The health benefits of the rose

Before starting my article I will like to say a few words about health.

"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease."
"He, who has health, has hope. And he, who has hope, has everything."
"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver."

The rose naturally conjures up images and thoughts of love and romance for almost all people. Love is a natural healer. That is one big health benefit! The rose is a beautiful exquisite flower no doubt. It is used in flower arrangements, bouquets, as a part of decorations at weddings and celebrations and it even forms a part of wreaths on coffins. Even just looking at a rose brings pleasure to most people. The beauty and delicate fragrance of the rose has universal appeal. This lovely flower has many other uses other than being decorative or an instrument of love and romance.
Rose water:

The petals of the rose flower are used to make Rose-water. Rose water has a lovely fragrance. It is used as a part of many ceremonies. In India guests are welcomed by sprinkling rose water on them.

Rose water is an essential part of many beauty treatments. Rose water is used as an astringent and sometimes as a base for astringent and skin toner.

Rose water is used to make beauty face masks. Mix a bit of sandalwood powder in rose water. Apply a thin layer of this paste to your face avoiding the eye contour and then wash it off after it dries.

Sometimes rose water is applied after steaming the face or some other beauty treatment.

You can make rose water at home if you wish. Take fresh rose petals and pour just enough water to cover them. Boil or simmer on a low flame for about 45 minutes and allow the decoction to cool. Strain and squeeze out the rose petals and voila, you have your rose water. You can bottle and refrigerate it. Use the homemade rose water within a week to ten days.

If your eyes feel tired, just dip a swab of cotton in cool rose water and place it over your eyes. This will cool and refresh your eyes.

The rose is also used to make perfumes.

Rooh afza- rose syrup
making Gulkand at home
commercially available gulkand

The rose by any other name..

Other than external uses, the rose is also eaten or consumed. Rose essence is used in foods. Fresh rose petals are sometimes used to garnish sweets such as jelebi , phirni or sweets such as mawa cakes etc.

Rose essence is used in flavouring beverages. Rooh-afza is commercially available popular rose syrup. Rose syrup added to chilled milk or lassi makes an excellent drink in the summers.

To make rose syrup:

Boil water and sugar. Add one spoon sugar for a cup of water. Add rose essence to taste and red food color. Chill and serve. You can boil rose petals instead of using rose essence too.

You can make a concentrate of rose syrup. Just add more sugar and boil the mixture to make one thread consistency sugar syrup. You can add rose essence and bit of red food colour. then let it cool. This concentrate can be diluted before serving. You can add rose syrup to lemonade too.

Gulkand:

This is a sweet preserve made from rose petals and sugar. (gul means rose, kand means sweet or sugar) many people make gulkand at home, though it is available in the market.

Gulkand has many medicial uses as per ayurveda. It is used to treat acidity and constipation as it is an excellent digestive. Gulkand can be eaten just as it is or it can also can be put into paan and eaten, or you can add it to ice-creams, milk shakes and kulfi. Edible Silver foil is also added to gulkand at times, and sometimes gold powder is also added.

Gulkand has cooling properties. It is used as a cooling tonic to treat fatigue, and heat-related conditions. Eating a spoonful of gulkand every day is good for memory, eyesight, cheerfulness and it is a good blood purifier as well.

To make gulkand:

Use a wide-mouthed airtight glass jar. Ensure it is clear glass and not coloured glass. Place the fresh rose petals and sugar in alternate layers in this jar. Place this jar in direct sunlight for 6 hours per day for about 3 weeks to a month. Every other day, stir the contents with a wooden stick. The sugar will start melting and the rose petals will change color, and there will be a good blend or rose petals and sugar. Keep the jar indoors when done. Use the homemade gulkand within a month. (Home made preparations may be liable to contamination if the utensils used are not properly sterilized so it is best to get a commercially made preparation of gulkand as it may be more hygienic and will also last longer.)

What Do You Know About Tulips?

Are you searching for the perfect flower and getting ready for your next planned event or wedding? Sometimes there is no right or wrong flower but a matter preference as to what fits your needs or what fits your personality. The 101 series is a series of articles helping to educate everyone with the contrasts of various flowers. You may want to read the others in this series as well as many other helpful articles.

There are five things to keep in mind with tulips:

1. Tulips are usually six-petaled, elongated cup-shaped flowers with slender stems and large broad leaves. Purchase or cut tulips of good size and color, although a little green tinge is all right€"they will continue to develop after cutting. The tulip should be firm to the touch, and upright. Check the inside of the blossoms for signs of pollen: The centers should be clean.

2. In aged tulips, the tips of the petals are discolored or have a transparent look. The center of the base shows signs of pollination, and the flower feels soft to the touch.

3. The so-called Dutch tulip is a shorter variety with smaller blossom size than does the French tulip. The French tulips are longer lasting as a cut flower.

4. Striped or variegated Rembrandt tulips look like flames of fire. Rembrandt tulips have long pointy petals. Parrot tulips have ruffles and fringe tulips have frayed edges.

5. When Arranging with tulips, leave plenty of room, as they continue to grow and develop after being cut. They also open and close, and reach and move towards the light. Always set an arrangement of tulips in indirect light. Large tulip leaves can be gently curled and tucked between blossoms to keep flowers in place and allow you to use fewer of them.

Here is so more factual information you may also find helpful.

Names - Tulip, tulipa

Varieties - There are 15 different divisions of tulips, with hundreds of species, the most common being the single tulip.

Colors - all colors and combinations are available except no true blue.

Scent - A few varieties have a mild, sweet scent, but most have none.

Freshness - Purchase or cut tulips when they show good size and color. A little green is fine. Tulips should be firm to the touch and upright. Check inside the blossom to see that no pollen has developed.

Vase Life - About 5 days. The French variety will last 7 days or longer.

Availability - January to May

Meaning - Declaration of true love. €I am hopelessly in love with you.€

Cost - Winter-moderately priced. Spring-inexpensive. The French variety: Winter - expensive, Spring-moderately priced.

Arranging Tip - Tulips change daily after cutting. Leave enough room for tulips to grow and move, even if they are manipulated somewhat to fit into certain combinations. See arranging tips 1, 8, 10, 13, 17, 18, 19, and 20.

Growing Tip - Tulips are easy to grow in the garden for spring color and can be forced to bloom indoors in the winter. They only bloom for a short time in the spring, so plant early-, mid-, and late blooming varieties to extend tulip time. Most tulips become exhausted after a year or two, returning shorter and smaller every spring, so pick varieties that €naturalize€ well.

Other - Tulips are heavy drinkers!

Now that you know a little bit more about tulips, it is time to check out some popular varieties.

Regular Tulips include: Assorted, rainbow, white, pink, yellow, orange, hot pink, red, lavender, purple, black jack purple.

French Tulips include: White, white Maureen, pink, yellow, orange, hot pink, red.

Plantwatch: Roadside wonders

Roadside verges are one of our great wild plant refuges. They are only narrow strips of land, but verges along our major roads total an area the size of the Isle of Wight. And they provide a home to more than 700 species of plants, almost half the native flora of Britain, with some of the last habitats left for many wild flowers, especially meadow plants – which is why the charity Plantlife is campaigning to get verges looked after better to encourage these wild plants.

Many of the roadside plants are flowering now, such as the familiar red clover, common buttercup, brilliant white oxeye daisy and the tall rosebay willowherb with its distinctive clusters of purply-red flowers. There are even rare flowers, such as the green-winged orchids on the M40 in Buckinghamshire, the Deptford pink in Devon and Worcestershire and wood bitter-vetch in Powys.

Perhaps most iconic of the roadside flowers out now is the beautiful star-shaped yellow flowers of St John’s wort. This was a magical flower in pagan rituals on Midsummer’s Day (traditionally 24 June and distinct from summer solstice) when the flower was burned on bonfires to purify crops. It was also believed to ward off witchcraft, although in Christian times Midsummer’s Day was turned into St John’s Day, hence the name of the plant. In herbal medicine, St John’s wort was also valued for treating wounds – recent research has shown that it can indeed fight bacterial infections – although its best known use these days is probably for calming the nervous system and treating sleeplessness and depression.

Propagating Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums can be propagated from seeds, cuttings, or plant division. Some chrysanthemum hybrids are patented and cannot be propagated without permission. This is usually indicated on the plant label.

Chrysanthemums actually like to be divided – the new clumps grow better than old, crowded ones. After the last spring frost when shoots are 1”- 3” tall, dig them up and carefully pull or cut apart. Throw away any half-dead or overly woody parts, and plant only the healthy divisions. Add a source of phosphorus to the planting hole, along with organic matter. Ideally, divide chrysanthemums every 3-5 years and relocate to reduce disease.

To propagate from cuttings, snip off a piece about 4”- 6” long, and remove the leaves on the bottom half. Dip in rooting hormone and insert about 1” into vermiculite, sand, or sphagnum moss. Create your own mini-greenhouse using a wire frame and plastic wrap, and place the plants under bright light (but not sunlight) until rooted.

To grow from seed, sow at least 2 months before first frost, or start indoors over the winter. The planting medium should be kept at 70-75 degrees, and seeds should germinate in 1-3 weeks.

How to plant tulip?

Planting

Nature never intended for bulbs to loll about above ground, so don't delay planting the bulbs after purchase.

 Plant tulip bulbs in the fall, 6 to 8 weeks before a hard frost is expected and when soils are below 60 degrees F. (See our frost charts.) This timing ranges from early autumn (Zone 4) to late autumn (warmer zones).

Tulips prefer a site with full or afternoon sun. In Zones 7 and 8, choose a shady site or one with morning sun only.

All tulips dislike excessive moisture. Ideally, the soil is well-drained, neutral to slightly acidic, fertile, and dry or sandy.

Rainy summers, irrigation systems, and wet soil are death to tulips. Never deliberately water a bulb bed. Wet soil leads to fungus and disease and can rot bulbs. Add shredded pine bark, sand, or anything to foster swift drainage.

You'll want to space bulbs 4 to 6 inches apart, so choose an appropriate plot size.

To deter mice and moles—if they have been a problem—put holly or any other thorny leaves in the planting holes. Some gardeners use kitty litter or crushed gravel.

If ravenous rodents are a real problem, you may need to take stronger measures, such as planting bulbs in a cage of wire.

Plant bulbs deep—at least 8 inches, measuring from the base of the bulb. And that means digging even deeper, to loosen the soil and allow for drainage, or creating raised beds. Remember, the bigger the bulb, the deeper the hole it needs.

Set the bulb in the hole with the pointy end up. Cover with soil and press soil firmly.

Water bulbs right after planting. Although they can't bear wet feet, bulbs need water to trigger growth.

If you're planning to raise perennial tulips, feed them when you plant them in the fall. Bulbs are their own complete storage system and contain all of the nutrients they need for one year. Use organic material, compost, or a balanced time-release bulb food.

Care

Water tulips during dry spells in the fall; otherwise, do not water.
Compost annually.

Deadhead tulips after flowering.

Allow the foliage to yellow for about 6 weeks after flowering before removing it.

The bulbs of Species tulips may be left in the ground for several years; others may be lifted annually, once the leaves have died down, and ripened in a warm, dry place.

Replant the largest bulbs; smaller bulbs may be grown in containers in a bulb frame, in mix of equal parts loam, leaf mold, and sharp sand. When in growth, water moderately, applying a balanced liquid fertilizer weekly for 3 or 4 weeks after flowering; keep dry in summer, and repot annually.

Using wild flowers in floristry and bouquets

A guest post by Fabrizio Boccha

When, years ago, I asked why nobody uses wild flowers in bouquets I was told, ‘They wilt too fast,’ or, ‘They drop their petals almost immediately.’

In fact , looking back on it I suspect the real reason was that they had fallen out of favour and had been replaced by larger blooms that were easier to cut and cheaper to supply to most florists’ shops.

At Common Farm with our ‘tithe to nature’ concept, we find sustainably grown wild flowers are chic, beautiful and sometimes beautifully scented. They also provide habitat and food for our invertebrate life.

Non of these are cultivars and all are indigenous. Some are from seed collected from our meadow, most are from Emorsgate Seeds who provide provenance information as well as guaranteeing UK origin, by identifying the county of origin too. By ‘farming’ wild flowers we are increasing their number and diversity here at common farm and we make sure that this system is fully sustainable.

Wow! All indigenous (ok, some argument over fox and cubs)

Lesser knapweed, Scabious( devils bit and field0, Oxeye daisey, Meadow buttercup, ladies bed staw, meadowsweet, wild carrot, corky fruited water dropwort, grasses; crested dogs tale and meadow barley, musk mallow, cow slip (this example out very late) red campion, gladdons , fox and cubs (???) and oregano.

It makes a fine looking bouquet but would be better with the adittion of some cottage garden flowers and in fact we always mix our flowers and think of the wild flowers as the spice added to the bouquet dish.

Gardens: what to do this week

Hardy perennial Hellebore ‘Slate’. Photograph: Dave Zubraski/Alamy

Pickle this

If your food waste goes to landfill, you’re missing a great soil improver. A bokashi system lets you collect and ferment it using beneficial micro-organisms: it’s easy, quick and compact, plus the runoff (or bokashi juice) is great for keeping sinks and drains “sweet”. Put the fermented waste in your heap or wormery, or bury it in the soil. For a bokashi starter kit, try evengreener.com.

Visit this

How many cherry trees can you name? I bet it’s one: ‘Morello’. The Cherry Fair at Brogdale Farm in Kent on 19 July aims to open our eyes to a world of cherries, from ‘Stella’ to ‘Merchant’. Taste and buy more than 30 varieties, and find out how to coax a great crop from your own tree.

Plant this

Come spring, you’ll be glad you planted up that unloved shady corner. Hardy perennial Hellebore ‘Slate’ has pretty, purple-black blooms from February to April, and would look good with lime-green euphorbias or white pulmonarias. Height and spread: 40cm x 40cm. Buy one H. ‘Slate’ in a 9cm pot for £11.99 (including free mainland UK p&p). To order, call 0330 333 6856, quoting ref GU357, or go to our Readers’ Offers page. Dispatched in July and August.

Scientists discover why some roses smell sweeter than others - and how to improve the scent

A Damascus Rose

Not all roses smell that sweet but scientists have found out why some smell sweeter than others and in the process have discovered a way of potentially improving the scent of the gardener’s favourite ornamental flower.

A study into the chemistry of rose scents has found a new biochemical pathway in the petals of the plants which produces a sweet-smelling fragrance that could be re-introduced into rose varieties that have lost their smell.

Scientists have identified an enzyme known as RhNUDX1 which plays a key role in producing the sweet fragrance of roses, which they suggest could be re-introduced into modern varieties that have lost their scent as a result of intensive breeding for better colour and shape.

Jean-Louis Magnard and colleagues from the University of Lyon in St Etienne in France identified the new source of rose scent in a study published in the journal Science that investigated the source of the strong scent in the rose Papa Meilland.

They found that the enzyme was lacking in another rose, called Rogue Meilland, which produces little scent and a genetic analysis revealed key differences in the genes responsible for the biochemical pathway that led to the synthesis of the enzyme.

The researchers found that the RhNUDX1 enzyme, which works in the cells of the flower petals, generates the well-known fragrance substance called monoterpene geraniol, the primary constituent of rose oil.

In the future, it might be possible to exploit the knowledge about the gene for RhNUDX1 in order to breed pleasant-smelling scents back into modern varieties that lack a strong fragrance, they said.

Rose Flower pictures

Scientists believe that the discovery of a new biochemical pathway that can synthesise rose scents is probably due to the independent evolution of chemical attractants designed to advertise flowers and bring pollinators to fertilise them.

It is known that a single constituent of rose oil, such as rose oxide, can impart different scents depending on which 3-D shape they have formed. Rose oxide, for instance, can produce four different scents, sweet, fruity, minty or citrusy, depending on which one of four 3-D shapes it has formed.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on July 03, 2015, on page 11.

Summer flowers rapidly appearing: Country diary 100 years ago

In a willow-grown marsh, easier than usual to walk through just now, I found the ragged robin abundantly in flower. With its pale pink and untidy, straggling petals it looks a poor relation of the sturdy red campion, which in the dry wood has been long out and new is the most noticeable flower. The ragged robin is a mid-June flower; why should it be called “floscuculi”? There are several “cuckoo flowers,” but the best known is the bittersweet, which in these parts is usually called the May-flower; it comes out when the cuckoo is calling all day-long, but the bird is getting weary when the ragged robin appears. It is true that yesterday I saw a cuckoo apparently flying for its life because an annoyed tree-pipit was chasing it, and that when it outdistanced the little bird it called many times, but the voice of the cuckoo is not the most noticeable bird-note now.
Summer flowers are rapidly appearing to replace the now seeding blooms of spring. There are open thimbles on a few foxgloves - thimbles of the “little folk” or fairies, - and in another month this tall favourite will line the hedgerows and fill cleared spaces in the woods. There is another very common flower now out, the pink spike of the bistort, known in this district as the “patience dock” and by the farmers “snakeweed,” on account of its trailing roots. Gerarde, the Cheshire herbalist, called it: “passhions” and described it as “an excellent potherbe,” and no doubt, that is the origin of the local name. It was an Easter plant, not because it flowered then, but because its young leaves made a suitable vegetable in spring. It is rather a troublesome plant in pastures, but its flowers and dark green leaves are certainly handsome, if we are capable of seeing beauty in common things.

Gardens: plants in their natural habitat

I remember the day I first I saw a dog’s tooth violet. It was April in the garden my parents moved to in the mid-70s and the find was just one of many treasures that emerged after we cleared 50 years’ of undergrowth. The plant was part of a tightly clustered colony in a little clearing under the shade of a liquidambar. The leaves emerged first, pushing up and then opening out in a splay of blue-green paddles that were curiously mottled. Pointed buds soon flung the petals back to reveal a push of green stamens. It was a mystery how something so exquisite had survived the neglect.
It was several more years before I came to meet Erythronium dens-canis in the wild. It was a June trip and my first plant-hunting venture in the Picos de Europa in northern Spain, aged 19. I had no idea that you could see summer astrantia in the morning and narcissus in the afternoon through making the ascent. We moved through nut woodland, where moody mourning widow combined with Lilium martagon, and through orchid-filled meadows mounded with wild peas. Gaining altitude, we saw the turf shorten and the season move backwards as we approached snowmelt. It was here that I found the very same erythronium. Once again they were alone and ahead of the summer competition.
Seeing plants growing in the wild takes some of the mystery away from how to grow them. The mountainside erythroniums had all the water and light they would need while they flowered, seeded and retreated below ground again before the slopes dried in their dormancy. Our domesticated dog’s tooth violets had survived there in the moss, with spring moisture and light while the liquidambar was dormant.
I’m guessing our hearty soil and lush grass will overwhelm them at the farm, but the dog’s tooths are not difficult bulbs as long as they do not have too much competition. Winkling them into the beds among later-emerging perennials, such as peony, is the best bet. I will also try some of the other species. Plants adapt in the wild by evolving their genus – and we can use this to our advantage.

Perfect partner: the violet head of mourning widow (Cranesbill). Photograph: Arco Images GmbH /Alamy

Erythronium also occur in North America and the American species offer up several good varieties. E tuolumnense stands about 18in high with apple-green foliage and starry yellow flowers. ‘Pagoda’ is a fine and vigorous selection for open woodland or a border that allows it time to settle in. Plant it among pulmonaria for a springtime combination and the cover of foliage once they become dormant.
Erythronium californicum ‘White Beauty’ s smaller in stature, with marbled foliage and ivory flowers. I like to mingle them through a low carpet of wild strawberries and for the carpet to sweep among epimedium, which enjoys the same conditions. If you find them a place that they like and where they can be left alone, you may well be planting them for future generations.

Get growing

Buy dog’s tooth violet plants now while in full growth or order for delivery in the autumn as dormant rhizomes. Keep rhizomes damp if you are waiting to plant them by storing in compost, as they will not recover from dehydration.

No room in the park? Why not use next door’s back garden?

Open gardens usually conjure up images of older, well-to-do people admiring each others’ chrysanthemums. But now, with a shortage of public space in cities, overcrowded parks and young people increasingly living in rented accommodation with little outdoor space, a new drive by the National Gardens Scheme is aiming to make private gardens more inclusive.
The scheme has already begun opening up gardens to allow users to enjoy early snowdrops and will continue until late October. It wants to encourage young people to use private outdoor space as they would a public park. Private garden owners can register their gardens with the NGS and open them up to the public, charging a fee of about £4, with all proceeds going to nursing and caring charities.
“Gardening is generally regarded as an occupation for old retirees but there has been a steady movement towards it among young people keen on environmental issues, or growing their own produce for cooking, or just looking for some quiet space,” said George Plumptre, chief executive of the NGS.
“In urban areas, we want to encourage more young people to turn up, sit on a bench with a book or have a cup of tea with friends and spend a couple of hours in a green space, particularly if they have not got that at home.” The NGS is increasing its use of social media and has created a free app that gives precise details about garden openings.
Experts welcomed the move. Les Back, 52, professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, said: “People in their 20s and early 30s are increasingly living in rented accommodation with no garden and very little room. This is true of Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and particularly London. The amount of space people do have is increasingly pressured.”
Back said public parks, which were traditionally conceived as being the lungs of a city, were being besieged as the population of the UK increased and outdoor areas were shrinking or becoming overcrowded. “Schemes such as this are showing that, at last, those with more land – older, middle-class people – are thinking about sharing their space. It’s not before time,” he said.
Clare Elliott, 29, a film-maker who rents a shared house in Walthamstow in London, agreed. She said that for people living in a city where houses were being sliced up into flats and outdoor space is a luxury, it could be difficult to find a peaceful place out of doors.
“Right now, if you choose to live in London, you’re basically deciding that you won’t have any green space. None of my friends can afford their own gardens or outdoor areas,” she said.
“In the summer, many of the parks near me don’t even have green grass because it’s been trampled on. There’s certainly a demand for more access to nature in the capital – quiet places where young people can go to read, hang out, have a coffee or even go on a date.” She added: “Some cities are better than others but there’s a lack of designated green areas and these really great garden societies are making a difference.”
The NGA opens up more than 3,500 private gardens across the country each year, with the peak time being in the summer, when there are 250-400 gardens open every weekend from late May until early July. Founded in 1927 by the Queen’s Nursing Institute, the district nursing movement, the NGA raises more than £3.25m a year, with proceeds going to charities such as Macmillan, Marie Curie, Carers Trust, Hospice UK and Perennial.

Climate change is disrupting flower pollination, research shows

The early spider orchid and miner bee, that depend on each other for reproduction, have become increasingly out of sync as spring temperatures rise, research has shown.
Sexual deceit, pressed flowers and Victorian bee collectors are combined in new scientific research which demonstrates for the first time that climate change threatens flower pollination, which underpins much of the world’s food production.
The work used museum records stretching back to 1848 to show that the early spider orchid and the miner bee on which it depends for reproduction have become increasingly out of sync as spring temperatures rise due to global warming.
The orchid resembles a female miner bee and exudes the same sex pheromone to seduce the male bee into “pseudocopulation” with the flower, an act which also achieves pollination. The orchids have evolved to flower at the same time as the bee emerges.
But while rising temperatures cause both the orchid and the bee to flower or fly earlier in the spring, the bees are affected much more, which leads to a mismatch.
“We have shown that plants and their pollinators show different responses to climate change and that warming will widen the timeline between bees and flowers emerging,” said Dr Karen Robbirt, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the University of East Anglia (UEA). “If replicated in less specific systems, this could have severe implications for crop productivity.”
She said the research, published in Current Biology on Thursday, is “the first clear example, supported by long-term data, of the potential for climate change to disrupt critical [pollination] relationships between species.”
Three-quarters of all food crops rely on pollination, and bees and other pollinators have already suffered heavily in recent decades from disease, pesticide use and the widespread loss of the flowery habitats on which they feed. In the UK alone, the free fertilisation provided by pollinators is estimated to be worth £430m a year to farmers.
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Professor Anthony Davy, also at UEA and part of the research team, said: “There will be progressive disruption of pollination systems with climatic warming, which could lead to the breakdown of co-evolved interactions between species.”
Scientists have already identified a few timing mismatches caused by global warming between species and their prey. Oak tree buds are eaten by winter moths, whose caterpillars are in turn fed by great tits to their chicks, but the synchronicity of all these events has been disrupted.
Suspected mismatches have occurred between sea birds and fish, such as puffins and herring and guillemots and sand eels. The red admiral butterfly and the stinging nettle, one of its host plants, are also getting out of sync.
The new study focused on the early spider orchid Ophrys sphegodes, found in southern England, and the solitary miner bee species Andrena nigroaenea because they have a very close relationship. Other plants can be pollinated by many insects and other insects can pollinate many plants, making it very hard to determine the effect of changing temperatures.
Female solitary miner bee ( Andrena nigroaenea ) The solitary miner bee is affected more by rising temperatures than the early spider orchid that it pollinates. Photograph: Oxford University
Another challenge is that the temperature effects can be subtle, meaning data has to be collected over a long period. Robbirt and her colleagues realised that the natural history museums in London and Oxford and Kew Gardens had dated specimens of both the orchid and the bee stretching back to 1848.
Analysing all the data, and checking it against recent surveys, revealed that the orchid flowers six days earlier for every 1C increase in spring temperatures. But the effect on the male miner bee was greater, as it emerged nine days earlier.
The female miner bees, which usually emerge later than the male, emerged 15 days earlier. The latter effect meant the male bees were less likely to visit the orchid flowers for pseudocopulation. “The orchids are likely to be outcompeted by the real thing,” said Robbirt.
The UK government published its national pollinator strategy on Tuesday. It was welcomed by the pesticide trade body, the Crop Protection Association and the National Farmers Union. But Joan Walley MP, chair of parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee, said: “I am disappointed the government seems stubbornly determined to keep open the possibility of challenging the EU ban on neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been linked to pollinator declines.”

Ten of Britain's rarest wild flowers

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  Thyme broomrape Orobanche alba
  It is always rather thrilling to find a broomrape. Like oysters and toadstools, these plants are strange, ugly and alluring, like a species that you would find on the moon. This species is parasitic on wild thyme and you will always find it in close proximity to a good colony of wild thyme on dry cliffs and grasslands in plant-rich places, such as the Lizard in Cornwall. It opens purplish red, gradually browning to brick red as it ages.

  Jonathan Buckley

• 

  Spring gentian Gentiana verna
  Gentians have a colour named after them as their hue is so intense. Only green alkanet comes near it (and it is not native) and the fact that spring gentian lives in such high and austere places makes it even more miraculous. The plant itself has never seemed particularly beautiful to me – it is too much like a cigarette holder with a flower stuffed in the end – but its deep blue colour, which pales as the flower ages, is the reason why it is always such a thrill to find it.

  Jonathan Buckley

• 

  Mountain avens Dryas octopetala
  A deliciously pretty plant, made all the more so by the contrast with the rocky, brutal places where it tends to grow. The seed heads are almost as showy as the flowers, looking like the ragged flight feathers of a slightly bedraggled duck. These look best when backlit, giving the hillsides and promontories where they grow a soft, white halo. Its leaves resemble miniature oak leaves – hence its Latin genus name, Dryas, after dryad, the nymphs of the oak tree.

  Jonathan Buckley

• 

  Grass-of-Parnassus Parnassia palustris
  I am not the only one to count grass-of-Parnassus among my favourite plants. It is common in damp places with high rainfall and I used to find lots of it during childhood holidays on the west coast of Scotland. It was given the name grass-of-Parnassus after it was found on Mount Parnassus in Greece.

  Jonathan Buckley

 

• 

  Pasqueflower Pulsatilla vulgaris
  These are the Vogue models of the wild-flower kingdom. Have a really close look at them. The golden yellow anthers at the flower’s centre are a perfect contrast to the velvet-textured purple petals. A gentle fuzz of very fine hairs covers the calyx and leaves. The feathery, anemone-like seed pods are also exquisite. These are worth travelling miles to see.

  Jonathan Buckley

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  Early spider orchid Ophrys sphegodes
  The name of this exotic-looking orchid comes from the fat, velvety lip of its flower. Furry on the outside, with a smooth, hairless, reflective patch in the centre, the two parts together suggest a fat spider. But it is bees, not spiders, which flock to this plant. The male solitary bee Andrena nigroaenea attempts to mate with it, collecting pollen on its head, which it then deposits on other flowers. This is less successful than it sounds: self-pollination is thought to be the main process by which the flowers set seed.

  Jonathan Buckley

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  Green-winged orchid Anacamptis morio
  The best time to see green-winged orchids is at first light on a clear morning when every buttercup and every grass blade is glassy with dew, and spider’s webs are highlighted and haloed around the orchids. Marden Meadow in Kent is one of the best green-winged orchid sites in Britain. The field is turned magenta for most of May and into early June, so vivid that you might notice it as you whistle past on the London train. The stripes on its hood give it the alternative name of green-veined orchid.

  Jonathan Buckley

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  Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris
  This is our most exotic flower, its chequered bells look like stained glass when the light shines through them, each pale cell outlined by a darker frame. The reason fritillaries are now so rare is that, as bulbs, they can be destroyed by just one ploughing of a site where they may have been for centuries. You can spray a meadow with herbicides when the fritillary bulbs are not in active growth and you will hardly touch them, but ploughing breaks the bulbs.

  Jonathan Buckley

   

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  Lady orchid Orchis purpurea
  Its name makes it sound like a delicate beauty, but second to lizard orchid, lady orchid is the biggest orchid we have in Britain. A good specimen is hard to trump. You can spot the best spikes from 100 yards away, each one a lighthouse of colour amid the short, chalk grassland on the half-shady edge of a wood. The plant can stand a good 45cm high, the flower section a fifth or sixth of the total height, with up to 40 ladies, each just bigger than a thumbnail, partying at the top.

  Jonathan Buckley 

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  Fly orchid Ophrys insectifera
  This is an exciting orchid to find, each flower a black and conker-brown fly. It has, in fact, evolved to resemble a small female wasp and emits pheromones to attract male wasps. As the wasp attempts to mate with the flower, its head becomes coated with pollen, which it carries from plant to plant. This is not very successful: pollination rates are low, with less than 20% of flowers setting seed.

  Jonathan Buckley