The first flower of the Greater Knapweed (Centurea scabiosa) has come out. This one flower is down low to the ground.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
29th June 2009
The Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) is at it's best. If you come across it growing it's worth bending low to smell the sweet scent given off by the flowers.
Buy some seeds and sow it in a bed in the garden, the flowers attract many beneficial insects to the sweet nectar, including Bumble Bees who need all the help we can give them. An added bonus with clover is that the roots have Nitrogen fixing bacteria inhabiting them. The bacteria take Nitrogen out of the air and form nodules on the root of clover. When the plant dies the nodules are left in the ground releasing the stored Nitrogen that other plants can use to grow strongly.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
28th June 2009
A lovely plant that comes up regularly every year in the bank is Common Agrimony (Agrimonia eupateria). It is an old medicinal plant and Greek legend has it that King Mithridates Eupator (132-63 B.C) was the first person to discover the healing powers of Agrimony.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
26th June 2009
Last night we had quite a terrific thunderstorm into the early hours of the morning. Now in the morning the air feels cool fresh and clear, you just have to breath deep to drink it in.
Everything is damp and the air feels cool, a slight mist hangs in the trees.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
24th June 2009
A clear intense blue sky with not a cloud in sight, bright sun with a brisk cool wind blowing over the hedges.
More Blackberry flowers have bloomed and the promise of plenty of Blackberries this year, looks good.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
23 rd June 2009
In the bank out from the hedges a lovely wild rose grows that forms a short growing tangled bush.
Monday, June 22, 2009
22nd June 2009
A really exciting discovery made today growing on one of our ivies. An Ivy Broomrape (Orobanche hederae). It appeared on one of the variegated forms that we have growing in a largish pot.
Broomrape's strange plants that contain no chlorophyll themselves. They are essentially parasitic plants that attache themselves to the roots of another plant to gain the nutrients to live.
The host plant, in this case an Ivy does all the work making sugars and starches necessary for living on and the Broomrape just takes what it needs.
Broomrape's are not very common themselves, so it was with some excitement to find one growing on an Ivy plant. It seems to be fairly substantial in size, in this picture is the main flower spike, but there are another five more to come up and flower.
Hopefully I can collect plenty of seed and intend to try and establish them around the garden on wild Ivy that grows around.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
21st June 2009
A slightly coolish start brings a freshness to the day.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
19th June 2009
The first Blackberry flower came out for today.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
18th June 2009
It's cloudy and overcast this morning with a little drizzle coming down, but it still feels good with some warmth with a hint of coolness to the light wind blowing.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
16th June 2008
More trimmings have been cut from the hedge by those that live by us. Even though she walked by them she left them in the track. I really cannot understand the mentality that leaves it just like this marring the area in this way.
I don't mean this in the ordinary tidy up mentality, it is just the feeling of total disrespect that it seems to engender.
Monday, June 15, 2009
15th June 2009
A soft gentle wind pushes clouds overhead, insects dance within the shelter of the hedges.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
14th June 2009
Unfortunately in today's photo there is evidence of uncaring attitude toward the environment. We do have to live next to other people who live by other agendas. In this case they decided to clip back some of the natural growth. With no discretion at all they chopped back the soft ferns that have no ability to scratch a vehicle. To compound it, all the clippings are just left in the track. A small fraction can be seen within the photo, but more is present out of shot.
It would have taken very little time to just gather up the clippings and dispose of them out of sight!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
13th June 2008
Curling out from the hedge and looking very strange, the Bryony (Bryonia dioca) stem has been flattened out by an affliction called fascination. Fascination can occur in many plants making them look very strange. It occurs when the growing stems are damaged in some way, either by insects, viral or an inherited characteristic. The result is uneven growth within the stem so that rather than forming a sort of cylindrical aspect to the stem, it becomes flattened.
Many fascinated plants only last a season, no doubt this Bryony will as the top growth is herbaceous (growing for the season and dying back for winter).
Friday, June 12, 2009
12th June 2009
Our wild roses (Rosa canina) are some of the most delicate and delightful flowers that grow in the British hedgerow. They are open to a large variation in colour and variances can be found in very close proximity to each other.
Here is a near pure white form growing not far from the delicate pink I posted on the 10th June.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
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