Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature

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Ranunculus flowers are richly colourful and flamboyant. These are Ranunculus asiaticus (Persian buttercup); fabulously pink and frilly and very appealing to photograph. The plants are becoming available in garden centres now (just in time for Mother’s Day in the UK), but these are photos from a few years ago.

I find it useful to have some unused photos in my files that I can go back to at times when there isn’t much to photograph here. It keeps the blog going and gives me a chance to catch up with images that didn’t get processed the first time round.

The garden here feels a little bare right now, despite the start into growth that recent sunshine has brought. The hellebores are still in flower, but got covered in brick dust as parts of a nearby wall were being cut up with an angle-grinder. Not to worry, a good wash-off with a watering can has made them look perky again. The anemones from last week have all opened and now we have a good range of purply-blues and a few that are much paler. The pale flowers would have been a good subject if I hadn’t already posted the darker ones. There are daffodils, of course, and the first of the pulsatilla flowers have opened.

There are a few other flowers elsewhere in the garden, but they’ve already been photographed for the blog several times over the years. Only the pulmonaria has yet to have it’s tiny flowers photographed. (I’ll need my kneeler for those!) So I feel that it’s time to explore the possibilities for additional early-spring flowers. A trip to a garden centre may be necessary…😁🌿

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Warm sunshine has brought the opening of these blue-mauve Anemone blanda flowers. They’re scattered in amongst perennials that are just beginning to come into growth in a very hot and dry bed. It would probably be better if they had a little more moisture, but they are slowly spreading anyway.

I may plant some more Anemone blanda on the sunny edge of the area where the fruit trees are. They would look pretty in a mix of the blue and some white when combined with blue Scilla. I’m still on the lookout for more early spring bulbs which will suit the area around these little trees. The front edge of the fruit-tree border gets sunshine all day, but further back will be shaded by the leaves on the trees later.

There are already snowdrops in the garden which can be lifted and replanted in the area with more shade. These could be combined with yellow winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), but I’ve read that, like snowdrops, these are best planted ‘in the green’ rather than as a dry tuber, because those don’t always establish well.

Lebanon striped squill (Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica) is another possibility for the sunnier part of the fruit tree area. It’s similar in appearance to the related squill of last week’s post, but has white flowers with a blue stripe rather than blue flowers. Another member of the Scilla family, the grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) would be happy in the same area and would provide another early source of nectar and pollen.

In my imagination, I’m envisaging an early spring carpet of mostly blue flowers, with some white and yellow….and bees! (Butterflies and other pollinating insects too, of course. They would all be welcome.) It’s a plan. I hope it’s a successful one! 🐝

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A few days ago I bought the little blue flowers that you see in the photo above as bulbs growing in a pot. They were from a local nursery that sells plants at very reasonable prices. Sometimes, however, they are not labelled with the particular cultivar.

These bulbs were labelled – as ‘Chionodoxa forbesii’. As it turns out, that’s not what they are. I had a quick look at the RHS site to check on the name change from Chionodoxa to Scilla. That showed me that my pot of flowers didn’t look like the RHS’s photo of Chionodoxa/Scilla forbesii. I don’t mind – they’re a Scilla of some sort and they’re pretty.

More importantly, they’ll be useful to any early bees that are around. Scillas are in flower now, at the same time as the crocuses, and provide lots of pollen and nectar.

I’d bought them as part of my planting project to provide more flowers to feed the first bees and butterflies to come out of hibernation. Bulbs will be one of the easiest things to use for this because they don’t take up much space. Conveniently, their very early flowering means they should suit an area area around our fruit trees, which will come into leaf after the bulbs have gone over.

What I minded most about the naming mistake was having to go back and change the name of my photo file…there’s enough confusion with plant names without me creating more! While it was probably just a mistake due to the wrong label being replaced in a pot, it can cause frustration when this happens. If you’re looking for a particular plant, you want to be sure of getting the right one. And if someone sees a plant they want in one of my photos, that plant needs to be correctly identified to allow them to find one. Ho-hum, what fun! Well, at least the bees won’t mind!

The Scilla below is a different variety to the one above, with only one flower on each stem instead of several. I don’t know the cultivar, but there’s only a few left of these. That’s because they’re growing beside a brick path and the bricks have been re-laid a couple of times. That has taught me a lesson…I won’t plant bulbs in a position that’s as likely to be disturbed in future. And maybe I’ll eventually have a carpet of blue flowers. (I can dream!)

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A question in response to last week’s post about hellebores has prompted this one. Linda (who blogs at https://shoreacres.wordpress.com/ ) made this comment: ‘What really surprised me was finally figuring out that the green was a sign of aging rather than a sign of ‘youth.’ I assumed the petals were green at first, and then turned rose. But from what you’ve said, the fresh petals are cream colored — is that right?’

In my reply to Linda I said that the flowers turn green as a part of the aging process. Sometimes, however, there is a slight blush of green on the younger flowers too. (That green shows that there is chlorophyll present, which contributes to the plant’s overall photosynthesis.)

The ‘petals’ of a hellebore are actually sepals. That’s the part of a flower that is normally green and leaf-like, and sits behind the petals. The hellebore sepals turn green after the flower has been pollinated. Some hellebores have sepals that age and darken to a peachy-pink shade, as you can see in my top photo. Whatever their colour, the flowers can last for weeks, with the sepals being more robust than normal petals.

You might be wondering why the hellebore has no true petals. In fact, they’re still there, but over time have evolved into the tubular structures arranged in a ring in the centre of the flower. These are the nectaries, which produce nectar to attract any of the wild bees and other insects that may be active during winter or early spring. In the photo above, you can see the ring of nectaries is still on the old flower, but the stamens have dropped off after pollination.

In the bottom photo, you can see that the nectaries have now also fallen off this old flower. That leaves just the carpels that contain the developing seeds in the centre. How different the aging flower looks compared to the younger ones below it! Those still have both their stamens and their nectaries. (In this case I think the nectaries very pretty, like little ruffles with delicate pink stripes inside.) This particular plant does have a greenish tint to the cream flowers, which later become a vivid green.

Oh, and just to confuse things a little, there are green-flowered hellebores. Helleborus viridis and Helleborus foetidus are both native to the UK and have green sepals throughout their flowering period. Then there’s the Corsican hellebore (Helleborus argutifolius), also known as the holly-leaved hellebore because it has spiny leaves. This one has attractive lime-green flowers and I’m tempted to try growing it, both for the novelty of green flowers and for the handsome foliage.

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It’s been wet and miserable outside for a few days, so there’s not much temptation to go outside. However, now there’s a little treat for every time I venture out into the garden. The slight rise in temperatures has encouraged the hellebores to begin to bloom, giving some bright colour under the grey sky.

The photos here are both of the same hellebore – ‘Rosali’ – although the flowers look rather different. (I’ve used photographs from previous years because the flowers of this one are still just in the process of opening.) Looking at the flower colours, you might think they’re different plants, but no, they’re the same one. I must admit, I did wonder if they could really be the same, but last year’s post of Rosali’s flowers convinced me.

I think the difference in appearance is due to a combination of things; variations in the plant from year to year, flower age, and the effect of lighting. The flower in the bottom photo is aging, and you can see the green creeping into what had been the cream colour of the petals. On the other hand, the top photo is of a fairly newly-opened flower, which will probably become more cream as it develops. In the photo, the crimson which usually just edges the petals shows through the whole flower. Probably this is because of the way the strong sunlight is lighting the flower from behind, carrying the deep colour of its reverse right through it.

Earlier I went out to check on this hellebore and was delighted to see a generous mass of dark-coloured buds, with just the first few starting to unfurl. Soon it should have lots more flowers open – enough to make a winter day feel brighter and spring just a little bit closer!