trip round the garden

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I think my brain has soaked up too much sun today – so just a trip round the garden without too many words.

Firstly the Aquilegias. I was really worried that they would be wishy washy and they aren’t – lovely.

The basic shape of the flower is incredibly variable. This purple one seems to me to be pretty close to the basic European native. I particularly like the dark purple ones – though it is sad that the colour develops so gradually: this is not a flower that looks good in the making.

Bumblebees cant cope with the flower so they just chew through the top to get at the nectar – naughty things.

I think this one is even nicer – what a lovely black beauty. The only problem is that it is quite small and vulnerable given how many more there are. I may have to label it to prevent it being weeded out!

This is another lovely one – more like a grannies knickers!

This is the philadelphus with ornithogalum umbellata in front of it. The ornithogalum is known as star of bethlehem and I am told in my book that it can become a weed. I’m fine with that – sure beats the dock that you can see by the side.

This next photo is the common male fern – dryopteris felix mas. As you can see it has taken a little frost damage with the late frost so I have been picking it off.

And this is the second geranium into flower. I havent got a positive id on this yet – but it looks like the type that will survive shade – where it is it gets a lot of sun from 11 onwards, but it is happily coexisting with the Rose of Sharon and wild garlic so I’m happy.

Continuing the easy theme – I have a nice patch of forget me nots – which I think is a really funny name because you can do exactly that – plant them once and forget all about them.

More wild garlic.

As you may have spotted – most of the plants are the easy version!

This is a spurge – not sure which one but they are all as tough as old boots and I love them all – luckily I am not that sensitive to the sap – I just try not to get much on my wrists.

Those of you who have been following this will know that I have been weeding in favour of the meconopsis – the Welsh Poppy. These are lovely they are yellow stained orange in quite a sweet pattern.

Finally I think I ought to leave you with something that proves that I do actually do some gardening and don’t just let it all get on with itself. Here is a yellow cistus which was actually buried underneath the white saxifrage that you can see in the background.

• 22 May, 2010
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