July 2024

hardy geraniums with bees

blessed thistle (Centaurea benedicta) that I grew from seed

hibiscus buds

ragwort with two kinds of bees

henbane in flower, although it's very small, why are my plants so small this year, the very cold spring??

poppy in bud even so small

hibiscus, first time blooming in my new garden

and it was visited by a bee - what could be better!

new flowers on the Verbascum Arctic Summer

stems with that amazing "snow"

wall lettuce with all stages: buds, flowers, seedheads

tiny sunflower I found growing in a crack on my patio, I eased it out and potted it up (initially it looked very poorly but eventually perked up), still quite small but looks like it's actually going to bloom soon

Scarecrow behind the ragwort

Victor in the flowerbed

knautia macedonica with bee

nepeta with bee

canterbury bells  (Campanula Medium Blue)

Campanula persicifolia Blue

with all the animals in the garden, sometimes plants get damaged, this phlox was broken off so I put it in a vase inside, I'll see if the bud opens

hawkweed oxtongue (Picris hieracioides)

this small pot has lots of seedlings, the easy ones are forget-me-not at the top, red wall lettuce in the middle

strawberry on the right

I don't know what this one is

below looks like a nepeta above a snapdragon but too early to be sure

I also don't know what this one is although it looks delphinium-ish

another pot with intriguing seedlings, was supposed to be Poppy Black Magic but there are 3 that look a lot like lupins, I don't have any lupin seeds and the only lupins I had in this new garden are 2 that were decimated by slugs before any seed pods were produced so maybe the seed packet had lupins by mistake?? primula at the top, poppy top right and a tiny poppy with a bud bottom right

closer view of those seedlings from the pot above

closer view still of the poppy with a bud, I'm curious to see what poppy this is

autumn hawkbit rosette (Scorzoneroides autumnalis) and small-flowered crane's-bill (Geranium pusillum)

perennial sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis)

 

small-flowered crane's-bill (Geranium pusillum)

Agastache Black Adder

I'm still discovering new plants in the garden, golden creeping jenny, didn't know this at all before

clematis (montana?) I saw a vine I thought might be clematis but it has bloomed recently so become identifiable

evening primrose in bloom, didn't even realise I had it, must have been in a pot I brought

crocosima and hardy geranium in the background

these were some of the crocosima leaves back in March which I did not recognise as crocosima as mine were a bit different, I was skeptical they were crocosima but they did indeed turn out to be crocosima

Verbascum Arctic Summer had been damaged by mullein moth caterpillars but after I relocated them to the water figwort / buddleja new buds started to grow

this was the damaged stem to the right eaten by the caterpillars, 3 weeks before

saw-wort buds

first small teasel flower in bloom, the bees love this, I saw one this morning on it but couldn't snap a photo in time

I was heading over to this side of the garden to take a photo, when I got close I discovered Scarecrow in the grass - I didn't realise he was there. He's well-camouflaged.

a poppy in bloom in the patio cracks garden

I snapped a photo of a bee on the nepeta but it's not very visible, my visiting white cat to the right

perennial wall rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia), possibly in a wildflower seed packet I sowed in that pot last year - or - it just self-seeded

the flower is at the far right side of the photo above at the end of a long stem, here is a close-up

autumn hawkbit (Scorzoneroides autumnalis)

at this time of year, the yellow-flowered self-seeders tend to be either smooth hawk's-beard or autumn hawkbit and only examination of the flowers from the side can be definitive, (below shows smooth hawk's-beard with the 2nd row of phyllaries), this is autumn hawkbit with the top of the stem  tapered into the flower

the basal rosette of autumn hawkbit deeply lobed leaves, just one flower there, I'm finding locally it's just starting to bloom

closer view of the autumn hawkbit buds

lots of rosettes about without stems with buds yet

this spectacular rosette with lots of flowering stems has self-seeded in a neighbours driveway

 

smooth hawk's-beard (Crepis capillaris)

I moved to my current house in December, 7 months ago, and of course, I immediately started looking at the plants and taking photos. This was self-seeded at the base of a brick trough along the side of the driveway.  I thought it looked very catsear-like but not the usual hairiness.

December 2023

February 2024

March 2024  as it was on my driveway it was easy to take regular photos

June 2024 I see smooth hawk's-beard in bloom in that spot which I didn't immediately associate with that rosette which I had forgotten about being so busy in the back garden. Then I went back and looked at my photos and realised I had seen the earliest rosette of smooth hawk's-beard back in December.

a separate photo of the base as I'm struggling with my phone to take a decent photo of the entire plant

also seen near the autumn hawkbit,

goatsbeard (Tragopodon pratensis), close-up of the opening bud

entire plant

perennial sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis) buds 

back in my own garden

agastache Black Adder

verbena hastata

phlox

rose buds

centaurea montana Amethyst

selfheal

hawkweed oxtongue, phlox on the left, Lauren's Grape poppy on the right

 

some wildflowers I saw recently on a walk along the Grand Union Canal in Sarratt

the largest burdock leaves I've ever seen

entire burdock plant

another nearby burdock plant

also time for extremely large common hogweed

white melilot

wild parsnip

hemp-agrimony in bud

left to right smooth hawk's-beard (Crepis capillaris), dandelion, smooth hawk's-beard (Crepis capillaris), gypsywort

closer views

two stems of Crepis capillaris and dandelion on right

gypsywort

thistle (not sure species, will research)

a lock along the Grand Union Canal

on the opposite side of the towpath, lots and lots of goat's-rue

it was on  the other side of a fence so although I was keen to get into that area to look at the wilflowers, it was not possible

a nearby central reservation had a lot of white flowers

I wasn't sure what they were as it was difficult to go too close but I saw this white melilot on the close side of the road so I think it's that. If I can, I'll go back and try to get close.