New Year Plant Hunt: the first of the prizes!

Red Dead-nettle, Wilts. 2/1/2015
Image: T. Havenith

Two of the nicest aspects of the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt: hearing from families who went out together to see what was in bloom, and hearing from people who went out last year as well as this. 

In 2014, Tim and his fiancee Lucy found 6 species in bloom near their home in Melksham, Wiltshire: Red Dead-nettle, Petty Spurge, Groundsel, Daisy, Dandelion and Field Madder.

In 2015, Tim, his wife Lucy and Meeple, their baby bump, walked the same route and found the first 5 species but sadly no Field Madder, although they had Wavy Bittercress this year. Meeple is due to arrive in late April, when there should be lots of flowers in bloom to welcome him. And we hope that he, Tim and Lucy will join us on many New Year Plant Hunts in years to come. 

Field madder in Wiltshire, Plant Hunt 2014
Image: T. Havenith

He may have a new name by then: Meeple is perhaps what botanists would call a putative designation, inspired by Tim and Lucy's love of board games!

So, the prize for New Year Plant Hunt Family Values goes to Tim, Lucy and Meeple. 

And they win... a chance to share their botanical wishes for 2015 on this page, in the hope that any passing genies will oblige - or at the very least, that some of you will click through on a few links please! 

Tim said "Here are our Botanical wishes for 2015:

1. I would like to see the Living Churchyard Project continue to flourish - this involves volunteers in managing churchyards for the benefit of wildlife. The project I’m involved with has a blog, which can be viewed here, and Caring for God's Acre, the charity providing support for the project, can be found here.

2. I would like to see more publicity for Gardening with M.E., a meme set up by Gwenfar’s Garden about managing to continue gardening while suffering from M.E (also known as CFS and Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome). I will be blogging about this topic over the coming year and my posts can be seen over at my Notes of Nature blog here.

3. One thing I would like from BSBI please is an ID guide to Hedera helix and cultivars".

That's a very modest third wish, but I managed to worm out of Tim what he really, really wants! 

Daisy, Dandelion & Wavy Bittercress
Wiltshire 2/1/2015
All images: T. Havenith

"Ok, I noticed that last year some charities like BugLife had a short period where membership was around half price. I wondered if the BSBI ever do something similar?"

We don't Tim, but I'll try and catch our Trustees in wish-granting mode and mention it to them! 

Many thanks to you, Lucy and Meeple for taking part in the Plant Hunt again, and for sharing your botanical wishes for 2015 - I hope they all come true for you! 

Our next New Year Plant Hunt prize is the Phil Collins Tribute Award - the lucky winner will be telling us about her Hunt(s) on two landmasses and also sharing her botanical wishes for 2015 - watch this space!