Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature

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Late spring is the time when Aquilegia vulgaris flowers in my garden. It self-seeds in great numbers, so I never know where it’ll pop up next. (Although I do try to give it a helping hand by scattering the seeds where I’d like them to come up.)

Their enthusiasm for self-seeding and the ability to cross-pollinate easily with other aquilegias means that new flower colours appear frequently. In my previous garden, in Scotland, I ended up with quite an array of pinks, blues and purples in many shades, as well as white. Sometimes the flower shape varied too, with double flowers appearing.

The conditions here in Suffolk are a bit on the dry side for aquilegias, which prefer a moist soil. However, too much moisture in a wet spring or summer can lead to ‘Aquilegia downy mildew’, which can kill the plants. (RHS info is here.) So I’m a bit worried about all the rain we’re having right now! I lost a number of aquilegias to this disease around five years ago and it has taken a long time to start to build up the collection of colours again. Currently there are several plants in the purple/blue range and a number of pink-flowered plants.

You can see how the colours here vary between the pinkish-purple at the top, through to a darker flower above, which has more deep blue in it. The lighter-coloured flower below (photographed a few years ago) was one of the closest to blue so far. It will be interesting to see whether we ever get a stronger blue. Meanwhile, I need to go out and photograph the pink aquilegias…let’s see what I can find!

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This bearded iris (I believe it’s Iris germanica ‘Indian Chief’) burst into flower with a dramatic flourish during some recent hot weather. It’s glory didn’t last long. The short life of the flowers was made even shorter by heavy rain not long after I’d taken these photos. But I enjoyed seeing them while they lasted.

There would be more flowers on this iris if its rhizomes were not being overshadowed by a neighbouring geranium. The rhizomes really need to bake in the sun during summer. Unfortunately, however, I haven’t had time to do anything about the geranium’s sudden growth spurt and encroachment on the iris. It might be easiest to move the iris to a less crowded area and this is almost the right time to do it.

This is an amazingly active time in the garden, with the plants moving fast in growth and flowering. It’s a very busy time for me too, so it would be easy to miss the opportunity to enjoy and photograph those flowers that don’t last long. I’m glad I had the time to appreciate the iris’s presence before its flowers went over. Now I must decide whether to move it or the geranium…

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Although it’s still only May, there are summery-looking flowers already open in my garden. Roses, irises, geraniums and verbascum are in flower right now, but it’s the oriental poppy ‘Patty’s Plum’ that makes me feel that the days are about to be much warmer and brighter.

There’s something about the look of these big, gaudy flowers that suggests they should be basking under blue skies and sunshine. Instead they are having to cope with this week’s wet weather. Fortunately I photographed the flowers here before they got a bit flattened by the heavy rain and there are plenty more unopened buds, so more flowers to come.

I wondered if this poppy had come into flower slightly earlier this year and took a look at the dates that I’ve photographed it over the last few years. This year it was May 13th, for the two years before it was around May 23rd and in 2021 it was 28th May. So perhaps the flowering time has crept forward a little.

It certainly feels as if there’s a headlong rush towards summer by all of the plants in the garden. Keeping up with everything that needs to be done is pretty much impossible at this time of year. Even so, it’s important to stop gardening for a little while and take some time to just enjoy the flowers while they’re at their best.

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The sight of unfamiliar flowers and plants is one of the perks of visiting other people’s gardens. You never know what you may see. The plant shown here was one of the more surprising encounters I had when I saw it for the first time in a Norfolk garden four years ago. I had absolutely no idea what it was, but it looked strange and exotic to me.

This plant, with its weird flowers, felt like something that belonged in a botanic garden glasshouse, rather than outside in a British garden. It seemed too exotic to be hardy. Much later I found out that it was a Clianthus and will grow in a sunny position in mild areas. (The RHS says it can tolerate down to -5°C and suggest a cool greenhouse or conservatory for colder areas.)

Clianthus has several common names: glory pea, lobster claw and, from its native New Zealand, ‘kaka beak’. (Named after an NZ parrot, this colourful name is my favourite!) Growing against a wall, the plant looked like a climber, but is in fact a scrambling shrub. It’s a member of the pea family and has two species and a number of cultivars. (I don’t know what this one may be, possibly a cultivar, because it seems to develop more pink/purple in the fading flowers than I’ve seen in photographs of the species.)

I’m always pleased to get the opportunity to photograph a plant that I’m unlikely to be able to grow at home. I wonder what this year’s garden visits may allow me to photograph…🌿

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One of the spring sights that always impresses me is a magnolia tree in full flower. There are several of these not far from where I live and they were magnificent just a couple of weeks or so ago. Their pink flowers are gone now, so last year I was surprised to see magnolia flowers in a garden we visited in mid-May.

I am so used to seeing spring magnolias in flower around here that I was unaware (or had possibly forgotten) that there are summer-flowering magnolias too. A quick read up on them was required!

Depending on the variety, magnolias can flower from spring up until September but I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen any of these late-bloomers. There’s a particularly lovely white-flowered magnolia (Magnolia sieboldii) which I would love to see – and photograph, of course!

It was a matter of luck that I was able to photograph the magnolias here. The flowers are often too high up on large trees for me to be able to get near enough to them. These were just at a nice height for me! Hopefully I will find more of these lovelies on future garden visits…I will certainly keep my eyes open for them.

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These purple flowers look attractive but may soon be trying to overrun a large patch of my garden. For once, I don’t mind. This is Vinca minor ‘Atropurpurea’, the dark purple-flowered periwinkle. It’s a ground-cover plant that can spread quickly and has small but pretty flowers.

Normally I’m wary of plants that have the ability to become thugs that try to take the garden over. This time, though, I needed something that would survive in the dry shade beneath a ceanothus (California lilac). It also needed to be able to creep along the ground and help to stabilise a slight slope near the edge of our pond.

Once this plant has done its job of providing ground cover under the ceanothus, I’ll try to persuade it to continue its spread below some of the neighbouring shrubs. I reckon it should help to keep down the weeds under them too, which would be very helpful. (It gets tricky to weed under shrubs as they get bigger and I get older!)

I wonder how far it can spread? (The RHS says 1.5 metres, but I’m betting that it will self-propagate by layering and reach further.) I know I’ll have to keep a stern eye on it and give it a thorough trim if it goes too far.🌿