Wildflowers and weeds
Celebrating wildflowers like the bluebell, with poetry from Emily Bronte and CM Barker's The Flower Fairies; and nettles and other weeds with Edward Thomas and Marguerite Duras.
David Troughton and Sarah Lessore with readings from prose and poetry set alongside music, ahead of the opening of the world’s most famous flower show RHS Chelsea, inspired by humble plants as we look at wildflowers and weeds.
We mark one of the earliest flowers to appear each year, the lesser celandine, in poetry by Wordsworth accompanied by February from Tchaikovsky’s seasons (Celandine Day is February 21st). We pay tribute to the glorious carpets of blue flowering in April and May as Britain’s much-loved bluebell comes into its own, represented by poetry from Emily Bronte, fiction from Ka Bradley and Bartok’s Viragzas, meaning ‘In Full Flower’. The Secret Garden comes to life in a reading from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s classic. And we’re making room for more unloved plants too, with Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine and Edward Thomas’ Tall Nettles.
Throughout you’ll hear from the Language of Flowers, the Victorian method of using flowers to indicate messages.
Produced in Salford by Jessica Treen
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