Conscoius Creatives & Grow Wild Uk Live Brief - Brief & Research

Brief

Conscious Creatives is the LAU Sustainability Society, working to make our University more environmentally and socially conscious. Grow Wild UK is the national outreach initiative of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Through Grow Wild, Kew is inspiring millions of people to grow as a group, get active, learn about and engage with nature, and give back through volunteering.

We are looking for creative work that celebrates wildflowers and fungi! LAU Conscious Creatives society are working with Grow Wild UK to curate an exhibition to celebrate wildflowers and fungi. Sustainability is the focus, whether that be through the content of the work or the materials/methods used to make it.  

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES  
We are accepting 2D, 3D and moving image. Please include the following to submit your work:
1. A short proposal explaining how your work relates to the theme of ​wildflowers or fungi​ as well as focusing on ​sustainability​ (250 words max)
2. Images of the piece you intend to submit, 300 dpi JPEG, PNG, PDF any size

Submission deadline: 20th February, 2019

Research

UK Wildflower Gallery:

https://www.growwilduk.com/content/wildflower-gallery

There are around 1,600 species of wildflower in Britain and Ireland.

Agrimony is commonly found along roadsides, woodland edges, field edges and other well-drained grassy places. It has a long history of medicinal use, deriving its name from Argemone, a term used in ancient Greece to describe plants believed to beneficial to the eyes. The burred seed are exceptionally well-adapted to grip onto the fur of passing animals, like natural Velcro.

Autumn Hawkbit. Dandelion-like golden-yellow flowers appear from rosettes of leaves from June to October. The seeds are long and brown, attached to a parachute consisting of a single row of hairs.

Betony. The small clustered purple flowers and scalloped leaves of Betony are ideal for growing in damp, sunny or lightly shaded sites. It can sometimes be found growing in churchyards, where it was once believed to ward off evil spirits. 

Bird's foot trefoil. A common meadow wild flower, the name refers to its elongated seedpods, each with a hook at the tip that looks like a bird’s foot. Its nectar provides a valuable food source for insects and is often grown by beekeepers.

Bladder campion. Bladder campion is named for the inflated ‘bladder’ at the base of each flower. The white flowers are clove-scented at night, attracting long-tongued moths able to reach deep into the flower tube. 

Giant Bellflower. Tall spires of purple, bell-shaped flowers make an impressive display in damp woodlands, riversides, hedgerows and gardens. 

Common or lesser knapweed.Thistle-like, vibrant-purple blooms, which reappear every year, once established. They provide a real burst of colour and attract bees and butterflies. Their seed heads provide food for birds.

Corn chamomile. Also known as field chamomile, a mass of daisy-like white flowers with yellow centres appears on this plant from late May to September. The leaves, when crushed, give off a pleasant aroma. 

Corn marigold. These bright-yellow daisies pump out their sunny blooms for most of the summer. They look great in groups and produce a ready supply of nectar for pollinators.

Corncockle. With attractive pinky purple flowers that are furled like a flag before they open, this hairy-stemmed wild flower is happy on most soils but grows best in a sunny, open spot. 

Cornflower. Sow these seeds in sunny, well-drained soil and pretty bright-blue flower heads will appear on long stalks during midsummer. Look out for the common blue butterfly that feeds on its nectar.

Field Scabious. Dainty lilac pompom-like flowers bloom on tall stems between July and September, which are attractive to pollinating bees. Their stems are hairy and similar in texture to scabby skin.

Great mullein is unmistakable, with enormous yellow flower spikes growing up to two metres tall and setting vast quantities of seed. The large furry leaves are a feature too, providing food for caterpillars including the yellow and black-spotted mullein moth. 

Corn or common poppy. The classic poppy – vivid red with a near-black centre. It produces lots of seeds after flowering, which will germinate if the surrounding soil is disturbed. This means you may have poppies for years to come.

Lady's Bedstraw. A sprawling plant that will return every year. It produces golden-yellow flowers throughout summer, which provide food for hummingbird hawk-moths and elephant hawk-moths. 

Meadow Buttercup. Pretty yellow buttercups gently sway on top of delicate stems. They really enjoy moist soil, although will put on some kind of show in most conditions. 

Oxeye Daisy. Just like the daisies you’d find in a lawn, although with bigger flowers and taller stems. Their white petals with yellow centres put on a show from June to August. They’re loved by pollinating insects.

Burnet Saxifrage. A small, delicate plant found in well-drained, grassy places. Common names can be confusing – the divided leaves and wiry stems look like salad burnet, but this plant is a member of the carrot family and, strictly speaking, is neither a burnet nor a saxifrage.

Red Campion. The vivid pink flowers of this delicate plant really perk up the mix. It likes a bit of shade and moist soil, so you’re likely to see it thrive if your growing conditions offer this.

Sweet Vernal-grass. One of the first grasses to flower in old meadows and pastures, sweet vernal grass contains high levels of vanilla-scented coumarin, giving freshly-cut hay its characteristic sweet smell. 

Wild thyme/ Common thyme. Like the familiar culinary thyme, which hails from the Mediterranean, our native thyme is pungently scented and enjoys baking in hot, dry and sunny sites. The pink flower spikes are attractive too, and a magnet for pollinating insects. 

Uprights hedge-parsley. Often mistaken for common cow parsley, upright hedge parsley flowers later in the summer and has more upright stems without dark blotches. The flowers are a magnet for pollinating insects, including hoverflies and small beetles.

Yarrow. This hardy plant is found frequently in meadows, grasslands, along roadsides and among hedges. It has dark green, feathery leaves and clusters of delicate white flower heads which give off a strong perfume when in bloom – between June and August.

Wildflowers for bees:

https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/wildflowers-bees-beginners-guide-sowing-wildflower-seed-spring/

Bumblebees are iconic, charismatic and captivating insects that play a vital role in the lives of us all by pollinating our crops and many of our native wildflower species. However, since the 1930’s we have lost 97% of our flower-rich meadows – leaving bumblebee’s hungry and homeless…

Gardens have been acting as a safe haven for bumblebees for many years, with some bumblebee species now more common in urban and suburban gardens than they are in the wider countryside. You can help save the sound of summer from home by providing plenty of bee-friendly flowers in your garden.

When selecting your wildflower seeds be sure to buy a bee friendly mixture, much like Meadow Magic or Bees & Pollinators. A good indicator of plants which are suitable for bees is if they bare the RHS “Perfect for Pollinators” logo.

It is also important to ensure your wildflower seeds are native to the UK. Native plants will be easy to grow in Britain and are filled with food for our native pollinators.  An extra benefit of wildflowers is that they often thrive in partially shaded areas and can easily be incorporated into areas of your garden which you may find challenging for growing other types of plants.

How to create a wildflower meadow:

1. Wildflowers don’t like competition – remove any plants growing in your planned seedbed such as weeds, nettles, docks and couch grass. Be aware weed killer is not advisable in areas of wildlife.

2. Dig the soil over and firm it down before raking to create a level seed bed.

3. Sow the wildflower seed either by hand or with a seed spreader. We recommend sowing the wildflower seed at 5g per 1 square meter of soil.

4. Rake the wildflower seed into the soil and moisten the ground well.

5. Protect the newly seeded area from birds, cats and the like with a visual deterrent such as hanging C.Ds, creating noise for example using wind chimes or tightly fitting net above the seedbeds until the plants have established.

6. Ensure the soil is kept moist during hot, dry periods for the best germination.


Plants for Pollinators:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/conservation-biodiversity/wildlife/plants-for-pollinators

Wild bees and other pollinators are in decline. The Plants for Pollinators initiative helps gardeners easily identify plants that encourage them back into the garden.

If action is not taken, a drop-off in population numbers will have serious implications for food production and gardens - as many plants rely on bees and other insects to transfer pollen from one flower to another in order to set fruits and seeds.

Wildflowers for bees:
https://friendsoftheearth.uk/bees/beefriendly-plants-every-season

Cowslip
Spring - The trumpet-shaped yellow flowers on stalks are evocative of old British meadows. The deep blooms are visited by the long-tongued Hairy-footed flower bee and Garden bumblebee. Plant in lawns for your own patch of spring sunshine. 

Viper's bugloss 

Summer - A biennial with tall blue flower spikes which grows well and self-seeds on sunny, sandy ground. Highly attractive to a wide variety of bees, especially bumblebees due to its high nectar and pollen content. 

White deadnettle

Autumn - Let your corners and edges grow wild and you will likely see white deadnettle flowering almost year-round. An important wildflower for Flower bees, the Garden bumblebee and possibly even attracting the rare Large garden bumblebee. 

Lesser celandine

Winter - One of the earliest wildflowers to open en-masse, shining yellow in the sun against attractive dark green leaves. They are loaded with pollen that attracts queen bumblebees and spring mining bees such as the Tawny mining bee. 

Comfrey
Spring - A vigorous plant that is ideal for a wildlife corner. The flask-shaped flowers quickly re-fill with nectar, making comfrey highly attractive to bumblebees. The leaves can be made into a green manure for fertiliser.

Wood forget-me-not

Summer - The delicate sky-blue flowers make attractive ground-cover and self-seed well in bare soil- a good filler between bedding plants. Solitary bees such as mason bees, nomad bees, mining bees and small furrow bees sip nectar from the tiny flowers. 

Yarrow

Autumn - This ferny-leaved wildflower grows easily in lawns, especially if cutting is reduced to allow flowering. The white, umbrella-shaped flower-heads offer open-access dinner plates for short-tongued solitary bees such as plasterer bees and yellow-faced bees. 

Field speedwell

Winter - Covers disturbed bare ground in drifts of delicate blue flowers. Visited by small mining bees, including the specialist Red-girdled mining bee. Queen bumblebees crawl between the dense flowers in late winter and early spring. 

UK Pollinators:

https://www.growwilduk.com/blog/amazing-uk-pollinators-you-might-not-have-thought

Beetles

Fossil records suggest that beetles were the first pollinators on earth. In fact, it is believed they have been pollinating plants since before the time of the dinosaurs!

Not all beetles are pollinators though, only the ones who feed on pollen and nectar, and they’re best suited to picking up sticky pollen grains which attach to their hard outer bodies.

There are around 4,000 beetle species that are native to the UK, of which approximately a quarter are pollinators. The most common of these include the oil beetle, long horn beetle and the total unit that is the thick-legged flower beetle (pictured).

Butterflies

Unlike bees, these glamourous insects don’t carry pollen all over their bodies. Instead, the pollen clings to their legs as they search for nectar during the day.

Butterflies mostly land on wide-open flowers as well as favourites such as common honeysuckle and heather. UK butterflies include well-known species like the Peacock and Red Admiral, as well as rarer species like the strangely-named Dingy Skipper, Silver Studded Blue (pictured) and the stunning Purple Emperor.

Butterflies are capable of covering larger areas than bees and, unlike bees, they can see the colour red. This means they can easily spot crimson, scarlet and ruby flowers – some scientists have suggested that red might even be butterflies’ favourite colour!

Moths

Once the sun has set, the majority of moths visit night-blooming plants that are white or pale in colour, as these are easier to see in the dark. These flowers also tend to smell incredible, luring moths to them in much the same way that humans might be tempted by freshly-baked bread.

Although they don’t tend to be as popular as their flamboyant cousins the butterflies, the UK is home to plenty of interesting species of moth, such as the Elephant Hawk Moth (pictured), the Scalloped Oak and the Cinnabar.

Wasps

They might ruin picnics, but our various species of wasps are far more than just angry annoyances. Some of them, like Rudd’s ruby-tailed wasp, reject the traditional yellow and black danger-markings for a face that looks like it’s been dipped in colour-change nail polish (as well as a shiny red bottom!).

There are seven types of social wasps in the UK, which live in groups. They range in size from the common wasp (which nests in small spaces in buildings or underground) to the large (and admittedly pretty freakin’ scary) hornet.

Just like bees, there are also solitary varieties of wasp, but unlike bees their stings have no barbs, so can be used multiple times with zero consequences to the wasp. They don’t tend to attack unless provoked, though, so next time a wasp is buzzing round remember the good they do in pollinating plants.

Why Wildflowers matter:

https://www.growwilduk.com/why-wildflowers-matter

Wildflowers and wildflower-rich habitats support insects and other wildlife.

In the UK, we need a wide range of wildflowers to provide pollinators (bees and other insects that pollinate plants) with local food sources across the seasons – including times when crops aren’t producing flowers.

Many of our favourite fruits, vegetables and nuts rely on insect pollination. For example, in the UK strawberries, raspberries, cherries and apples need to be pollinated by insects to get a good crop.

Currently, the insects do this job for free! But if the UK doesn't have a large enough insect population we may need to develop artificial pollination methods, which takes a lot of time and is expensive.

As many gardeners know, insects and other animals can also help in the fight against crop pests (animals and insects that damage crops and plants). This means that farmers may have to rely even more heavily on pesticides if these 'good' animals and insects can't help.

Wildflowers also contribute to scientific and medical research. Some UK native wildflowers contain compounds which can be used in drugs to treat diseases. For example, foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) contain chemicals used to treat heart conditions. If we were to lose wildflower species, we could lose potential new medicines.

Just as importantly, perhaps, wildflowers are beautiful and provide us with habitats that buzz with life.

There are also strong cultural bonds that exist with recognisable species such as poppies, which remind us of lives lost in world wars, or of dandelions which may remind us of childhood summers.

Wildflowers provide lots of things that insects need: food in the form of leaves, nectar and pollen, also shelter and places to breed. In return, insects pollinate the wildflowers, enabling them to develop seeds and spread to grow in other places.

The insects themselves are eaten by birds, bats, amphibians, reptiles and small mammals, all of whom contribute to the cycle of life.

During winter when there is less food available, wildflower seeds can also be an important food source for birds and small mammals.

Wildflowers can also be really helpful to keep soil healthy. When wildflowers become established and spread their roots, they stabilise the surrounding soil.

This means that when there is a lot of rainfall, or irrigation in fields used to grow crops, soil particles and nutrients stored in the ground stick around and the soil stays healthy. This is especially important on hillsides, where sloping ground is easily washed away if there aren’t root systems to hold the soil in place.

Without plants like wildflowers that stabilise the soil, nutrients can get washed away into nearby water systems. This causes a problem called ‘eutrophication’, where algae spread and can make the water toxic to marine animals.

Native wildflowers have grown and evolved for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years here in the climate and environment of the UK.

This means that they have evolved alongside other native wildlife and organisms, often benefiting each other.

For example, many native wildflowers have flower shapes, sizes, colours and the time when they bloom that are attractive to UK pollinators. Some insects, such as some bumblebee species, are very picky about where they get their food and need certain UK native wildflower species to survive.

Native wildflower species have also adapted to environmental conditions here in the UK, so they can be easier to care for than non-natives.


How wildflowers are sustainable:
https://igin.com/article-763-Wild-About-Wildflowers.html

These days, sustainability is one of the biggest buzzwords permeating our culture. Seems like the recent attention given to global warming, in particular, has made us more aware of how our lifestyles impact our environment.

Yet in this industry, which depends so heavily on natural resources, it’s often difficult to focus on sustainability, even though we know it’s essential to our survival. Water is a prime example of a much-touted resource that needs to be managed carefully. Still, we have to use a certain amount of it to keep our trees and plants lush.

As the industry evolves and takes on greater accountability, sustainable practices such as Xeriscaping, or using native and drought-tolerant plants to reduce water usage, have gained importance. One way to practice Xeriscaping is to plant wildflowers. Using less water, wildflowers can dramatically punch up the color palette of a landscape. Picture the sprightly pink of a marsh milkweed or the inverted, triangular shape of a glade coneflower. No longer resigned to mountain meadows or dark woods, these unique plants fashion a striking, less structured take on landscaping.

And unlike some traditional ornamentals, wildflowers are well adapted to their respective climates. Properly managed, wildlife species can enliven a space for years to come. These hardy blooms are accustomed to making do with whatever sun, soil and water Mother Nature provides. This means less maintenance and usually no fertilizer, which alleviates the impact on the earth. Beauty and sustainability— what could be better?