Author: susurrus

Please visit my blog, where I celebrate gardening, nature, photos and creativity. As you'll quickly discover, I love most flowers. I'm here to have a little fun with other bloggers, finding new insights at every step of the way. I enjoy all forms of photography, from macro to more impressionistic shots, so often visit photography blogs to see what other people are sharing. I write about my other interests too including marketing, design, travel and writing - and, rather to my surprise - about the odd issue affecting us all that I just can't resist commenting on. The website link will take you to my home page, but please click on 'Blog' to see what I'm really up to!
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Kinda Bold

Rosebay willowherb autumn colour
Chamaenerion angustifolium (Rosebay willowherb)

Rosebay willowherb is a colonising weed that appeared in the final picture on my recent post about Darwen moor. While few of us who know it would care to cultivate it, I have seen a white form in some fancy gardens. The pink form, shown here, is eminently overlookable, not because it lacks beauty but because of its ubiquity. It would be impossible to take a countryside walk round here without meeting it along the way.

I found these plants growing wild on the edge of farmland and was struck by how lovely they looked in their autumn colours. Early evening light and a blue sky added a little magic. Continue reading “Kinda Bold”

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Hibiscus mutabilis (Cotton Rosemallow)

Pink flower and buds of Hibiscus mutabilis

Hibiscus mutabilis is a very striking mallow that produces huge flowers, similar in form to a double rose or peony. As ‘mutabilis’ (changeable) suggests, the flowers mature from white through pink to red, displaying flowers of all three colours on the same shrub. Well, that’s what Wikipedia says.

We found this plant growing in a cemetery in South Mississippi. In stature, it was as magnificent as its flowers: considerably taller than me, and nearly as wide as it was tall. It seemed to be fending for itself in the full sun with no ill effects other than slightly droopy leaves.

Call me a nitpicker, but this is a ‘plain’ pink double form. It’s the same colour in the bud as in the open flower, as shown here – just one shade of pink. An immutable mutabilis, we might say. Continue reading “Hibiscus mutabilis (Cotton Rosemallow)”

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Sarasota Sunset With Silhouettes

Sunset view of Sarasota Bay

Darwen is not known for its sunsets. Now the evenings are drawing in, I get excited to watch grey or lavender clouds pass over a paler blue-grey, pink-grey or silver-grey sky. The effect can be dramatic, often in a glowering, it’s surely going to chuck it down before you get home kind of way.

And on a clear day, it is possible to see the Irish Sea thirty miles or so away, but not from the town. We have to be at the top of the Jubilee Tower, or to have made our way up the cobbles of Donkey Brew and out on to a track through farmland towards Roddlesworth. From the crest of that hill we can glimpse the sun silvering the sea away in the distance. Continue reading “Sarasota Sunset With Silhouettes”