Bertioli & Bell Hutley: Brimstone Butterfly & Buckthorn
BERTIOLI | AT THYME
“Nature is my biggest inspiration – it runs through everything I create. I have felt a strong bond to nature from a young age having been lucky enough to grow up spending endless days foraging as a child. This collection has been the most enjoyable journey, not only because of a shared connection with nature, but also working side-by-side with Caryn and seeing both our creative drawings and designs merge and come to life as one.”
In recent years, the fragility of nature has been put at the forefront of conversation, with species decline and habitat loss at the heart. One of the key concerns has been around the health of pollinators and the crucial role that they play in every ecosystem.
As well as being an iconic and beautiful part of Britain’s wildlife, butterflies are incredibly important 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 a number of 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 is in fact a success story. At Thyme, we started to notice an influx of brimstone butterflies when our newly planted, native orchard hedge went in, complete with the silvery green hues of sea buckthorn and the rich greens of common and purging buckthorn. Buckthorn is essential to the breeding of brimstone butterflies, being its larval foodplant. As noted on the plant wild site, “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 important specific plants are for specific butterflies, with entire species reliant on sometimes just one larval foodplant.
