ju1i3's blog

Buds

fringecups

sage

calendula

water avens

Centaurea dealbata

parrot tulips on the left Little Princess tulips on the right

closer view of those Little Princess tulips

later in the day when the sun went around leaving the table in the shade

a couple days before

a claytonia has self-seeding with the Little Princess tulip below

claytonia with flower buds

this was one of my claytonia from 2 weeks ago but I noticed the photo this morning and what a great rosette it makes in the right conditions, this started a while ago and over-wintered

I beautiful yellow rose at the back of the garden which was there when I moved in (20 years ago) and flowers every year with no help or intervention from me.

bluebell buds, I had loads of bluebells in the flowerbeds forming huge clumps preventing other plants from growing, I thinned them out and now just have a few at the back of the garden

my first red campion flowers blooming

I'm a recent grower of red campion after sowing it with a mix of wildflower seeds a couple years ago. Last year I saw how much the bees love it and this year I see what a strong self-seeder it is, competing with green alkanet for the most prolific self-seeder in the garden. Below, red campion on the left, green alkanet behind on the right.

some muscari above starting to wilt but another pot below looking great

I bought this Centaurea dealbata a few years ago. The pot was invaded and overwhelmed by, I think a dandelion. I don't think I had any Centaurea dealbata flowers last year. Now I see a bud (lower right) and it's been invaded by a poppy. I love poppies as well as centaureas (of all kinds). Do I leave the poppy to bloom? or try to move it? I suspect it would not react well to moving so I will leave it to bloom and in future try to remove self-seeders before they get so big.

My "pond", hardly a pond any more as it leaks badly. Purple loosestrife in the centre, yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) on the right which I hardly get any flowers from, Veronica beccabunga spread over the pond.

I noticed that my one comfrey plant has sprouted next to some of my green alkanet so useful for comparison. The comfrey (on the left) is more upright, has longer leaves and a different pattern on the leaves than the green alkanet (on the right).

I saw London rocket for the first time last year (April 2022) in Whitechapel, east London and have been on the look-out ever since. After a suggestion of Tower Hill, I observed it there yesterday (March 2023).

there were some very small plants growing in cracks

plants in the shade were not nearly so developed

some were quite small

thale cress

good view of the texture of the nepeta leaves on the right

some new growth after a few warmer days recently, it's gone back to bitter cold

muscari

bergenia

muscari and tulips

tulip bulbs, so dry! I can't believe I have to start watering already but it's also bitter cold so don't want it to freeze

one of the most interesting things are these seedlings which I don't recognise, I await future deveopment!

some crocus buds

I have a lot of violets self-seeding, nothing significantly different about these, I think the colour-difference is just because one was in the sun more

fox-and-cubs

forget-me-nots, some years I have more than others, this year I don't think I have so many

I noticed a forget-me-not with some longer leaves, I don't know if I've seen those before or not

the grey-green leaves above are Centaurea montana - I think. I have one I'd grown from seed last year. It hadn't bloomed. Now I see a number of small plants but they couldn't have self-seeded as there were no flowers to produce seed. Do they spread via roots?

I'm still watching these larger-leaved spreading small plants. Are they sheepsbit? which are the thinner-leaved plants on the right. Will they have thinner leaves as they develop?

a few small rosettes / seedlings, left to right, plantain, wood avens, red campion, teasel

not sure what the seedling is on the left, I suspect on the right is green alkanet

speaking of green alkanet, I try not to have green alkanet in my pots as I have it all over my garden but sometimes it gets away from me - that pot at the back in the middle is green alkanet - a large one! at this point, I'll let it bloom this spring and plant it out when it's finished

I bought these plug plants from British Wild Flower Plants. I'm not very impressed but awaiting spring to see if they improve.

early Verbascum blattaria (moth mullein) rosettes can be confused with teasel rosettes (not so much by me as I have lots of both in my garden!) but some I've noticed recently are quite similar

this verbascum is quite small so the distinctive wrinkled texture of the leaves is not so evident

teasel rosette showing the distinctive prickly texture of the leaves

lots of larger verbascum rosettes in the garden at the moment, smaller newer leaves grow in the centre (similar to dandelions), those older larger leaves on the outside often have red down the middle of the leaf

both verbascum and teasel crowding out and being crowded out by dandelion rosettes

so many of my pots are stuffed with self-seedeers, below, left to right, red campion, verbascum, ox-eye daisy, below  them, forget-me-nots

compared next to each other, the Verbascum blattaria (moth mullein) rosette is different from a teasel rosette, both have wrinkled leaves but the verbascum has shiny smooth leaves whereas the teasel is rough with prickles, outer edges smooth ovate on the teasel and lobed on the verbascum

rosemary

primula

muscari

bergenia

hyacinth buds, very small hyacinths because they were previously forced, I try to plant out the hyacinth bulbs after forcing them for Christmas flowers in hyacinth vases indoors

I finally planted the sea squill bulbs I received last autumn. They aren't fully hardy so I guess they shouldn't have overwintered in the ground anyway. I've never grown these before so not really sure the best time to plant them.

while sorting out some pots some bulbs got left under the table on my patio, at some point they started growing

I gathered them all up and planted them in this trough

I noticed some rosettes in a tree pit round the corner from me at the end of December 2022 and thought this one looked a bit different from all the other smooth sow thistles

5-1-2023 a wider view of all those rosettes in that tree pit

and a closer view of that rosette in the centre which I started thinking looked like Eastern rocket possibly

28-1-2023 looking very Eastern rocket-like

4-2-2023

13-2-2023

Walking through a local park on the way home from the station today I noticed some rosettes. Veolia / Idverde is regularly spraying weedkiller in there but I don't think they've started yet this year so I'm joying the plants while I can.

catsear

nipplewort

green alkanet

hedge mustard

hawkweed oxtongue

shepherd's purse

bristly oxtongue

geranium molle

creeping thistle

lawn daisy (Bellis perennis)

salad burnett

smooth sow thistle

ragwort

black medick but

I'm not sure on this, the only thing I can think is close is horseweed but didn't know it could be so hairy

I think this is horseweed

left to right, horseweed, willowherb (small below), red valerian

I went back a couple days later to look for Eastern rocket, couldn't find any but I did find some others

wall lettuce

I think this is a dandelion but will try to keep an eye on it and see how it develops

a younger example of black medick than the other day's

red valerian

wood avens

creeping buttercup

a larger ragwort than the other day's

dock

red deadnettle, admittedly not very rosette-like, one of the few things in bloom

another in bloom, shepherd's purse

those distinctively shaped seed pods make identification of shepherd's purse easy (excuse the poor photo)

I've been watching some seedlings, these pots started with my sheepsbit plug plants but I see these fatter-leaved seedlings, are they earlier sheepsbit? I'll continue to watch and see how they develop.

I bought some sheepsbit plug plants last year. I potted them up, some died, I have 4 pots of them now, left to right, black pot with seedlings not looking very good, turning brown, next orange pot looking good, black pot on the right looking ok, above that the pot has been invaded with poppy seedlings and maybe others. The last time I tried to remove unwanted seedlings it was a disaster so going to repot the entire pot in a larger pot and hope both the sheepsbit and poppies will bloom. The other three pots in the row above, black rectangular pot globe thistle and a wall lettuce, selfheal and claytonia in the black pot and hairy bittercress and a poppy in the orange pot.

closer view

the sheepsbit which are not looking very green, I don't know why when the others look very green and healthy, I suspect wood avens self-seeded but want to grow on to confirm

I took all those suspected wood avens and green alkanet and potted them up

in the world of cats and foxes, the cats are in charge

Eastern rocket (Sisymbrium orientale)? I need to keep an eye on it

thale cress? I need to keep an eye on it

Rocky doesn't seem to mind the cold and is in and out of the garden all day

giant scabious? I think during the warm spell after the cold spell, things started growing and now they're frozen again

teasel and dandelions

crocus bulbs

a few days before, everthing was green and I noticed some hedge mustard in nearby tree pits