Wildflowers and weeds

Available for 29 days

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 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 music from Helen Leach’s ‘Diary of the Bee’. We mark one of the earliest flowers to appear each year, the lesser celandine, in poetry by Wordsworth. There are often overlooked roadside plants such as Tansy, represented by Cicely Mary Barker’s ‘Flower Fairies of the Wayside’ and Aaron Copeland’s ‘Down a Country Lane, and ’The Secret Garden' comes to life in a reading from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s classic. And, of course, we'll hear perhaps the most famous floral moment in music – the Flower Duet from Delibe’s opera Lakme – as well as Mieczysław Weinberg’s ‘Polish flowers’ and a nod to the Japanese cherry blossom. 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. Readings: Kate Greenaway - The Language of Flowers Kathleen Jamie - Daisies Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie Frances Hodgeson Burnett - The Secret Garden Kate Greenaway - The Language of Flowers Edward Thomas - Tall Nettles Ka Bradley - Bishop of the Bluebells Emily Bronte - The Bluebell (Extract) Ray Bradbury - Dandelion Wine Kate Greenaway - The Language of Flowers John Clare - The Crab Tree Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary Marguerite Duras - The Crushed Nettle William Shakespeare - Henry V Kate Greenaway - The Language of Flowers Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games Michael Longley - The Ice Cream Man AE Housman - The Stinging Nettle Elizabeth Jane Burnett - Little Peach Kate Greenaway - The Language of Flowers Victoria Adukwei Bulley - What we Know, what we grow at the end of the world William Wordsworth - The Lesser Celandine Produced in Salford by Jessica Treen