July 2022 – Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature

Cool Whites

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To me, white flowers with green foliage have a lovely fresh and cool look…something that would be welcome in all the recent hot weather. (Fortunately the temperatures have dropped a bit, but it’s still hotter than normal.)

The climbing Hydrangea petiolaris in the top picture has recently finished flowering. During June and early July its airy white flowers looked graceful alongside our shady seating area. It’s going to get too big for its space, so I ought to prune it back now the flowers are over. However, I like to leave some of the flowers to dry out so that I can photograph them in the frost. It’s hard to imagine frost right now, but it does look deliciously cool, as you can see below.

Frosted climbing hydrangea — Frosty flowers of climbing hydrangea, photographed in winter 2019.

We have just a few white flowers in our garden. It’s still a little early for the white Japanese anemones. These struggle a bit in the heat and do need watering to keep them going, so I’m not expecting great results from them this year. And I haven’t grown any of the white cosmos this year, so I’m rather missing it.

The white geranium below was originally planted years ago but has now managed to spread itself around the garden by self-seeding. It’s very welcome, so I hope it will continue it’s journey around the garden. Most of my geraniums form spreading clumps but this one seems so far to be much more compact. That’s great, because it means that it doesn’t cause much disruption to other plants and can fit itself into gaps quite easily.

white hardy geranium flowers — A white geranium (name unknown) that seeds itself around.

A plant that I’ve only started to notice recently is Gillenia trifoliata. The plant below was growing at Fullers Mill Garden, and being able to see it close up – rather than in a photo or on TV – made me realise how pretty and delicate the effect of the tiny white flowers is. If I can find space I’d like to grow it, but there’s already a list of plants I’d like to find room for…

Gillenia trifoliata flowers — Gillenia trifoliata (Bowman’s root)

The Gillenia makes me think of the flowers of Gaura lindheimeri, which are just starting to come out in my garden and will last into the late autumn. Gaura is great here because it doesn’t take up a lot of room and the flowers weave themselves through and around the other plants. I’m looking forward to seeing their flowers dancing in the borders like little white butterflies very soon.

Flower of Gaura lindheimeri — The flowers of Gaura lindheimeri are just beginning to open.

Too Hot!

flower photography

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Flowers with bright, hot colours feel particularly appropriate to post after the hottest week I’ve ever experienced. The temperatures have been hotter than I could ever have imagined in the UK, reaching over 40C in a number of places. (Here in Suffolk it was a couple of degrees cooler, but still very difficult to cope with.)

We were lucky. Using fans to keep ourselves and our two cats reasonably cool worked. (Although there were a couple of panicky moments when the electricity went off. Fortunately it came back on both times, after just a few minutes.)

Elsewhere in in England (mostly in the London area) there were those who were desperately unlucky. In several places people have been made homeless as houses and possessions were burned to nothing but ash by wildfires. And I’m sure we’ve all seen the news about the dreadful wildfires that have been causing huge destruction across Europe.

Surely there cannot be any doubt that our climate is changing massively from what we are used to. Now is the time to do everything we can to care for our environment, our world and all that lives upon it. The changes we individually make may be small, but they all count. Together they help.

This photo: Daylily (Hemerocallis) Top photo: Leopard Lily

A Walk on the Wild(ish) Side: Gooderstone Water Gardens

garden photography

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In most of the gardens I have recently visited, my attention has been on the planting combinations and flower and leaf colour and form. Usually I’m looking for plants I’d love to try in my own garden, or else I’m simply lost in admiration for flowers and plants I haven’t a hope of being able to grow.

My visit to Gooderstone Water Gardens was different, in that it was the landscape of the garden that impressed me most. Here you can almost lose yourself in a lush green world of man-made watercourses and large ponds, surrounded by trees and naturalistic planting.

The gardens are in what was once a very wet meadow beside a river. They were created by a retired farmer, Billy Knights, whose son made the joking suggestion that, since the meadow was too wet for grazing, it should be made into a water garden. That suggestion appealed to Mr. Knights and it wasn’t long before he’d had the waterways and ponds dug out.

Years later his daughter has restored the gardens and opened them to the public. They appear to be very popular with those looking for somewhere that allows them to spend some quiet time in a place that feels very close to nature.

Flowers at Gooderstone Water Gardens — Heleniums, Achillea and Verbena bonariensis brighten this part of the garden.

The planting in the gardens has a relaxed and somewhat wild feel. In fact, there are many native trees and shrubs. There is also a wildlife trail and a bird hide where you can hope to spot a kingfisher. (We didn’t – but we did see a family of swans enjoying the peaceful waterways.)

Despite the natural look to the planting, there are areas where familiar garden plants add colour and texture. On our visit, we noticed vibrant heleniums, daylilies and purple loosestrife in the planting along the waterways. Elsewhere, the dramatic yellow spires of Verbascum olympicum towered over a mix of tall white daisies and the pinkish-purple spikes of Acanthus.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable garden visit. I know we’ll be back, because it’s one of my husband’s favourite gardens too. We’ve been here a few times and it always makes us feel good. It is a perfect place to just relax and wander, and to allow yourself to be immersed in a world of nature and peace.

For the Bees

gardening for wildlife

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Helping bees is the annual focus of ‘Bees’ Needs Week’ again, starting tomorrow. By helping bees to survive and thrive, we’re really helping ourselves. A large part of agriculture relies on bees (and other pollinators) to pollinate the crops that provide our own food.

It seems deeply ironic to me that while agriculture relies on wild pollinators to pollinate an estimated 85-95% of the UK crops that require it, that agriculture is also a main reason for their decline. The destruction of wild habitats by intensive farming and the use of pesticides and weedkillers is making the survival of insects more difficult. But we can all help to fight the decline in wild bees and other insects in our own gardens, on balconies, allotments, and on any patch of spare ground.

Plants with plenty of pollen and nectar are the most obvious thing we can provide. A wide variety of garden plants are attractive to bees, so there’s lots to choose from for the gardener. There is a list of some of the best plants for bumblebees here. And here is an excellent (and longer) list of good pollinator plants from bee expert Dave Goulson. (Scroll down his page for it.)

If you garden, you’ll soon notice which of your plants the bees prefer. I try to be aware of the most popular flowers in my own garden and grow a few more of them if I can squeeze them in. I keep an eye open for the plants that are being visited by bees in other people’s gardens too.

I was very pleased to see the bees on the alstroemeria in the photograph below because it’s one that I’d like to plant here. It looks to me as if the honeybee is impatiently waiting for the bumblebee to get out of that flower! (I wonder why that one – there were plenty of others to choose from.)

Bees on Alstroemeria — Honeybee and Bumblebee on Alstroemeria: ‘Hey wake up in there, it’s my turn!’

Water, obviously, is another essential to life for the bees and you can make their search for it easier and safer by providing some. (It’s easy for bees to drown in deep water.) The recommended method is simply to fill a shallow bowl with pebbles and top it up with water. Then the bees can land on a pebble and stand there safely while drinking. But do remember to change the water occasionally so that you don’t get any mosquitos breeding in there!

Planting for bees brings a lot of satisfaction to my own garden. In late spring the distinct buzzing of bees from our ceanothus bush makes me grin…they sound so busy there! And the catmint attracts not only our cats but lots of bees too. They also love our apple trees, the lavender, thyme, alliums, hardy geraniums, and daisies of all kinds. Best of all here are the different varieties of scabious (top photo), which flower for a long time and always seem to have a bee or other pollinator somewhere. (OK, that is an exaggeration, but they are very popular.)

I hope that this will give you some ideas about a plant or two to add to your own space for the bees. Happy (buzzing) Bees Needs Week!

Fullers Mill Garden Revisited

garden photography

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This week I was lucky enough to be able to visit one of my favourite places – Fullers Mill Garden near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Because of the pandemic, it’s been a long time since we visited any gardens.

This year we’ve enjoyed wandering around the open gardens in some neighbouring villages. Great for getting new ideas for our own garden, but I don’t bring my camera to those because it feels like an invasion of the owner’s privacy. It’s a different thing with the big gardens that are open to the public. These provide lots to keep me and my camera busy!

My previous visits to Fullers Mill were both in September, so by then a lot of the most interesting flowers had gone over. This time I saw many of the large collection of lilies in flower. (These will be shown in a later post.)

It was a huge pleasure to be in the gardens when so many of the plants looked their best. There has been some rain recently, which has helped them stay fresh and vibrant. Suffolk can be dry and drought-ridden, so garden-visiting is best done before the summer gets too hot.

The planting combinations appealed to me and made me think more carefully about those in my own garden. I particularly liked the yellow and blue mix above. The yellow of the ‘red hot pokers’ with that of the broom, but having totally different flower shapes, was something I’d love to plant in my own garden.

The combination of herbaceous clematis with the seed heads of the Allium christophii was another combination I’d love to try. It’s the way that the soft purple remaining in the allium flower stems echoes the brownish-purple of the young leaves and the buds of the clematis that pleases me.

The garden is beautifully maintained by Perennial (The Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Society). It was gifted to them by Bernard Tickner, the owner and creator of Fullers Mill Garden. They keep the garden well stocked with plants but allow some areas to feel more relaxed and natural (around the rivers that run through it, for instance). I think this makes it more relaxing for the visitor too.

I plan to visit Fullers Mill again during the summer. I’m sure there will be plenty to see and to photograph too. (There isn’t much that you haven’t already seen in my own small garden, so I’m glad to find something new to share here.) It’s a visit I’m certainly looking forward to. You can read my earlier post about Fullers Mill here.

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