lloyd writes

* Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, which covers Britain,
it is illegal to uproot any wild plant without permission from the
landowner or occupier.

I picked lots of plants along the road side when we were cycling last
year. Though nothing ever grew again in the garden, but I suspect
that's my fault rather than therrs.

I was thinking of picking some of the twigs in the hedges and planting
them hoping to start a hedge, the brids seem to like the ones with
little red berries espcially.

It's uprooting that is against the law (except for specially protected
plants, where you're not allowed to pick any bit of them). In general,
you're allowed to pick the "four F's" - fruit, flowers, foliage, fungi.
(Fungi in the sense of fruiting bodies). Obviously, do it sensibly - as
a good rule of thumb, start from a default position of not picking. But
if you do pick, do it so as not to be noticed. If there's only one
flower stem, don't pick. If there's only two, still don't pick - you'd
really notice the difference if you did. If there's 30 flower stems,
perhaps pick one, or two at the most.

Have we gone all sissy or what?

No. We're realising the problems of a highly populated and intensively
used countryside, coupled with the devastation from people who see a
quick and easy profit - eg by digging up all the bulbs from a bluebell
wood for onward sale to a garden centre which is not too conscientious
about checking its sources.

In reality, you as an individual won't do too much harm provided you're
careful along roadsides, you're discreet and don't encourage others to
copy, and you never pick anything in an area where the wildflower
diversity is high. But without the legislation, there's no way to deal
with the unscrupulous.

--
Kay