Enjoy it while you can

I understand Bluebell woods are a bit of an English speciality. Where the canopy is not too dense woods primary in the south are wreathed in a blue ground mist at this time of year and the air is filled with a subtle scent of hyacynths. Individually the plants don't look that great, but they grow in their thousands in some places, flowering now before the broadleaf forest cuts out the light and steals all the water. This particular patch is in an arboretum, there are others in local nature reserves. After surviving development or the neglest of woodland (leading to over density of trees) the threat is now from global warming and hybridisation with the more garden worthy spanish bluebell that has escaped from gardens, so enjoy them while you can!

A trough in Spring

The troughs have not really been a success. Everything in the new Zealand trough and the biggest one has lost a number of plants though some very unexpected ones, e.g Asperula daphneola and a Sarcocapnos survived for several years. generally it is too shady, but as it's attached to a wall that's not an easy thing to put right. It's a bit shallow too..if it sounds like a disaster it's worth pointing out it is a genuine stone item, not a sink but something else and it's old!

Well, it's been incredibly dry here. The water butt ran out over two weeks ago and yesterday I noticed the trough was really dry, it's quickly recovered and you can see Gentiana verna, a small Androsace sempervoides (I love the way the eye of the flowers go from yellow to red on many of the Androsace's) and one of my favourite willows, Salix reticulata.

Joy of Pears - part2

Apart from eating the fruit and making artwork out of the multicoloured autumn leaves, I also love the blossom and the new pear leaves. Overall unlike apples and cherry, that look great now it seems to keep a smart appearance when the leaves mature too. So let's hear it for pears!

A variety of Fritillaria...

Just a few to show they don't all look alike. From the top, F.davisii (from seed), F.conica (yellow), F.recurva the red Frit (from seed), then F. amana and finally F. erhartii (again from seed).