Buddleia is a symbol of our national neglect | Adrian Chiles

The purple shrub thrives in dereliction and decay. How much better things would be if it had nowhere to grow

A couple of years ago, I was with a TV director, standing on Soho Road in Handsworth, Birmingham. There was a break in filming while someone faffed around with something. This gave the two of us chance to pause and admire a derelict pub called the Red Lion. It was built at the start of the last century and remains, for all its dilapidation, a magnificent sight.

My colleague pointed at a bush, thriving improbably out of a crack high up in the terracotta facade. "That," he said, "is a buddleia. It's incredibly hardy, it can take root anywhere."