plant portraits – Page 11 – Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature

Heralds of a Wet and Windy Spring

March 3, 2024March 2, 2024 Ann Mackay21 Comments

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Hellebores are resilient plants. They need to be, given that the weather in very early spring can be anywhere between sunshine and gentle breezes to the blast of high winds and freezing rain or snow. This year we’ve had a fairly benign mix – quite a lot of rain but sunshine too and no gales around here.

I did worry that this hellebore and the others that are planted beside it might suffer in the gusts of chilly air that are sent out from the air-source heat pump that we recently had installed. The heat pump works by extracting warmth from the air around it so the air it pushes back out is very cold. Luckily, it turns out that the airstream is just enough to the side of them not to be damaging.

Unfortunately, the site that had to be used for the heat pump meant that a path and a low retaining wall had to be dismantled to make room for it. Now both path and wall will need to be reinstated and the hellebores may be in the way. If possible, I’d rather not move them, especially when they seem happy in their present position. Hopefully, if I do, they’ll survive and bring more joy to next spring.

(Meanwhile, I’m wondering what has laid its eggs on the flower in the top photo…do you see those white ovals? Not slugs or snails, which have round eggs. Not to worry, I suspect the rain we’ve just had will have washed them off!)

Ordinary Things

January 21, 2024January 19, 2024 Ann Mackay16 Comments

After a long spell of mild and rainy weather, we at last had some frost. Photographically, it was a bit disappointing because it was mostly on the lawn and shorter plants. The taller plants, such as the Stipa gigantea (golden oats) above, had very little frost. So there were not many opportunities for photography. The pictures you see here are from last year.

Despite the thin coating of frost, it has felt really cold this week. The ground is frozen hard and there is thick ice over the top of the pond and in containers of saved rainwater. Only the week before, I had been able to spend time doing some weeding in the garden – not a chance of that now!

For the sake of this blog, I’m glad that I took lots of photos during last winter’s heavy frosts. The weather can’t be taken for granted, so there’s no guarantee of having anything to photograph at this time of year. Luckily for me, when it is frosty, the most ordinary of things look a lot more interesting!

frosted blackberry leaf — A blackberry leaf looks as if its edges have been dipped in sugar.

Ghosts: Frosted Allium Seed Heads

January 14, 2024January 12, 2024 Ann Mackay11 Comments

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The Allium christophii seed heads pictured here are held motionless in the thinnest coating of frost. On a freezing winter morning the tiny seed pods, and the remains of the flowers behind them, gleam softly in the early sun.

It has just occurred to me that it’s unusual for a seed head to retain the remains of the flower like this. The petals have lost their colour and their edges have curled inwards. They’ve shrunk a little as they’ve dried too, but those petals are still there. Now they are little icy stars.

You can see what those stars looked like while the flower was still alive:

The living flowers are lilac, with a delicate metallic sheen. Already the green seed pods are forming in the centre of each individual floret. If you look closely you’ll see that there’s also an inner ring of filaments. (These are the lower part of the stamens, which would have held the anthers.) Their tapered, almost spiky, appearance makes them look like another set of much smaller petals.

Now my imagination is playing with the idea of having the ‘ghosts’ of the year’s flowers sprinkled throughout the garden. For company, the alliums would have hydrangeas (as in last week’s post) and perhaps, if there were any late flowers, astrantias. (But in both of these plants, what look like petals are not. The hydrangea has minute flowers surrounded by showy sepals and the astrantia has large bracts around a tiny pincushion-like arrangement of true flowers. Perhaps that is why they keep their flowery appearance for longer.)

Hmm, I wonder if a slightly spooky winter garden would be fun… 🙂

Waiting for the Light

January 7, 2024January 6, 2024 Ann Mackay21 Comments

Frosted Caryopteris clandonensis seed heads

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During winter direct sunlight doesn’t penetrate along much of one side of the garden. Photographing plants in this area can be frustrating. Even if they have a good coating of frost, they don’t catch the sun to make that frost sparkle.

Taller plants, like those here, do get some sun for a very short while, so there may be just enough light to make photographing them worthwhile. The light changes very quickly at this time of year, so the opportunity doesn’t last long.

Frosted climbing hydrangea — A climbing hydrangea is just tall enough to catch the light.

Happily, January brings a gradual increase in how far the sun reaches over the garden fences and tall shrubs, over time illuminating more of the smaller plants. By the time spring is here, the sun will be high enough to allow me to take photographs throughout the whole garden. That is a time I look forward to!

Meanwhile, it occurs to me that I should plan to place the plants that look good when frosted in places where they will catch a little sparkle of sun. (But not somewhere too sunny, otherwise the frost may melt before I get outside with my camera.) I may be developing my own style of garden planning – ‘hortus photographicus’, hehe!

Frosted Daucus (wild carrot) seed head — A frosted Daucus (wild carrot) seed head lurks on the dark side of the garden.

Wishing You a ‘Guid New Year’

December 31, 2023December 18, 2023 Ann Mackay19 Comments

A guid new year to ane an a
An mony may ye see,
An during a the years to come,
O happy may ye be.
An may ye ne’er hae cause to mourn,
To sigh or shed a tear;
To ane an a baith great an sma
A hearty guid New year.
A Guid New Year to Ane An A

As in the words of this traditional Scottish song, I wish everyone a ‘guid new year’. May it bring you all the best of health and happiness. (I think most of the meanings of the Scots words are fairly clear, but just in case they aren’t: guid = good, ane = one, a = all, mony = many, baith = both, sma = small)

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads my blog and to say how much I appreciate your comments and the chance to chat a little. I hope that my small patch of the internet brings you some pleasure in the natural world. Here’s to 2024! 🌿

Happy Christmas to You!

December 24, 2023December 18, 2023 Ann Mackay26 Comments

I hope that this Christmas, whether you celebrate it or not, will bring you happiness and wellbeing. It has been a busy year for us, so a time of good cheer and a little bit of indulgence will be welcome. (We value quieter Christmases these days – they give a great feeling of peace and time to just relax.)

Despite my usual frosty photo for Christmas, it looks as if we’ll see no frost or snow over this year’s festive period. Christmas day is forecast to be sunny, so time outside in the garden is a possibility. But there will be no hoar-frost photos like this one taken last December…a rest for the camera maybe!

However you spend Christmas, I hope that it’s a good one. Merry Christmas! I wish you joy. 🎄

From Very Little…

December 10, 2023December 7, 2023 Ann Mackay18 Comments

Frost has an amazing ability to enhance the smallest of garden details. It takes very little to allow it to create a fleeting beauty. Anything can suddenly become attractive when encrusted by these tiny, white crystals of ice.

The last of the year’s flowers, dried-out seed heads, leaves, or slender grasses stilled by the cold air – all are made much more interesting to look at by a touch of frost. These are the leaves of Pulsatilla vulgaris (pasqueflower). In spring they are soft and hairy and a delight to stroke. By winter those hairs have disappeared, giving the curving shapes of the deeply-cut leaves more prominence. To my mind, the dead and frosted leaves suggest the look of a woodcut image or engraved stone.

As I’m writing this, the ground is still frozen. Tomorrow, though, is forecast to be milder and rainy, so the magic of the frost will be gone from the garden. These leaves won’t last long once the frost has finished with them, but will be left limp and probably rather translucent. The frost will have helped them along their path of decomposition and their eventual contribution to the richness of the garden soil. 🍂

Tranquillity Remembered: Wild Carrot in Autumn

November 12, 2023November 9, 2023 Ann Mackay12 Comments

Daucus carota (wild carrot) in evening light in autumn

Here’s a quick look back to wild carrot (Daucus carota) seed heads in early autumn, photographed in the light of a sunny evening.

Evening is a time I love in the garden, especially early on, while the sun is still out. It’s quiet and peaceful once the traffic of workers going home has gone, with just the occasional sounds made by a foraging bird. The light makes everything look better at this time of day.

Now the evenings are darker and those seed heads are gone. But there will be more new wild carrot plants in spring and sunny evenings will return. For now though, I’m very busy with preparations for a new central heating system being installed, so I haven’t had much time for the garden or photography. Our home has been in a state of disruption and reorganisation while we moved things around to allow the work to be done. Hopefully, all will be settled again soon and we will be warm this winter!

Wet, Wet, Wet!

October 22, 2023October 21, 2023 Ann Mackay27 Comments

It is raining, it has been raining, and there is more rain to come…

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you will probably have noticed that I frequently mention that we have a dry climate here in the east of England. Drought is something I worry about in the garden and I try not to have many plants that require moist ground.

Not raindrops but melted frost drops from last winter.

This week has felt quite strange because it has rained and rained. In fact, this summer was unusually rainy and our grass even stayed green. I’ve read that the heavier rainfall may be a part of global warming (because warm air can hold more moisture) but this does feel unexpected.

Because it has been so wet, I thought it appropriate to post some watery pictures. However, I have a confession to make…they aren’t raindrops, but drops of melted frost photographed last winter. (It has been much too wet and grey for me to want to take the camera outside.)

We have been lucky here. Storm Babet hasn’t caused much disruption. But elsewhere, especially in Scotland, people have been forced to leave flooded homes and much damage has been done. Sometimes the forces of Nature can be thoroughly alarming!

The golden oat (Stipa gigantea) looks at its best when covered in frost, even if that frost has melted.

Almost Autumn

September 24, 2023September 30, 2023 Ann Mackay28 Comments

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Summer is gradually morphing into autumn here. Despite reaching the autumn equinox, the days can be sunny and warm, making it feel as if the season hasn’t yet changed. Most of the leaves on the trees and shrubs around us are still green. The red leaves here really aren’t autumnal at all – they were photographed on a visit to a garden in early August.

North American readers may recognise these gloriously-coloured leaves as belonging to Cercis (redbud), a native of their area. I believe this is Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’, which has leaves of a deep reddish-purple. (They look much more red here, because I’ve photographed them with the light shining through them. However, the two below were just starting to become a bit more red before turning to the more orange shades of autumn.)

‘Forest Pansy’ is a cultivar that I’ve seen in some of the larger gardens that I visit, but it is not common around here. I do see it available in garden centres, so maybe there will be more of these delightful trees in our area in the future. I certainly hope so! Their heart-shaped leaves are a beautiful sight, especially when the low sunlight catches them and makes them glow.

An update: it turns out that the comment box was black because the Orvis theme (for some weird reason) now shows the text and the box as the same colour. (It only happens if you have a white background. It works OK if your background is black.) The ‘Happiness Engineers’ were quick to help, but the only solution was to pick a different theme. (This is Libre 2.) Hope this is helpful for anyone having a similar problem. 🙂