No High

This is a fantastic looking shrub and many people may well mistake for the infamous cannabis plant. But Datisca cannabina will not give you a high other than the pure joy of growing it.

Datisca cannabina

Easily growing to 2 metres tall (6ft), making an impressive plant in any garden. Small yellow flowers form in May - August. 

It is an actinorhizal plant, which means it forms a symbiotic relationship with bacteria to fix Nitrogen into the soil. So will help to improve poorer soils where it grows.

Just make sure you label it prominently to make sure it does not get swiped for smoking!

 

Purple Dust

A surprise can sometimes come in unusual places. I walked by one of the pile of logs in the garden and found an amazingly beautiful colour.
I believe the fungus is Daldina concentrica. A hard woody little fungus that grows on dead trees. But I have never seen such purple spores released by it. Normally they are just black. But these are blue black, looking as if somebody had spilt ink over the wood.



Hidden behind the Iris foetidissima and  nestled amongst ivy leaves, small Cyclamen hederifolium flower. These are growing in a lot of shade and in pretty dry conditions as they are at the base of conifers. But they
come up regularly every year.


Cyclamen hederifolium