Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count runs from Friday the 17th July 2026 through until Sunday 9th August 2026 – meaning the count ends today. It has been so hot and I’ve been too busy since the Butterfly Count started, so mainly due to the heat I’m sorry to say that I’ve only managed to do two Big Butterfly counts this year – both of them in my garden on the same day (with a gap in between each count).
My heart is full of love for butterflies, so I’m encouraging everyone to take part in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count, which starts on Friday 17th July 2026 and runs until Sunday 9th August 2026.
The greatest gift in life is true friendship and time spent together; nothing is more important or as valuable as our love for each other and our genuine connection. However, if you’re looking to give a physical gift this Christmas, seeds are a truly special something that can be wrapped up and given or posted inside a Christmas card (NB: Remember to use a padded envelope to protect your seeds from the machinery that processes our letters at Royal Mail’s sorting offices; post from a Post Office to ensure you pay the correct postage).
Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count (18th July 2025 until 10th August 2025) is over for another year. If you took a Butterfly Count, please remember to submit your sightings to Butterfly Conservation – the data is of immense and untold value – Butterfly Conservation’s scientists use your Big Butterfly Count results to help us all understand and support butterfly species.
Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count runs from Friday the 18th July 2025 until Sunday 10th August 2025. Taking a Butterfly Count is one of my absolute favourite things to do! I just adore watching butterflies and moths. I’d really like to encourage you to join in and take your own Butterfly Count – this is a fun activity, that’s also very relaxing and inspiring, too!
Plant Heritage is a charitable organisation that works to safeguard and conserve the diversity of our garden plants by encouraging the growing, propagation, and distribution of plants. National Collection holders are key to Plant Heritage’s aims, they hold documented, registered plant collections, featuring plants that are proactively propagated and conserved. Many popular groups of plants are currently without the protection of a National Collection holder, including some fabulous plants that attract a wide range of fascinating bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and other important pollinators to our gardens.
I want to inspire you to support nature and Surrey’s conservation groups and make a positive difference for the Small Blue Butterfly by growing Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) in your garden, or at your school, workplace, or allotment.
The Small Blue Butterfly is Britain’s smallest butterfly; it was once common in Surrey. This rarity is classified with Near Threatened status by the IUCN Red List.
Ilex aquifolium is the botanical name for our beautiful, British, evergreen holly. Holly’s vibrant, scarlet berries and glossy, undulating, spiky leaves delight us at Christmas time, yet these handsome plants retain their good looks throughout the year and enhance our gardens, woodlands, and wild landscapes. This holly species is a vital caterpillar food plant for the Holly Blue Butterfly. Hollies are evergreen, they shed a proportion of their oldest leaves in summertime.
Is there a better gift than a plant? I can’t think of any gift that surpasses that of a plant – my favourite gift would be a houseplant. I’d prefer to receive a houseplant over a garden plant as a surprise gift, as it’s easier for me to find a suitable space and make room for an indoor plant than a garden plant.
Are you, your family, or community group, or your neighbourhood, village, or town planning a bonfire night celebration? Members of our community often devote significant amounts of their time and energy into creating a spectacular display for all to enjoy. Bonfire celebrations bring us together, but our actions can be harmful for wildlife.
Bonfire mounds resemble five-star luxury hibernation destinations to hedgehogs, frogs, newts, and toads, who enter seeking refuge, mistakenly assuming they have found a safe place to hibernate over winter.
Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count runs from Friday the 12th July 2024 through until Sunday 4th August 2024. Taking a Butterfly Count is one of my absolute favourite things to do! I’d really like to encourage you to join in and take your own Butterfly Count – this is such a fun activity.
The State of the UK’s Butterflies 2022 report found that 80% of butterfly species in the UK have decreased in either their abundance or dispersal, or both their profusion and distribution, since 1976. This statement is deeply alarming.
Hearing about wildlife’s decline can leave us with feelings of overwhelming sadness and helplessness, but for me it poses the question, what can we do to help butterflies?
When we think of Rhododendrons and Azaleas, we tend to imagine lush, leafy plants adorned with an abundance of large and blousy, colourful flowers in May. May is undoubtedly the main flowering season for Rhododendrons and Azaleas and we celebrate these magnificent plants in all their glory now, making this the ideal time to visit Millais Nurseries, our local, award-winning Rhododendron and Azalea growers.
The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch is one of my favourite events of the year; I just adore birdwatching and love to spend an entire weekend watching birds and relaxing. I like to get my first Birdwatch done as early as possible, so I can post here on my website and remind you to take a Birdwatch, too.
November is a wonderful time to head outdoors in search of seed heads, pine cones, interesting stems and fallen branches to create stunning indoor decorations for Christmas.
Honesty (Lunaria annua) seed heads are called silicules. As a whole they may appear a little drab, but gently flex Honesty seed capsules between your fingers and the outer casing will peel off and reveal the elegant beauty of Lunaria annua.
Nurseries, garden centres, and online retailers are now displaying Thanksgiving Cacti on their shelves! Thanksgiving Cacti are easy to grow houseplants. One of the many endearing qualities about these plants is that we can enjoy Thanksgiving Cacti this season, but these long-lived plants can flourish for over one hundred years, allowing Thanksgiving Cacti to be celebrated and passed on to future generations.
I’m mindful that my recent article about Gertrude Jekyll may have inspired you to want to learn more about this inspirational gardener and horticulturist, so in this post I’m sharing information on an array of Gertrude Jekyll themed events, as well as gardens, vineyards, and interesting places you can visit during the Heritage Open Days.
Every September, the Heritage Open Days allow visitors to experience local history, culture, and architecture.
I was both excited and incredibly relieved when I heard that the National Trust had purchased Munstead Wood, the Surrey home and eleven-acre garden of the legendary horticulturist, designer, writer, artist, photographer, and craftswoman, Gertrude Jekyll.
Gertrude lived at Munstead Wood in Busbridge, Godalming, from the 1890s until her death in 1932. Having met the renowned architect Edwin Lutyens early in his career, long before he achieved fame and was knighted, Gertrude invited Edwin to design her an Arts and Crafts house to complement the garden.
I’m sad that Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count has finished for another year, but I am delighted that I managed to take two Big Butterfly Counts yesterday; the sun shone following a day of heavy rain and thunderstorms. I am already looking forward to the Big Butterfly Count returning in 2024; however, before then I plan to spend as much time as possible outdoors with butterflies and moths!
I’ve been so busy this week, but whenever I’ve been able to get outside and take a 15 minute Big Butterfly Count – I have taken a break and made the most of this lovely chance to relax and observe butterflies. I adore the Big Butterfly Count! Every year I look forward to this event, as I find taking a Big Butterfly Count is inspiring and relaxing, and just such a wonderful thing to do.
