The High Weald is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty running across West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent. Within it many varied habitats can be found, from planted and tended gardens to lowland heath, meadows and woodlands. Due to this range of habitats, a huge number of wildflowers grow here naturally. With this handy guide, locals and visitors to this region will be able to discover, identify and enjoy the diversity of wild flowers in this distinct region.
Within the Weald, careful management of gardens, woodlands, heathland and reserves is undertaken to conserve and increase the biodiversity in all of these areas. The Weald is also home to Kew's Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst, a global conservation initiative, in which the seeds of both native and threatened exotic plants are saved for the future.
Chris Clennett has been a professional horticulturist and botanist for over 30 years, beginning his career at Oxford University Botanic Garden and moving to Kew’s country estate, Wakehurst Place, in 1987. He has had published scientific papers, specialist articles and plant profiles (particularly on Cyclamen) for the Linnean Society, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, the gardening press, local newspapers and for Kew magazine. He is the author of The Genus Erythronium (Kew Publishing, 2014) and co-author of Wakehurst Guide (Kew Publishing, 2015).