Stinging Nettle & Tiger Moth
Moths are often brushed-aside with their home-invader connotations. However, only two of the 2500 species of moth in the UK are guilty of wrecking wardrobes!
The rest play a vital role as a food source for birds and other animals and as overnight pollinators. They also compete on the beauty scale, coming in a fabulous array of luminous colours and entrancing shapes.
The Tiger Moth is a superb example, with bright orange hindwings hidden under a fabulous pair of animal print forewings. Tiger Moths reside up and down the country, favouring damp meadows and open woodlands as well as gardens to call their home.
Tiger Moth caterpillars eat several herbaceous plants, particularly choosing the common stinging nettle. Sadly, moth populations have crashed in the last 40 years, with the Garden Tiger Moth populations in Britain dropping by 92% since 1968.
This decline has lasting impacts on the wider ecosystem. Not only are moths critical pollinators for wildflowers such as orchids, but the drop in moth populations is also connected to declines in the number of other species, such as bats and cuckoos, both of which can be found at Thyme.
Cuckoos specialise in eating hairy caterpillars. And with the Tiger Moth caterpillar lovingly named the ‘woolly bear’, it is a delicacy. This creation has been inspired by the special relationship between tiger moths and the common nettle and the fundamental role they play in nature.
Water Lily & Dragonfly
Shimmery, ethereal creatures, Dragonflies are an ancient insect. Found on every continent, except Antarctica, dragonflies are estimated to have first appeared around 300 million years ago.
The nymphs are aquatic, residing in several freshwater habitats such as bogs, rivers, and ponds. And as adults, dragonflies never fly far from water, their presence indicating a fairly unpolluted habitat.
However, their dependence on these wetlands has left dragonflies at risk; the world lost 35% of its wetlands between 1970 and 2015. Although some sites are being restored, the rate of loss still appears to be increasing due to urbanisation and unsustainable agriculture.
Wetlands are prime habitats for many plants, birds, animals and insects. You can see dragonflies dancing on the river that runs through the farm at Thyme and on the pond in the garden. The dragonflies love the water lilies as a birthing place.
With this design, Bertioli and Bell Hutley have created a pond habitat on the tabletop, with the dragonflies dancing around the edge. And on top with the tumbler and placemat accessories.
Sea Buckthorn & Brimstone Butterfly
As well as being an iconic and beautiful part of Britain’s wildlife, butterflies are incredibly crucial pollinators and sensitive indicators of the health of the environment.
The butterfly that has inspired us with this collection is the spectacular Brimstone, their distinctive leaf-shaped wings a beautiful milky green on the females and a dashing bright yellow on the males. They are interesting as they are the longest-lived of all British Butterflies, surviving for up to 12 months.
There are several plants which this butterfly needs to be successful: buckthorn for breeding, nectar plants such as wild sweet pea and runner bean for feeding, and shrubs such as holly and ivy for hibernation.
While butterfly populations across the UK are in decline, the brimstone butterfly is, in fact, a success story. At Thyme, they started to notice an influx of brimstone butterflies when their newly planted native orchard hedge went in, complete with the silvery green hues of sea buckthorn.
Buckthorn is essential to the breeding of brimstone butterflies, being its larval food plant. As noted on the Plant Wild website, “Buckthorns are great for attracting a range of wildlife to the garden, as the pollen is useful for many insects, including bees, and the berries are a winter food source for birds.”
This pair, the Brimstone and Buckthorn, is just one example of how crucial specific plants are for particular butterflies, with some entire species reliant on sometimes just one larval food plant.
