A third of show gardens at the Chelsea flower show will feature weeds, as horticulturalists move to rebrand them as “resilient plants”.
Four of the 12 show gardens this year will feature plants traditionally regarded as weeds, including brambles, thistles and knapweed, the Times reports.
Sheila Das, a garden manager at Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Wisley in Surrey, said gardeners should stop using the term “weeds” in a derogatory way and instead refer to “weed heroes” or “superweeds”, while Tom Massey at the Royal Entomological Society (RES) said he regarded weeds as “resilient plants”.
Massey, who will create a garden at Chelsea for the RES, told the Times: “People often get really stressed out about dandelions on the lawn but they are a good source of nectar [for bees] because they flower early in the year and they’re really nice to look at. Even foxgloves and knapweed [are welcome]. There’s a lot of stigma around the word ‘weed’.”
Jilayne Rickards, who is designing the Fauna and Flora garden at Chelsea, said she would be using brambles and thistles, despite their reputation for taking over patches of land, while the Centrepoint show garden will also feature weeds.
Cleve West, the designer of the Centrepoint garden, told the Times the plants would symbolise regeneration. “What at first glance may appear to be a dysfunctional and fragmented space is in fact a thriving, natural habitat,” he said.
The show comes as the RHS, the largest gardening charity in the UK, released a list of the top beneficial wildlife to welcome into the backyard. Its list is made up of the most asked about species by its members, who have found them in their gardens and wanted to know what they are and if they are beneficial.
Topping the list are lichens, which can often be found growing on trees or shrubs. The RHS hopes to raise awareness that lichens provide food for other garden wildlife and create new habitats by providing shelter for invertebrates and nesting materials for birds and mammals.
Some additions to the list may be surprising to some, with wasps named as a beneficial creature to embrace in the garden. However, they are vital garden predators, feeding on everything from caterpillars to greenfly. Multiple fungi species also make the list.
