Wild flowers can be found anywhere and  everywhere in every month of the year in the Stort Valley.  Look for them by the river side and on the canal tow-path.  Seek them at the woodland edges and in hedge and ditch.  You will find them in the  town centres - on walls, growing from cracks in the pavement and in car parks.  Many are tough and will survive, but others are  sensitive  to pollution and need certain conditions  like the beautiful Ragged Robin which needs marshy ground.

Wild pansies can be seen at the edges of fields where the  sprays haven't reached and the grass  verges by the  motorway services are  fantastic sites for an incredible array of wild flowers.  They thrive because the grass is not mown before they seed in July or August. Elsewhere, shaved grass means very few flowers.  Local authorities  have now woken up to this requirement, and  where ever possible, verges are managed to encourage wild flowers.

The special places for wild flowers in the Stort Valley are  described on their own pages - see the panel to the  left and also Hatfield Forest and Birchanger Wood.

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