Looking a little closer

One thing about winter is that it is a simpler time in the garden and the moments between the rain when I go out, I can  really appreciate the little things. Top left, a Euphorbia after the rain, right the lime green flower buds of Helleborus feotidus, moss on the apple tree and finally a pink pulmonaria.

Solanum laxum alba

My late flowering Solanum laxum alba, a potato vine. Not too many flowers this year, it's in too shady a spot I think and I've not been pruning it. I'll try and remember next year.

The Fuschia by the kitchen door is getting BIG. And this after cutting it back and after some fairly major branches had got broken by the builders. Some of the branches now require a hacksaw to cut.

The flowers start in summer and it just gets better and better until the severe frosts. I've taken a cutting as insurance because I think one year it's not going to come back.

Schizostylis coccinea

It's almost over now but this is Schizostylis coccinea of some kind. It flowers mainly in the autumn here and the flowers contrast well with the soft green leaves. I saw something in the local paper that this needs moisture, sort of the opposite to what I thought for a just hard bulb from South Africa. Mind you, the rhodohypoxis need moisture too. I also have a soft pink form, I think it is called "Pink Pearl".

Buddleia

It was t-shirt weather in the garden today. A bit bedraggled after a storm this is my yellow buddleia, probably B. x weyeriana. I asked at the local garden retail outlet (rather than a nursery) what it was and the person looked at the label and declared it to be "Black Knight" somehow missing that the picture on the label was of dark purple flowers while the plant actually had orange/yellow flowers. Ah well.

I've been cutting back a normal Buddleia until the wheezing set in. I always find when cutting it back something catches on the back of my throat and I have to stop. I know I shouldn't cut it back hard now but really I don't mind if I lose it. I have about fifty seedlings on tufa in the troughs and I could always buy a new one. Might have to buy it in flower though.

Geocities Disaster

As I thought it might, the closing down of Geocities has messed up the 90% of Inspiring Plants built before I went across to paying for my hosting. I guess I was just naive in thinking that Yahoo would do something intelligent. As the pages were mainly built with Yahoo's simple online Pagebuilder, there is no back up offline. The new material was built with Frontpage which I find a lot slower and more fiddly working with an image rich site, that being the main reason why very little has been added in the past few years. Maybe I will switch over to largely publishing via this blog. Time will tell.

In the meantime, a picture of my Cyclamen colchicum which is having a good year. Not exactly the most elegant or best coloured flower but it is very sweetly scented, filling the greenhouse with it's perfume. I remember reading about this for the first time in the 70s when the plant was virtually unknown in the west where it was stated it took the longest time to come into flower from seed and was self sterile. I flowered plants within about a year and they do set limited seed. So much for recieved wisdom.

First Pleiones of the year

First two pleiones of the year, Pleione "krakatoa" (top) and Pleione Shantung "Gwen".

Yellow Muscari, Muscari macrocarpum

I only grow one Muscari at the moment and that is macrocarpum. I have the "normal" form which has yet to flower and a number of years back I bought "Golden Fragrance" which seems to have greener leaves but has done very well for me.

Meanwhile, in the garden...

First, the "art shot" Helloborus foetidus, then just a few primulas that lurk in one of the darkest corners, following that a pink lungwort (Pulmonaria) and finally something new, Chinodoxa Pink Giant..at about 5 inches tall (and not very pink either) but rather lovely.

"Chilean Blue Crocus" Tecophilaea

Top: Tecophilaea cyanocrocus var leichtlinii and the type plant, Tecophilaea cyanocrocus below.

Three Frits

Top: Frit. kotschyana, I find this one a little overblown? Something not very subtle about it.

Middle: Frit aurea, one of the few yellows with this round flower shape.

Bottom: Frit davisii, I gerw this from seed. I waited 13 years for the flowers which even for Frits is a very long time. In yet it's supposed to be easy and quick. Frits are always full of suprises.

A few Primula allionii

In order from the top; P.allionii "Marion", P. allionii "Lacewing", P.allionii "Flute", P. allionii "Eureka" and P.allionii "Anne"

Narcissistic? Moi?

Top, Narcissus watieri grown from seed.

Middle, Narcissus romieuxii rifanus(?) also from seed.

Bottom Narcissus marvieri.

InspiringPlants is back

Fritillaria pluriflora. I got this many years ago by mistake for the (marginally) more common F.liliacea. Past few years I have let it set seed and distributed it. I sowed some last year and it has come up like grass.

Roses and more roses

Lots are out at the moment. The rain has meant that they are growing strongly and the new ones are establishing well. The downside is that some of the more flouncy flowers are prone to rot. This one doesn't care and is a bit of a thug but it's beautiful now and in the autumn with small hips and is a magnet for the hibernating ladybird population.

Helichrysum fridgidum

One of my favourite foliage plants for the alpine house, Helichrysum fridgidum from Corsica. It tends to get a bit brown at the base and needs to be cut back to keep it neat and silver. It sometimes gets attacked by greenfly that kill it by covering it with honey dew that goes moldy, but it's easy to keep going from cuttings. It also roots branches if they lean out into the plunge sand.

Gift

Some rooted cuttings of Pelegonium "Morweena" from my father. What a fantastic colour and texture. Thanks Dad!

Caterpillar surprise

I went out a little while ago to tidy up some nettles in front of the garden wall before the butterflies got to them (I have some other little corners where last year I had Red Admiral and Comma caterpillars that I'm allowing to grow this year) but too late! I saw this and first I thought it was a Small Tortoiseshell but then I realised..it looks more like a Scarlet Tiger moth. The irony is that for two years running I've been out at nature reserves to find this but with no luck. I've seen it a couple of times in Newbury town centre and Oxford, but never in a non urban setting. It seems an odd place to be, I thought they liked damp places and here we on on dry hills.

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.