The Last Days of Ebullient Ralph Sowell’s Daffodil Collection
My sweetheart was sorry to hear that his affable gardening friend Ralph Sowell of Jackson, Mississippi, had died and, because his printing company’s property was to be repurposed, his raised beds brimming with many dozens of award-winning daffodils and hybrid daylilies had to go.
It turned out that the garden needed to be emptied more quickly than expected, and unfortunately the daffodils were at the peak of bloom or just about to flower. Bulbs physically empty out when they produce flowers and need a few weeks of sunlight energy hitting the growing leaves to re-fatten for next season. The size and diversity of Ralph’s collection added an extra challenge. Continue reading “The Last Days of Ebullient Ralph Sowell’s Daffodil Collection”
Bramble or Blackberry: Would a Fruit by Any Name Taste as Sweet?
If you want to know the difference between a bramble and a blackberry, you’ll find various definitions online:
- A bramble is a blackberry and vice versa.
- Blackberry is the fruit and bramble the bush.
- Bramble is wild (Rubus vulgaris) and blackberry (Rubus fruiticosus) is cultivated.
- Bramble is the northern name and blackberry the southern.
- A bramble is any rough, tangled, prickly shrub, usually in the genus Rubus.
- Some people combine the two to specify the type of fruit: blackberry bramble, raspberry bramble, loganberry bramble.
Continue reading “Bramble or Blackberry: Would a Fruit by Any Name Taste as Sweet?”
Seven Flower Buds (A Quiz)
I’m setting a little challenge today: how many of these buds can you identify? My selection contains hairy buds, arching, clustered, leafy, capped and felted ones. (I’m having to write more text than I want to here so that WordPress doesn’t ‘helpfully’ include the answers in the preview in The Reader. I think that should do it!) Continue reading “Seven Flower Buds (A Quiz)”
Santa Rita Garden, Painting With Wine and Just Asking
Some of you may remember seeing the Santa Rita ‘Living La Vida 120’ Garden at RHS Hampton Court Flower Show a few years ago. Alan Rudden’s design won a Gold medal and Best World Garden. Boldly coloured burnt-yellow steel feature walls, chunky gabion walls of bright rough stone and seven pollarded strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo) were memorable features. Continue reading “Santa Rita Garden, Painting With Wine and Just Asking”
Edible Plants
If I suddenly had to survive by foraging alone, though I have some knowledge of plants, I’m not sure I’d last long, especially if the whole of the country was foraging too. While one man’s meat is another man’s poison, anyone with an apple tree would surely be thinking themselves lucky. Continue reading “Edible Plants”
Snowy Plants and Places
The first made me smile because the snow is adding an extra layer of variegation to the reddish and cream edges of these green leaves. Continue reading “Snowy Plants and Places”
Susan Rushton 