Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
For anyone who needs a translation of ‘cast ne’er a clout ere May is out’, I’m offering, ‘don’t stop wearing warm layers of clothing before the hawthorn has bloomed’.
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna, a UK native) is one of the first deciduous trees to leaf in spring. Its small, leathery leaves are lobed, rather like tiny oak leaves. Continue reading “Hawthorn Flowers: Cast Ne’er a Clout Ere May is Out”
Clematis ‘Darius’ may not be easy to find, but is certainly a beauty. With flowers as big as my outstretched hand, this is classed as an early, large-flowered clematis.
The flowers seem to have been painted with a star shape formed by a purple-pink stripe down the centre of each petal. Spidery dark purple anthers on creamy-white filaments add their patterns too. Continue reading “Star Shaped Flowers: Clematis ‘Darius’”
Bluebells woods have a mysterious air. To get the full effect, you have to imagine everything moving in the lightest breeze, bees humming in the bells, birds singing as they attend their nests, and the odd grey squirrel bouncing around.
Light dapples through the tender young beech and chestnut leaves, moving across one patch then another; brightening or fading as clouds float between the woodland and the sun. Continue reading “A Peek into an English Bluebell Wood”
The third in my series of easily confused plants features some of the UK’s favourite spring wild flowers with a long heritage of lore.
While our native species of primula are well-loved, they are not as familiar and useful as they once were. Farmers are too busy to rub primroses on their cows’ udders on May Day to encourage milk. Most people who grow primroses near their doorway have forgotten the idea that they encourage faeries to bless the household. People no longer make tisty tosties from cowslip flower heads tied into balls, stems inwards, and hang them from sticks in their dozens to tell fortunes or wave in celebration. Few people have recently tasted cowslip wine. Cowslips are not common enough, and like all UK wild flowers, they are now protected.
But these wild flowers have such a dainty, delicate look, no matter how vigorously they grow, that they are rarely dismissed as weeds. Continue reading “Variations on a Theme: Primrose, Cowslip or Oxlip?”
Let my first be a warning to expect rather a mixed bag as a hail and farewell to two challenges that have brightened and pinkened our April. Continue reading “Assorted Brights And Pinks”
The Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) staged a 30-piece exhibition of fused glass sculptures by Craig Mitchell Smith a few years ago. I recently promised to share some pictures from the glasshouse, so here they are. Continue reading “Craig Mitchell Smith’s MOBOT Garden Of Glass Exhibition”
I was struck by the way this hybrid primrose gradually changes from almost the standard pale yellow to pink, the flowers becoming darker as they age. Each petal is heart-shaped with a bright yellow splash, which put together, forms a starry centre. Continue reading “Pink Primrose”
Susan Rushton 