ancient woodland is any woodland that was here when plants first re-inhabited the UK or the British Isles after the Ice Age. So they crept from Norfolk all the way up. We have some ancient woodlands around Bristol, Leigh Woods is one and there’s one down by Clevedon. You can see these Anemone nemorosa growing there. And the reason they’re a signifier of ancient woodland is because they take so long to colonise, something like a foot every 10 years or something ridiculous like that. I can’t remember the exact figures but because they are pollinated by ants I think, bees struggle to pollinate them. They’re like pandas. They’ve painted themselves into a corner but they seem to thrive in woodland and they’re protected so yes, anemones are here. They’ve been slowly spreading over the last years so that shows that the soil here is ancient as well as these trees.
Alina
Do you find people would associate an anemone as a weed and they would pull them out of their bedding?
Andy
Yes, I do think they do pop up sometimes, especially the Anemone blanda and people might take them out. But, in terms of what is a weed? Things like primrose? They would be weeded out of people’s gardens but they’re vital for pollinators. In a month or a few weeks we’ll start seeing the bee fly, which is a type of pollinator.
Alina
Yeah, they look so weird.
Andy
They just look like a fly with the worst disguise of a bee. But they’re also parasitic. So they lay their eggs next to a solitary bees nest and waft their eggs into the hole using their wings. Then those eggs hatch and then they feed on the bee larva. And then they’re off again, but worry not because a sign of a parasitic bee is a sign of a healthy bee population.
Alina
That is so interesting, isn’t it? So many kinds of plants bring in different insects. And before you know, you have such a rich organic ecology at your feet. But I think it is important to realise what kind of insects plants bring in to make such a richer environment. And it’s important to have a diversity of plants in your garden. So maybe leave some of these ‘weeds’ alone to help bring in that diversity.
Andy
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. One of the most important ‘weeds’ that is frowned upon, and there are weed killing products available specifically to kill it, is the dandelion. It’s vital for bees. Not many people know that the flowers of the dandelion, every single yellow little strand of the flower is a single flower. And in that flower is nectar. So it’s a huge source of nectar for the bees at a time when there aren’t as many flowers around.
Alina
Do they stay a flower all year round?
Andy
No, they tend to be earlier in the year. You don’t see them so much later on in the year. But this period earlier in the year when they flower is really important for pollinators.
Alina
Would you say that they are the first flowers popping up for the bees?
Andy
Yeah, one of them. I mean, primrose is one of the first as well and its name suggests that prime rose, first flower.
Alina
I read a book about the definition of flowers, about what the flowers mean. The writer said for them, the first sign of a primrose is the start of the year; spring is on the horizon and things are starting to turn over again for the new year.
Andy
Yes, that’s a good way of looking at it. Every flower brings its benefits to insects and to the soil. You get the succession. In a natural woodland environment like this, we have the bulbs coming first before the leaves are on the trees. Starting with the crocuses and the snowdrops then ending with bluebells but all manner of different bulbs in between like the wood anemones, daffodils, and so on. After that you get more green plants. If you come here at the end of May, you’ll start to see the cow parsley in here and much taller plants and they will sort of die back towards the end of the year. Which is really lovely to see the succession. If you look behind you over there, brambles.
Alina
That’s a really notorious plant that people really hate, brambles.
Andy
My favourite fruit, I think! It’s really good for butterflies, overwintering butterflies, or bee pollination. It also has this role in woodland expansion as well. So you’ll find that in a natural progression of a woodland, you’ll see around the edges of woodland is brambles. Any sort of bare patch, it gets covered in brambles. There are seedlings that grow underneath that are protected by the brambles. And as the seedling grows and the trees grows, they create shade which pushes the brambles and keeps them to the margins. And so this expansion, this sort of constant renewing and expansion of the brambles in there, the trees go on and on.
Alina
Claiming their territory basically.
Andy
So yeah, they have that role as well, but they’re seen as a real pest. Yeah, I try to take them up on the allotment but we do have a patch that we let grow because brambles are lush.
Alina
So, for the modern day gardeners now. It’s becoming more apparent that it is important to have little patches in your garden to keep to let it grow wild. Obviously, there’s the difference between growing wild and maintaining wild space. Obviously, that’s something we’re trying to encourage more for modern day gardeners because it’s just so important. What are your thoughts on how people should approach their gardens? What’s some good tips for people when going about gardening? And what can they do?
Andy
I think it’s maybe a good thing for someone that’s sceptical, to have an experimental area. So if they weed one area and don’t weed another, they’ll see the diversity of life that happens in the non weeded area. In my garden at home, it’s very small but if a dandelion decides to grow somewhere, I let it because I know it’s going to help the bees. You’ll find all sorts of amazing, wonderful plants like cuckoo flower, Cardamine pratensis, which pops up every now and it’s a beautiful little flower as well. Leave it there because it looks good. Just because it’s not part of the plan doesn’t mean it’s not part of some other plan of nature. Nature’s plan. If you want to bring life into your garden, you can do that with garden centre plants, maybe the surest way to do it. But it is easier to just let some wildflowers grow. If it sort of gets too big, you can dig it up if you like, but it’ll be replaced by another one. These plants have adapted to find waste ground. And that’s why if you weed an area, it will soon get covered with weeds again, because that’s what they do. That’s how they’ve evolved and it’s very successful for them. There’ll be a real treat for you, you want wildlife in the garden. Start with the insects, and a good way to start with the insects is pollinator friendly plants. And a good way to start pollinator friendly plants is native plants. They will just find their own way.
Alina
They are the best! With my project, I’m not trying to force it down people’s throats, but these weeds are important. We all know plants are important. Like we all are aware to some degree now that plants are important. And I don’t want my project to be a campaign, like we see all the time about deforestation. I think my project is trying to touch simple ways that we can just help encourage wildlife. And, for example, the first picture of the Fox-and-cubs that was growing in the front garden. And I think they’re such a beautiful flower anyway, with the bright orange and the red tips. They’re just such a beautiful flower. Plus you get that for free! You know, you’re not paying for it. And I think that’s just amazing. So you can help nature for free. And that is just by leaving your garden to do what it wants.
Andy
People are starting to appreciate road verges that have been left to grow wild as well. I mean, very rarely you hear someone say they’re a menace these days. I think things are changing. Minds are changing. But, we have a saying in the botanical world, or maybe it was a campaign, I don’t know, about plant blindness. Which is the connection that’s been lost between people and plants. Whereas many years ago, plants form a big part of peoples life, like you know the sticky plants that you stick on each other growing up, all that knowledge that you inherit by playing is lost. It’s about reconnecting and I think it’s changing. A lot of the students here, a lot of the younger people are way more into plants than my generation at that age. I can’t remember anyone ever sticking their head above the parapet saying they like plants or ever at my school. But yes, you’re absolutely right. To encourage people to look at plants is one thing. So taking photographs of plants like you do, really encourages you to look at it and see on a molecular level and also at a more zoomed out level, then they’re so beautiful. Who was it? I think Georgia O’Keeffe said, “If you really look at a flower, really look at it; it’s your entire world for that one moment”. And she’s absolutely right. Everyone has that in them to do that. But like you say, you can’t force people to do it.