🇬🇧 The flowers of the United Kingdom
102 pages from the United Kingdom: its flowers, the things made with them and the places to see them, across 60 cities and regions.
Great Britain and Ireland host a rich mix of native and long-established non-native flowering plants, with over 1,390 native species recorded. Their flora is among the most thoroughly catalogued in the world. The region is known for its diversity of wildflowers, including many from the rose and daisy families.
- Over 1,390 native flowering plant species are recorded.
- More than 1,100 non-native species are well established.
- The flora includes many from the rose and daisy families.
- Extinct and introduced species are tracked in official lists.
The plant life of the United Kingdom
The plant life of Great Britain and Ireland is shaped by a temperate climate, which supports a wide range of vegetation. The islands are home to 1,390 native plant species, alongside more than 1,100 non-native species that have become well established. The flora includes ferns, conifers, and a vast array of flowering plants. This diversity is carefully documented, making the region's flora one of the best studied globally. The presence of both native and introduced species reflects centuries of natural and human influences.
From region to region in the United Kingdom
Floral diversity varies across the islands, with different groups of plants thriving in distinct habitats. Ferns and their relatives are common in damp, shaded areas, while conifers are found in woodlands. Flowering plants, including those from the rose and daisy families, are widespread and adapt to a range of environments, from meadows to coastal regions.
Flowers to know in the United Kingdom
The rose (family Rosaceae) and daisy (family Asteraceae) families are especially prominent among the flowering plants. The flora also includes many species of monocotyledons, such as orchids. Lists of species are maintained with English and scientific names, and extinct or introduced species are clearly marked in official records.
Threats and protection in the United Kingdom
Some species have become extinct, as noted in official catalogues. Conservation efforts include detailed record-keeping and monitoring by organizations like the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. The thorough documentation helps guide protection and study of rare or threatened plants.
Where this page comes from
The facts in this overview come from the Wikipedia article "Flora of Great Britain and Ireland", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Phool rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
Flower experiences in the United Kingdom
🇬🇧 London · All yearColumbia Road flower market on a SundayOne short East End street, packed every Sunday with plant and cut flower stalls and the calls of the traders.
🇬🇧 London · All yearNew Covent Garden Flower Market before sunriseLondon's wholesale flower market at Nine Elms, where the city's florists buy in the dark hours and the public may walk in.
🇬🇧 London · All yearA day at the Royal Botanic Gardens, KewOne of the world's great botanic gardens, with Victorian glasshouses, a huge tree collection and flowers in every month.
🇬🇧 Woking · Mar to OctRHS Garden Wisley through the seasonsThe Royal Horticultural Society's main garden in Surrey, where plants are tested, compared and shown at their best.
🇬🇧 Rye · Apr to OctGreat Dixter's long border and meadowsThe East Sussex home of the gardener Christopher Lloyd, famous for bold colour, dense planting and flowering meadows.
🇬🇧 London · All yearA floristry class at a London flower schoolA half day or full day learning to build a hand-tied bouquet with seasonal stems at one of London's flower schools.Cities and regions of the United Kingdom
London 8Gloucestershire 6Cornwall 4Devon 3Edinburgh 3Hampshire 3Hampton Court 3Kew 3Wales 3Cambridgeshire 2Carmarthenshire 2Chelsea 2Derbyshire 2Dorset 2Essex 2Great Britain 2Hertfordshire 2Kent 2Lancashire 2Lincolnshire 2Liverpool 2Northumberland 2North Yorkshire 2Oxford 2Oxfordshire 2Peebles 2Tetbury 2Wisley 2Abbotsbury 1Abney Park Cemetery 1Alnwick Castle 1Ambleside 1Anglesey Abbey 1Antony House 1Argyll and Bute 1Bakewell 1Barlow 1Barnsley 1Bedfordshire 1Bethnal Green 1Birmingham 1Bitton 1Boscobel House 1Brecknockshire 1Brighton 1Bristol 1British Isles 1Burton Agnes Hall 1Buxton 1Cairngorms 1Cambridge 1Castleton 1Chapel-en-le-Frith 1Cheddon Fitzpaine 1Chelmsford 1Cheshire 1Chesil Beach 1Chilton Foliat 1Chipping Campden 1Chiswick 1
Painted daisyTanacetum coccineum
A colourful daisy grown for gardens and natural insect repellent
🇮🇷 Iran and 8 more · Wildflower
Decoration
Castleton Garland Day
A flower-covered procession and maypole dance in Castleton, Derbyshire each May
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Custom, May
Decoration
Mothering Sunday
A British day for honouring mothers and the mother church, marked with violets and cake
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 more · Custom, Mar to Apr
Decoration
Mother's Day
A day to honor mothers and motherhood around the world
🇺🇸 United States and 6 more · Custom
Place
Dawyck Botanic Garden
A 25-hectare botanic garden in the Upper Tweed Valley, Scotland
Peebles, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Botanical garden, Feb to Nov
Poppy
Bright-petalled flowers grown for gardens, seeds, and remembrance
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 7 more · Wildflower
Lady's-slipper orchidCypripedium calceolus
A wild orchid with a yellow slipper-shaped flower found across Europe and Asia
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 7 more · Wildflower
Decoration
flower child
A 1960s youth movement known for wearing and sharing flowers as symbols of peace
🇺🇸 United States and 1 more · Worn flowers
Butterfly-bushBuddleja davidii
A honey-scented shrub with lilac to purple flower spikes, loved by butterflies
🇨🇳 China and 5 more · Flowering shrub
Decoration
Christmas tree
A decorated evergreen tree displayed for Christmas in homes and public places
🇩🇪 Germany and 7 more · Arrangement, December
Princess treePaulownia tomentosa
A fast-growing tree with large violet-blue flowers and broad leaves
🇨🇳 China and 7 more · Flowering tree
Snake's head fritillaryFritillaria meleagris
A spring bulb with chequered purple or white bell-shaped flowers
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 more · Wildflower
Place
University of Oxford Botanic Garden
A riverside garden in Oxford with thousands of plant species and historic glasshouses
Oxford, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Botanical garden
Spanish BluebellHyacinthoides hispanica
A spring bulb with upright blue, pink, or white bell-shaped flowers
🇪🇸 Spain and 3 more · Wildflower
Place
Birmingham Botanical Gardens
A 15-acre Victorian botanical garden with historic glasshouses in Birmingham, England
Birmingham, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Botanical garden
Place
Chelsea Flower Show
Britain’s most famous annual flower and garden show in London
London, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Festival or show, May
Place
Hampton Court Garden Festival
Britain’s largest annual flower show, held each July in the grounds of Hampton Court
Hampton Court, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Festival or show, July
Place
International Garden Festival
Britain’s first major international garden festival, held in Liverpool in 1984
Liverpool, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Festival or show, May to Oct
Place
National Botanic Garden of WalesGardd Fotaneg Genedlaethol Cymru
A major botanic garden with a vast glasshouse and historic parkland in Carmarthenshire, Wales
Llanarthney, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Botanical garden
Tulipa saxatilis
A wild pink tulip from the Aegean islands and western Turkey
🇹🇷 Turkey and 2 more · Wildflower
Agapanthus
Blue to white summer flowers from southern Africa, grown worldwide in gardens
🇿🇦 South Africa and 7 more · Garden flower
Protea eximia
A tall South African shrub with large, colourful cone-shaped flower heads
🇿🇦 South Africa and 1 more · Wildflower
LeekAllium ampeloprasum
A mild-flavoured onion relative and Welsh emblem with edible leaf sheaths
🇪🇬 Egypt and 7 more · Herb or useful flower
Wild daffodilNarcissus pseudonarcissus
A pale yellow spring flower and the national emblem of Wales
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 9 more · Wildflower
Place
Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens
A historic garden in Dorset with rare and exotic outdoor plants
Abbotsbury, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Botanical garden
American skunkcabbageLysichiton americanus
Large yellow-flowered plant of Pacific Northwest wetlands with a strong skunky smell
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 more · Wildflower
Decoration
English garden
A garden style of rolling lawns, lakes, and naturalistic landscapes from 18th-century England
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 4 more · Garden style
Place
Hidcote Manor Garden
A famous Arts and Crafts garden of outdoor rooms in Gloucestershire, England
Chipping Campden, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Flower garden
Decoration
Cottage garden
An informal English garden style mixing flowers, herbs, and vegetables
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 more · Garden style
Place
Ventnor Botanic Garden
A sheltered botanic garden on the Isle of Wight with plants from mild climates worldwide
Ventnor, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Botanical garden
Decoration
Morris & Co.
Handcrafted floral wallpapers, textiles, and stained glass from Victorian Britain
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 more · Art or design
Place
Benmore Botanic Garden
A hillside botanical garden with giant sequoias and rare ferns in western Scotland
Dunoon, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Botanical garden
Decoration
Herbaceous border
A garden bed of perennial, non-woody plants arranged for colour and form
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Garden style
Decoration
Floral clock
A working outdoor clock with a face made of living flowers
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 more · Carpet or floor pattern
Decoration
Fleur-de-lis
A stylized lily used as a heraldic emblem
🇫🇷 France and 5 more · Custom
Decoration
Conservatory
A glass-walled room or building for growing and displaying plants
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 more · Garden style
Garden rose
The classic ornamental flowering shrub of gardens worldwide
🇨🇳 China and 7 more · Garden flower
Rose of SharonHibiscus syriacus
The national flower of South Korea with short-lived summer blooms
🇰🇷 South Korea and 4 more · Flowering shrub
Place
Trentham Gardens
Restored Italianate gardens and parkland near Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Flower garden
Slipper orchidCypripedium
Hardy northern orchids with a pouch-shaped lower petal
🇨🇳 China and 7 more · Wildflower
Place
Barnsley House
A 17th-century manor house and garden in Gloucestershire, now a hotel
Barnsley, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Flower garden
Place
Highgrove House
The King's country house in Gloucestershire, with organic gardens open to visitors
Tetbury, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Flower garden
Hardy fuchsiaFuchsia magellanica
A South American shrub with drooping red and purple flowers
🇦🇷 Argentina and 5 more · Flowering shrub
Decoration
Walled garden
A garden sheltered by high walls for warmth, privacy and growing tender plants
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 more · Garden style
Place
Castle Howard
A grand English country house with historic gardens near York
Henderskelfe, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Flower garden
Decoration
BeltaneBealtaine / Là Bealltainn / Boaltinn
The Gaelic May Day festival with bonfires and yellow flower decorations
🇮🇪 Ireland and 1 more · Custom, May
Place
RHS Garden Wisley
A major English garden with glasshouses, borders and plant trials in Surrey
Wisley, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Botanical garden
Place
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
London’s world-renowned botanical gardens and plant science centre
Kew, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Botanical garden
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Beltane: Stefan Schäfer, Lich, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- International Garden Festival: Frombowen, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Fleur-de-lis: Rosa-Maria Rinkl, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- RHS Garden Wisley: Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Hidcote Manor Garden: VashiDonsk at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Columbia Road Flower Market: SunDawn, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- National Botanic Garden of Wales: Col Ford and Natasha de Vere, CC BY 2.0, source
- Castle Howard: Pwojdacz ( talk ). Original uploader was Pwojdacz at en.wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Rose of Sharon: Wilhelm Zimmerling PAR, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Wild daffodil: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Highgrove House: Sherwood, Jones & Co, London, 1825, Public domain, source
- Benmore Botanic Garden: E96an at English Wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Herbaceous border: Northmetpit, CC0, source
- Floristry: Joachimj, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Floral clock: Stefan Schäfer, Lich, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Hardy fuchsia: W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Painted daisy: kallerna, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Castleton Garland Day: Photographer: SiGarb, Public domain, source
- Mothering Sunday: Jonathunder, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Mother's Day: Dave Parker, CC BY 2.0, source
- Dawyck Botanic Garden: Rosser1954 Roger Griffith, Public domain, source
- Poppy: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, source
- Lady's-slipper orchid: No machine-readable author provided. Johan N assumed (based on copyrig, Public domain, source
- flower child: Derek Redmond and Paul Campbell, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Butterfly-bush: -- IKAl 15:22, 23 July 2007 (UTC), CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Christmas tree: Lechhansl, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Princess tree: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT, CC BY 2.5, source
- Snake's head fritillary: Yerpo, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- University of Oxford Botanic Garden: JMski, CC0, source
- Spanish Bluebell: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Birmingham Botanical Gardens: Annette Randle, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Chelsea Flower Show: Nzfauna, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hampton Court Garden Festival: Jonathan Cardy, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tulipa saxatilis: KENPEI, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Agapanthus: Hanay, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Protea eximia: Saifunny, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Leek: WikiLucas00, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens: Donarreiskoffer, CC BY 4.0, source
- American skunkcabbage: Martin Bravenboer, Public domain, source
- English garden: Martin Pettitt, CC BY 2.0, source
- Cottage garden: Guido Gerding - external homepage, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ventnor Botanic Garden: Shaun Ferguson, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Morris & Co.: Anonymous for Morris & Co., Public domain, source
- Conservatory: Lukáš Kalista, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Garden rose: Laitche, Public domain, source
- New Covent Garden Market: EG Focus, CC BY 2.0, source
- Trentham Gardens: Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net )., CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Slipper orchid: Beatriz Moisset, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Barnsley House: Robin Stott, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Walled garden: jimsohn1, CC BY 2.0, source
- Great Dixter Garden: Miles Berry, CC BY-SA 2.0, source