Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature

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The summer heat has started to ebb away here but, oh, my, has this been a long, hot summer! Temperatures have frequently been up around 27°C and sometimes higher, so it has been too hot to work in the garden for long. (And I’m a Scot, so I’m not well-adapted to hot weather!) Happily, it’s now cool enough to catch up with some of the things that are waiting to be done.

To celebrate the return to more normal temperatures ( 🙂 ), here is a little bit of floral warmth. The tithonia (with its busy bumblebee) is actually from a few summers ago. I grew these brilliantly orange annual flowers just the once, but their memory lives on in a number of photographs. I’d be tempted to grow them again, but I now have fruit trees growing in that sunny spot. Maybe I’ll find another space for them in the future.

The heleniums in the photo above are just as attention-demanding as the tithonia, but I’m less keen on the red and yellow colour combination. (So there’s no surprise that these aren’t in my own garden, but were in a garden I visited recently.) I do love the shape of heleniums though; the swirl of the petals suggests a dancing movement and there’s something delightful about the way the centre of the flower becomes almost spherical as it develops. I have tried growing a yellow cultivar and a dark red one in the past, but I haven’t been able to keep them going for more than a few years here.

I like the bold red of the crocosmia below. This plant had spread to make a very dramatic clump that drew me to it as soon as I caught sight of the colour. Brilliant as it is, I don’t have it in my own garden. (I did try it years ago, but it was never happy in our very dry conditions.) Nowadays I’m not sure I want to add many flowers with really ‘hot’ colours to my garden. Our summers are becoming so scorching that the last thing we need is to add to the suggestion of heat. With that in mind, I reckon I’ll have to stick with mostly cooler colours, such as blue and white, to try to bring a slightly cooler feel to the garden.🌼

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It’s a quick post-and-run from me this week, with a couple of photos of clematis seen earlier in the summer. (I think it was June – I’m a bit shocked by how quickly this hot summer seems to be passing.) Instead of writing, I’m trying to catch up with some of the work in the garden, now that it’s cool enough to get out there. It won’t be easy because the dried-out soil is almost like concrete! So it may be a slow process…🥀

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Visiting gardens allows me to discover plants that I like the look of and frequently inspires ideas for what to grow here. Seeing them in growth, rather than just in a photograph, helps me to decide what plants I do and don’t like. Sometimes I’m surprised by how much I like a flower ‘in real life’ that seemed insignificant in pictures. This happens quite frequently with those that look lovely when planted in combination with something else.

Considering how much I rave on about plants, you might be surprised that there are some that I really don’t like. Yes, it’s true! I have become more and more aware of my preferences in plants as a result of garden visits, which is very helpful in planning my own garden.

One of the things that has become more apparent to me as I’ve been looking at the plants in other people’s gardens is that I very much prefer single flowers and semi-doubles to double-flowered varieties. The flowers you see here are all daylilies (Hemerocallis), but my reactions to them are very different. The cream-coloured flower in the top photo looks very like a lily (you might think it was, if not for the long, strap-like leaves that give its identity away). It looks elegant, exotic, but not overly fussy. I like it – it could easily fit into the planting here and would be a good addition for pollinators. (That particular daylily was attracting lots of hoverflies, as were the lilies in the same garden.)

My feelings towards the double orange daylily above (I think it is Hemerocallis fulva ‘Flore Pleno’) are entirely different. It provides a patch of vibrant colour, although I’d prefer a ‘clean’ orange without the reddish markings. But that’s a little irrelevant because I simply do not like the flowers. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that I love most flowers. Not this one! I feel that the inner set of petals completely spoils the look of the flower. I prefer the simpler shape of the single flowers of the daylily below.

That preference for single flowers applies to other plants too, e.g. dahlias, where I’ve never much liked the very double forms such as cactus dahlias and ball/pom pom dahlias. I do, however, like the looks of both the single and semi-double dahlias. These also have the advantage of offering easily-accessible pollen and nectar to bees and other pollinators too, so would be much more suitable for my garden. Being able to see the differences in these flower forms when I visit gardens is an invaluable aid in forming my opinions of plants and choosing which ones to grow. So I am grateful for the opportunity to see plants I don’t like! (And those I do.)

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Visiting other people’s gardens is often an opportunity to see unfamiliar plants. Earlier in the summer I came across these orchids growing in the shade of some trees. They reminded me of the northern marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella), which I have seen growing in Scotland. As far as I remember, that one had a shorter flower spike with a flatter top than those you see here.

I’m fairly sure this is a Dactylorhiza of some kind, possibly a hybrid, since it was growing in a garden rather than in the wild. A Google image search showed that there are many marsh orchids and spotted orchids, both wild and hybridized, that have a similar appearance. I hoped to be able to identify this particular orchid, but, frustratingly, I didn’t see one with quite the same markings on the petals.

You may notice that there are also dark spotty markings on the leaves. Several species have these, including the heath spotted orchid and the common spotted orchid, the ‘spotted’ being a reference to the leaves. However, it seems that some species and hybrids can vary in whether they have these markings. So my attempt to identify these orchids is unsuccessful…too many possibilities and variations! But I have learned that there is a wide range of these beautiful orchids that are fairly easy to grow in the garden if you have reasonably moist soil.

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There are more lilies here this week. This time it’s the turn of the ‘Turk’s cap’ lilies, with their distinctively-shaped upswept petals. (Like the others, these were photographed while visiting Fullers Mill Garden in Suffolk. This garden has a gorgeous collection of lilies.)

As I mentioned in my last post, I don’t grow lilies because of their toxicity to cats, but if I could, then the lily above would be one that I’d love to have here. This beauty is the Lankong lily (Lilium lankongense), with graceful pink flowers that are spotted with a deep burgundy-red. I prefer these to the showier, more gaudily-coloured varieties like the one below, but both are a pleasure to photograph.

One of the first flowers I remember noticing as a small child was another brightly coloured Turk’s cap lily. That one was orange with dark spots – the tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium). We lived surrounded by moorland and low hills in Scotland’s northernmost county (Caithness), so to me this plant seemed improbably glamourous, and alien for such a place. (They are actually very cold-hardy and would have liked the moist, somewhat acid soil.) That lily grew in the shelter of a stone wall, protected from the blast of the wind and was tall enough for me to see the flowers at very close range. The sight of those exotic-looking orange flowers in that harsh and inhospitable landscape has stayed with me ever since.

Whether growing in a cold northerly garden or a warm southern one, I reckon these Turk’s cap lilies are amongst the most decorative flowers. Their curved petals (or ‘tepals’) and attractive spots seem designed to please, and gardeners can choose between flowers that are dainty and delicate or bright and bold. While they may not be suitable for my own garden and its feline company, I feel that they are well-worth the effort to see in other gardens. A real summer delight!

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Lilies are amongst the most glorious flowers in summertime. As a kittycat owner/servant, I don’t grow them in my own garden because they’re highly toxic to cats, but I do enjoy seeing them elsewhere.

The colours in lilies can be fabulous and look especially rich and vibrant in the sunshine. The deep pink lily in the top picture really stopped me in my tracks when I saw it. It’s a colour that I would love in my own garden (maybe I’ll find it in some other plant). This was one I simply had to photograph, and, luckily, it was just near enough in the border for me to take a reasonable close-up.

Yellow is a colour I like in my garden if it’s not veering towards orange. I prefer a clear, sharp, lemony yellow or a pale and delicate one. The colour of the lily above would be fine, and particularly lovely when light shines through the translucent petals. Most of the yellow in my own garden at this time of year comes from anthemis daisies and two varieties of evening primrose. (There’s also a recently-added pale yellow Iceland poppy, which I am hoping will seed itself around. It’s too small yet to make much impact, but it’s the daintiest little thing.)

Of course, lilies do white exquisitely well too. Delicate but sensuous, the symbol of purity throughout history and loved for its beauty…I had to stop and photograph this one too. If it wasn’t for their toxicity, I would grow lilies. But, even when I no longer have a cat of my own, I probably won’t. That’s because I’d like to know that I can enjoy the company of any of my neighbours’ cats without worry. So these are not for me, but I do think they’re divine .

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It can be difficult to get close enough to waterlily flowers for a decent photograph when they’re growing in a pond. My own pond is awkward to get at and taking a close-up photograph of the pink waterlily there risks a ducking for both me and my camera. (I should change the layout to make access easier.)

It was a plant photographer’s treat to come across these miniature waterlilies growing in large containers recently. The garden we were visiting wouldn’t have had room for a big pond, so the owners had found a good solution to allow them to grow these beautiful plants. It also allowed me to get right up to the waterlilies to photograph them.

These small waterlilies looked stunning in their big pots. Grown in this way, they’re easy to keep clear of blanket-weed and debris, presenting a perfect picture to the onlooker. Because they can be enjoyed at close quarters, every small detail of the flowers can be seen and appreciated.

I don’t know what the particular cultivars are here. A look around the online sellers shows that a good variety of colours are available, lots of red and a number of pinks, yellows, white and even orange. Seeing these has made me wonder if I should try one in the shallow water of my own pond. I don’t know the name of the waterlily that’s already there – it came from a friend’s pond a few years ago. I suspect that it should really be in a bigger pond and deeper water, so it may not last here for long. If it does grow too big, one or two of these small waterlilies might be a better choice in the long run. (You can see my pink waterlily here.)

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Visitors to Fullers Mill can rely on it as a place to see unusual plants. Recently I saw these flowers of Arisaema candidissimum (AKA ‘Jack in the pulpit’ or cobra lily) there, growing in a shady space under some trees. This is the first time I’ve seen this particular plant, although I’ve previously seen a darker arisaema in this garden.

It’s an odd-looking flower, with a tubular, curved spathe that is striped with pink inside. (Sometimes they can be plain white inside.) The outside of the spathe has a subtle green stripe and the leaves are large, strongly veined, and a lush green, which gives the plant a very exotic, tropical look. I’ve read that the flowers have a sweet scent, but couldn’t get close enough to them to experience it for myself. (These photographs have had quite a bit of cropping.)

Arisaema is not a plant that I’m likely to try in my own garden, given that it prefers a rich soil with plenty of humus (although I am working on that one). It also needs reliable moisture and dappled shade (not much of either of those here). I could try to grow arisaema in pots, but I’d prefer not to have something that would resent drying out – it’s too hot here these days!

It’s good to be able to enjoy the sight of an unfamiliar plant when I’m out on a garden visit. Fuller’s Mill is a garden that has rather different conditions to mine, even though it’s not far away from us, so there’s always something that we can’t grow here.

(You can see the darker Arisaema in this post.)