to think there are far more wild flowers around now than in the 70s?

[SybilBeddows]

and it's not just that I notice them more now?

As a kid I used to spend days out of doors and was interested in nature but never really noticed many. Now there seems to be a fantastic abundance of different types of flower all over the verges, footpaths etc. I just got back from a few days camping in the Lake District where I scored 830 in my 'I Spy Wild Flowers' book in a few days (and you only have to get a thousand for a certificate).

I was under the impression that this was actually true and was because farmers don't spray hedgerows and verges any more, but several of my friends don't believe me.

AIBU or are our kids getting to grow up in a lovely flowery country whereas when we were kids it was all a bit boring and sterile?

[LRDTheFeministDragon]

Don't think there are more than in the 80s, but I'm too young to know about the 70s! I grew up seeing and knowing about wild flowers and remember when it was quite common to find for example bee orchids growing wild. I think people may have got better at letting moterway verges go wild (there's a lovely roundabout near us covered in ox-eye daisies and chicory atm). But equally, much more wild ground has been build over, especially in cities where I remember there being far more patches of disused land.

[aldiwhore]

I remember being a small child and seeing hundreds of thousands of Primroses in the verges of the lanes in Devon where I lived... then at some point, they disappeared. A lot of it was probably due to the weather cycle, but some of it was due to people (tourists and a few locals) digging up the plants by the roots and taking them home.

I was happy to see in recent years that the Primroses seem to have recovered... I think there's a huge interest in keeping wild flowers wild, and encouraging them, whereas when I was small they were just there.

Most of my childhood was full of flowers (born 1974)...

So op, yes, no, but yes, but no but!!!

[SybilBeddows]

maybe it is all more localised than I am imagining - I grew up in Essex where it was all arable farms and the farmers were probably quite into spraying stuff.

I didn't see cowslips much as a child but they were everywhere this year.