Improving wildflowers in open woodland

[Sue Rogers]

[/img]Hello everyone I am really enjoying the discussion, videos and events offered by this group. Learning so much. I recently acquired a piece of woodland near Denbury, 4 miles from Ashburton. It is mainly mature oak and hazel, but has been thinned so lots of glades and some pasture wood.

I am interested in improving the plant diversity of a section of my woodland where there are some mature oak trees but fairly open canopy and pasture. We have lots of primroses, dog violets, celandines already but little else so far. The grass seems uniform , possibly rye like the fields surrounding it. It used to be open to the fields five years ago and cattle used to wander in the woodland. I’d welcome some advice on species and management. Do other members have similar habitat? Thanks so much. Sue

[Amy]

PS Steve's reply below of 7 May is of course eminently sensible and the way to go.
(Forgive me, I just love to research this sort of thing...)
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PPS Warning, if anyone does choose to buy "native" bluebells, I suggest you only buy plants you have actually seen in flower. I have purchased from a well known online seller of wild flowers bulbs and plugs, and those bluebells were definitely contaminated hybrids. I have ripped them out.
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First of all, go for lots of lovely woodland walks at different times of the year, all over your local area to get some inspiration

How to manage a wood for wildlife
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife ... d-wildlife

Royal Forestry Society: improve your woodland
https://www.rfs.org.uk/media/441708/2-i ... odland.pdf

Woodland management for butterflies and moths
This guide can be downloaded for free as pdfs:
https://butterfly-conservation.org/our- ... -and-moths

From Buglife: managing upland oak woods https://www.buglife.org.uk/resources/ha ... d-oakwood/
and managing lowland wood pasture - https://www.buglife.org.uk/resources/ha ... parklands/

Identification of wild flowers - from the Woodland Trust
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees- ... d-flowers/

Woodland animals and insects - click on each heading for more info
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees- ... e/animals/

You may wish to keep your own local seed bank inviolate and not make outside introductions -
Otherwise:
Seeds from local hedgerows eg tree seeds, pink campion, stitchwort, toadflax (perhaps NOT collect bluebell seed unless you are absolutely 100% sure there is no contamination from Spanish bluebells or hybrids - much safer and quicker to buy certified bulbs ((https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/blog/wh ... -bluebells ))

Softwood cuttings from local hedgerows or to expand your own supply is very easy in spring and summer for plants like yellow deadnettle, ivy, honeysuckle

Plant divisions and transplant rooted shrub suckers and layers from another local-to-you Moor Meadows member eg dogs mercury, sedges, ferns, honeysuckle, dogwood, wild privet

Treasure your leaf litter

As a general view, it can be much more visually interesting and offer more to wildlife to have different ages of trees and shrubs, (not a criticism of yours, the trees look lovely) and to have trees that naturally lean with the wind and twist characterfully, instead of bolt-upright-nursery-grown trunks, and you might coppice different plants of your hazel at different times, prematurely age other (non precious) trees to achieve this by partially ring barking, leave others to grow on and die slowly, as well as buying different ages of saplings

Perhaps add some native hedge/scrub shrubs which are grow naturally in your area, to the outside edges of the woodland, (you might have to protect them from deer for 5 years or so, and Habitat Aid sell compostable tree shelters and will sell biodegradable ones from this autumn,) such as different types of willow, guelder rose, blackthorn, alder buckthorn which is good for brimstone butterflies, dog rose, wild clematis/old man's beard, and encourage ivy and honeysuckle up the big trees by pushing layers and stem cuttings into the ground, whatever is local to your area

( your area might be too big for this - and pile up your garden clippings and general plant waste in shady areas (a great way to usefully get rid of them) to encourage insects but watch out for nettles and brambles growing through when the soil is enriched in sunny areas (though of course both are good for wildlife in moderation)

Perrie Hale Nursery at Honiton sell bare root saplings for autumn planting, Exmoor Trees sell cells for all year round planting https://www.exmoortrees.co.uk/ and offers courses.

Habitat Aid https://www.habitataid.co.uk/products/w ... e-seed-mix

Sweet woodruff is easy to find from nurseries.

Dividing primroses in January and February works as the leaves are easily visible then and the divisions have time to recover before the soil dries out. Garlic mustard and wild garlic/ransoms will probably arrive soon.

PS: just found Plantlife advice which seems most relevant if yours is wood pasture. https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/our-wor ... d-woodland
It's a bit wordy, but section 2 page 35 deals with grazing control for deer to protect regenerating trees and shrubs,
s3 - Manipulating the woodland canopy to improve conditions for flora - 3.1-3 deal with oak monocultures.
s3.4 open space mosaics and glades
s4.1 underrepresentation of shrubs 4.2 hazel
s8. page 39 movement of woodland plants (colonisation)
page 40 new planting of woodland plants

PPS: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/sitemap This page gives a list of wild flowers including woodland ones, and you can click on each name and it gives interesting and useful information about each.
PS: just found Plantlife advice which seems most relevant if yours is wood pasture. https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/our-wor ... d-woodland
It's a bit wordy, but section 2 page 35 deals with grazing control for deer to protect regenerating trees and shrubs,
s3 - Manipulating the woodland canopy to improve conditions for flora - 3.1-3 deal with oak monocultures.
s3.4 open space mosaics and glades
s4.1 underrepresentation of shrubs 4.2 hazel
s8. page 39 movement of woodland plants (colonisation)
page 40 new planting of woodland plants

PPS: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/sitemap This page gives a list of wild flowers including woodland ones, and you can click on each name and it gives interesting and useful information about each.

and as an alternative to dry texts, there are 2 informal unscientific videos which might interest you, just for background interest and taken with a pinch of salt: Exploring an Oak and Hazel Coppiced Woodland in West Sussex Parts 1 and 2 uploaded by the BaldExplorer. He chats to a woodland owner and they discuss management, looking at examples whilst walking through the wood. But it is more about clearing and coppicing for timber production, not wildlife, and I don't recommend his unnatural pond. They mention looking up old maps to see the historical use of the site just for interest.

[Sue Rogers]

Wow Amy, thank you for taking the time to post so much information and great advice. I will look into all of this. The wood has lots of different habitats including areas of dense brambles (great for birds and mammals) as well as some open grassy areas. It’s going to be interesting to record what appears through the first year. Thanks again.

[Steve Pollard]

Sue, Amy has provided some great advice, but I would add that you may be over worrying this a little. That is almost certainly not ryegrass, and the fact that you already have primroses, dog violets, celandines is a great sign - the season is so late this year, I'm positive you'll have many more species appear. All of my woods were grazed with cattle until 10 years ago, and as a consequence didn't have a rich ground flora, but just the act of fencing them off has allowed the ground flora to recover tremendously. It's not like you've just planted a new woodland on arable land, you already have an old woodland, I personally wouldn't think about introducing new species until you've seen out the season, and preferably for a number of years. The species that are there in small numbers will be just waiting for the opportunity to colonise the previously grazed areas. Good luck.

[Sue Rogers]

Hi Steve Thanks for your reply. That makes sense and yes I think I am over worrying - new owner anxiety! ; )

Just this weekend I found small patches of bluebell and wood sorrel at the other damp end of the wood, and cuckoo flower, bugle, vetch, buttercup and stitchwort have now appeared in small patches in or near the wood pasture section! It’s exciting to see what will appear next.

All the best
Sue