Denbies Vineyard Wild Flower Areas May 2025

Denbies is of course best known for its award-winning wines, its spectacular landscape, excellent hotel and its wide variety of visitor events and attractions. But this much-loved estate, poised between two famous Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Box Hill and Ranmore, with its wealth of natural habitats and environmentally friendly management has all the potential also to become celebrated for its diversity of wild flowers and butterflies.

Last autumn, as a step in this direction, Yellow Rattle seeds were sown in five selected grassland areas (see map). This semi-parasitic plant weakens the dominant grasses, allowing space for more wild flowers to grow. This is a long-term project – changes will be incremental – but we await with interest to see how Yellow Rattle will do its work. The good news is that already seedlings are showing through the sward, with one or two proudly boasting a flower!

Look out also for other wild flowers flourishing in these spaces. These plants may be wild, but can be just as beautiful in design and colour as their cultivated relations. Thus month you can see the vivid magenta of Common Vetch (vicia sativa), the royal blue Germander Speedwell (veronica chamaedrys) and the shining yellow of Bulbous Buttercups (ranunculus bulbosus). On the higher chalky soil ranks of purple Bugle (ajuga reptans), a favourite with both bees and butterflies, stand to attention beside the paths.

But the most eye-catching spring flower in the vineyard has always been the humble dandelion which gives double value, as after the carpets of glorious golden flowers –  a vital early source of nectar for all insects – come the sweeping displays of dandelion “clocks” so named from the country custom of “telling the time” by how many puffs it takes to blow all the seeds away.  Not quite as useful as a Rolex, but for the children among us more accessible, interactive and fun!

Wild flowers attract and support butterflies, who pollinate the flowers in exchange for feeding on the nectar. After their long winter spent as egg, larva or chrysalis, adult butterflies are now beginning to emerge, and those on the wing in May include Brown Argus, Common Blue and Small Heath, with wingspans of just 25-38  mm. The Small Heath is often seen resting close to the ground, particularly on the short, worn turf of a path, repeatedly making sorties to patrol his territory. The other two are more often seen in flight, the Brown Argus being distinguished by its rapid, flittery flight and silvery moth-like appearance. Seen close-up all three are stunning. These are the first brood; their offspring will emerge in July/ August.

The cycle of nature never ceases, and there is always something new to see. As the famous Victorian nature writer Richard Jefferies wrote,
“You do not know what you may find each day, it may only be a fallen feather, but it is beautiful, everything beautiful!”

Jenny Desoutter 2025-05-08