Blogs

I am lucky enough to have some bees in my garden this spring.

bee on chive flower

The bees are visiting the green alkanet and nepeta mostly. I've been trying to photograph them but they don't stay still for long - until the melancholy thistle started blooming. The bees stay on the melancholy thistle flowers, even appearing to be asleep in the first photo (purple colour is an effect of the light, the flower is pink like the others).

bee on melancholy thistle flowers top and bottom left

Water figwort, actually doesn't need water. I see it growing in a very dry environment. It's very determined.

self-seeding in the road, 18-5-2022

small plants self-seeded in a garden, 24-5-2022

self-seeded in a wall

close-ups of some flowers and buds

really strong, square, dark red stems

melancholy thistle with bees

one of the greatest views in the garden, a bee going into a foxglove

the lupin has survived the slugs and grown a bud! - a miracle

acanthus in bloom, amazing after no flower last year because of slugs, two flowers this year

echium vulgare buds, echium vulgare are so fiddly for me, usually I have to buy small plants as growing from seed is so difficult but didn't see any plants for sale this year but this one self-seeded, so many miracles in the garden this spring

sky-high teasel with lots of buds

closer view of the water in those cups formed by the leaves on the stem

foxglove in bloom

fringecups in bloom

iris foetidissima in bloom

these dandelions were all that was left after the poppy seedlings were eaten by slugs but I guess some of the poppies were actually these dandelions but that's ok, I have dandelions in my garden and I want to practice identifying them

slug damage can be soul-destroying, my only chinese lantern shoots this year and eaten by slugs

my kind of front garden: full of Crepis vesicaria / beaked hawk's-beard

knautia / knapweed / scabious

lesser knapweed

knautia macedonica

younger knautia macedonica plants

I love sheepsbit. I first tried growing it from seed April 2020 and only got 1 plant - but what a plant! gorgeous flowers (the next year June 2021) which the bees loved. I collected seed last year and sowed it Sept 2021. I think these 2 seedlings are a result of that sowing. Do I try to separate them? I decided to leave them be in case I disturbed them too much. Going from previous experience, I won't get flowers until next year.

This red campion has been amazing. I grew them from a pack of wildflower seeds, a bee promotion? last year but they didn't flower until this year but what an amazing number of flowers! and the bees have been loving them. I haven't grown red campion before and I didn't know bees liked them so much.

one lone white flower has appeared

The pot that the fringecups were in broke and for a while the plant sat without a pot. I finally repotted it recently and I see it has recovered enough to grow a flower spike. Only 1 so far. I can't remember exactly when the pot broke but I see from photos there were lots of flowers June 2021 so probably last autumn.

We had rain once and the slugs are out in force. I've also had bird damage or I think it is bird damage. Plants have been bitten off.

borage seedling bitten off

it's fun to do a bit of botanizing while going to the dump, this eastern rocket with those very long fruits and catsear with its distinctive rosette and yellow flowers were growing by the entrance to the dump yesterday

It has been so dry, no rain for weeks. The only up side is fewer slugs.

green alkanet laughs at lack of rain - and isn't bothered by slugs, the bees love it, I love it, if nothing else is looking good in my garden, those brilliant blue green alkanet flowers are looking great - my essential garden flower

the hostas are benefitting from fewer slugs

melancholy thistle buds

giant scabious I grew from seed, started last year, 2 plants, one large in the middle and smaller top left, self-seeded claytonia in the pot as well

my acanthus, which did not bloom last year, think because the slugs destroyed the bud, but with fewer slugs this year, a bud has developed and survived

I have a pot with a few seedlings which I thought were delphiniums but then I thought maybe monkshood and delphiniums as 2 looked quite similar but the 3rd was a bit different, then I put the pot next to my monkshood (see next photo) 

Putting the pot next to the monkshood has been a revelation, the front two seedlings definitely look like monkshood, not sure why the taller one looks a bit different but will just have to see how it develops. I did have 2 monkshood plants there but one has not come back this spring. Actually I don't think it came back last spring but it's a miracle this one has and collecting and planting seeds seems to have been a success. Will have to see how they develop and whether they actually flower one day. Not sure how long they take to mature.

fringecups seem to have self-seeded

and the veronica longifolia into this pot of selfheal

The first beaked hawk's-beard (Crepis vesicaria) in bloom this spring that I've seen. Sadly just on the other side of that low wall was full of common whitlowgrass and thale cress and hairy bittercress last year but it's been sprayed with weedkiller and there's nothing.

across the road is guaranteed to be hoary mustard (Hirschfeldia incana)

other rosettes include: bristly oxtongue (Helminthotheca echioides)

update 28-5-2022 going back to this area yesterday and the day before, I realise this image (taken 25-4-2022) is smooth hawks-beard (Crepis capillaris), I knew it was familiar but didn't remember correctly what it was

hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale)

and some beaked hawk's-beard (Crepis vesicaria) with lots of fat buds

I haven't seen London rocket (Sisymbrium irio) much before, if at all, but found this in Whitechapel. Camden is much too tidy and weedkillered to allow it.

The first time I saw it (19-3-2022) it was only leaves.

7-4-2022 in bloom

23-4-2022 with seed pods

other East End rosettes: catsear on the left and 5 beaked hawk's-beard (Crepis vesicaria)

as above, a catsear on the left, beaked hawk's-beard and a dandelion on the right

the auriculas are starting to bloom, this is my favourite one

a forget-me-not has self-seeded in one of the auricula pots

a few days later

I love Professor Rontgen tulips and although I try different tulips, I come back to this one.

I got these as an impulse purchase at Sainsbury's, labelled "Pink Parrot", they don't look very parrot-y to me but they bloomed and look good.

I love the purple glaucous colour of the Hermitage tulips before they open

the Hermitage tulips and growing with the muscari, below with a bee

the bees are liking the muscari, one of the few things I have in bloom at the moment

a few days later, all the Hermitage tulips in bloom and the bright orange replacing the glaucous purple of the buds

I buy sea holly regularly because I love them but so do the slugs and snails so they don't last.These eryngiums Big Blue looked fab at the garden centre. I couldn't decide between the  well-developed buds almost blooming and the huge one so bought both.

I have 2 Magical Blue Lagoon sea hollies left from last year, this is one. Some nepeta around it, attracting the cat there.

this is the other, with a scabious self-seeding in the pot

I moved some pots around to see what's growing and Rocky has come to a pot of nepeta. Lone anemone above. Had many more last year. They don't seem to last, not in my garden anyway.

giant scabious I grew from seed last year, seems to be doing well, I removed the green alkanet from the pot, also need to remove a winter purslane and beccabunga which have self-seeded

monkshood, I had two but only 1 seems to have survived

marsh mallow I grew from seed a few years ago, I see a hogweed has self-seeded and purple toadflax?

close-up of those purple toadflax ? from above, will have to see for sure what they are when they bloom

The pot these fringecups were in broke last year so they were sitting on top of the soil awaiting repotting which I finally got around to this week. They aren't looking great but they're still alive. I hope they'll recover enough to bloom again one day, maybe not till next year?

Rocky

Scarecrow and Victor

All these (green alkanet / foxglove / comfrey / borage / salvia sclarea ) have similar textured leaves and at times can be difficult to tell apart. I have all these in my garden so I recently took photos of each for comparison.

green alkanet, smaller leaves below are nepeta

foxglove

sometimes the leaves are very textured

often have that lighter colour in the middle

comfrey, leaves longer and thinner with a distinctive pattern

the comfrey 10 days later

borage (Borago officinalis)

clary sage cultivar (Salvia sclarea var tukestanica)