plants – Page 13 – Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature

Wet, Wet, Wet!

October 22, 2023October 21, 2023 Ann Mackay27 Comments

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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.

Daisy Days

October 15, 2023October 13, 2023 Ann Mackay12 Comments

Autumn means that there are few flowers left in the garden here, but there is at least a splash of colour still from the asters. The bright pink one above (name unknown because it came from a friend’s garden) is almost over now. It was glorious while it lasted, but now the softer shades of pink and blue have taken over.

Honeybee on Michaelmas daisies — Honeybees were frequent visitors to these Michaelmas daisies.

The lavender-blue aster flowers have been especially popular with bees and hoverflies in the last week or so. We had a very hot and sunny spell, so the bees were out in force, making the most of the chance to find pollen and nectar before the flowers disappear. Every time I passed by these daisies, they seemed to be buzzing…a sound to make me happy!

Honeybee on pink Michaelmas daisies — This pink daisy seems less popular than the blue one, but still has its visitors.

It was interesting to see that there were fewer bees attracted to the pale pink asters. (I know the name of this one – Symphyotrichum laeve ‘Les Moutiers’. But I have to admit that I did a cut and paste for the name, rather than try to spell it!) Some time ago, I read that bees prefer blue and purple-blue flowers. That was probably the reason why they didn’t bother with this pink one as much.

I noticed too, that there were a lot more honeybees than bumblebees, but that won’t be surprising if there’s a hive not very far away. There were also what appeared to be a couple of tiny dark-coloured bees, but they were too quick for me to get a good look at them. A couple of weeks ago I wrote that this hasn’t been a good year for insects in the garden, so it was a pleasure to see these late flowers so busy with pollinators. Let’s hope they’re even busier next year!

Hoverfly on Michaelmas daisies — A hoverfly settles for a quick snack.

(Almost) Silent Sunday: Pale and Pretty

October 8, 2023October 7, 2023 Ann Mackay18 Comments

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It’s the last bit of glorious weather here, so I am doing a post-and-run so that I can spend the time outside. Astrantia is still flowering in October. Its pale colours are a contrast with the dark astrantia flowers of this post.

Late Arrivals

October 1, 2023September 30, 2023 Ann Mackay28 Comments

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This year was a worrying one as far as tiny visitors to the garden went. In spring and early summer it definitely felt as if there were fewer bees and other pollinators around. Butterflies, too, seemed scarcer this year. Things improved in the later part of the summer and there were days when there were a fair number of insects around, but not as good as previous years.

Last winter was a very cold one, with much harder frosts than we usually get. Presumably, this must have made it harder for hibernating insects to make it through to spring. I’ve also read that last year’s drought didn’t help insect numbers. Hopefully the wetter summer this year will have produced an improvement.

It was a relief to see bees and butterflies appearing as the summer progressed. But there were some things that I didn’t see here, such as the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly in the photo below.

Peacock butterflies were a rare sight here too, but Red Admirals appeared in good numbers. (They are the commonest butterflies in my garden, along with the Cabbage Whites.) The largest number I saw was on a particularly sunny day, when about a dozen Red Admirals and a solitary Peacock were feasting on a buddleia. For a few warm days there were enough of them around to swirl past me whenever I walked along the path and brushed against our butterfly bushes.

Small tortoiseshell butterfly — Small Tortoiseshell butterfly photographed in a previous summer

There was an increase in dragonflies visiting – they have obviously become more aware of our pond. It was amusing to watch these fairly heavy creatures try to settle on the nearby stems of evening primrose, which quickly bent and swayed under their weight. To give them better lookout posts, I pushed some big birch twigs into the pots of a couple of the pond plants. I hope they appreciated them!

Although this appeared to be a poor year for insects, there are some signs of hope in the attitudes towards their welfare. I’ve noticed a lot more wild plants and food plants for bees and butterflies in garden centres and nurseries, a response to the growing interest in gardening for wildlife. And, much to my delight, our local council stopped mowing many grassy areas. This means that the green that runs in front of the houses here is being allowed to become wilder. I’m hoping that in a few years we’ll have a decent little wildlife meadow out there!

Hoverfly on potentilla flower — Hoverfly on potentilla

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. 🙂

Dainty and Delightful: Small-Flowered Clematis

September 17, 2023September 16, 2023 Ann Mackay21 Comments

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Clematis are amongst my favourite flowers – probably pretty close to the top of the list. The large-flowered varieties are sumptuous, with rich colours and beautiful flower forms. I’m always tempted to grow more of these wonderful plants. But the smaller-flowered cultivars are just as appealing. They may also be easier to fit into a wide variety of garden styles.

The large-flowered clematis can sometimes feel too showy for a more naturalistic planting style, or in a wilder part of a garden. Here the smaller-flowered clematis may be easier to use, sitting more comfortably with simpler, less highly-bred flowers. I can easily imagine the lovely little clematis in my top photograph growing through shrubs in my own garden. (I’d need to find out what it is first. This is a plant I saw in a garden I visited this year, as is the pink clematis below.)

Pink clematis flower — A stunning pink – possibly Clematis texensis ‘Princess Diana’

The pink clematis would need a bit of thought about positioning because it is such an eye-catching colour. It is very elegant, though, and wouldn’t look out of place in an informal planting. The deep blue/purple clematis below would probably look good almost anywhere. This one is ‘Sapphire Indigo’, bought many years ago at a plant fair. I haven’t seen it for sale anywhere since (although it is available online), which surprises me. It’s a lovely plant which sprawls rather than climbs, so I prop it up by leaning it against the branches of nearby shrubs. I should try to propagate it because I’d love to have more of it around the garden.

Clematis 'Sapphire Indigo' — Clematis ‘Sapphire Indigo’ in my own garden

The last clematis in this little gathering is ‘Lansdowne Gem’, which flowers in wintertime. It got thoroughly frosted last winter, which worried me a bit because I wasn’t sure if it would be hardy enough to cope with a long cold period. It does appear to have survived though, because I can see some new shoots appearing now. (Mine goes dormant in the heat of summer, so only starts to show signs of life around this time.) This is a pretty clematis, with dark red, occasionally speckled, flowers that are like little bells hanging down from the shrubs it climbs. Its flowers are something cheering to look forward to in the depths of winter.

(You can see more pictures in my post about ‘Lansdowne Gem’ here.)

Frosted flowers of Clematis 'Lansdowne Gem' — Frosted flowers of Clematis ‘Lansdowne Gem’

Late Sunshine

September 10, 2023September 9, 2023 Ann Mackay22 Comments

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Officially it’s autumn, but summer is determined to cling on here. Temperatures are breaking records for this time of year (over 30C for several days). So it feels appropriate to post a collection of bold yellows this week, a colour that makes me think of a child’s drawing of the sun.

The yellow lily demanded my attention as it gleamed in the sunlight and flaunted its brilliant colour against a dark background. It, and most of the other flowers here, were photographed during garden visits. (This spectacular lily was photographed at Fullers Mill, which I have posted about several times: here, another here, and again here.)

Left: evening primrose Right: yellow helenium — Left: evening primrose, right: helenium (sneezeweed)

The helenium (above, right) and the Anthemis daisies (below) were also photographed in other people’s gardens. I’ve visited a lot of gardens this year, making up for previous years when Covid caused the cancellation of many garden-openings. It has been a lot of fun and a great way to see plants I don’t grow here, many new to me.

The evening primrose shown above is the one flower here that was photographed in my own garden. It is Oenothera macrocarpa (Missouri evening primrose, bigfruit evening primrose), a low-growing perennial that sprawls happily in the dry soil here. The flowers of this evening primrose are a bit darker and a more lemony yellow than the taller evening primroses that also grow well here. Their flowers are larger too, opening in the afternoon and persisting well into the next morning before fading.

The last plant in this post, Anthemis tinctoria, is one that also grows in my own garden. Mine, however, is ‘E.C. Buxton’, which has much paler petals (actually ray florets). I don’t know what the cultivar in the photo here is, but I was impressed by the richness of its colour. Just the thing for a post inspired by sunshine!

Dark and Dramatic

September 3, 2023September 1, 2023 Ann Mackay20 Comments

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There are a couple of white astrantias in my own garden which are very pretty and delicate-looking. Lovely as they are, they don’t have the sultry and rather dramatic good looks of this astrantia, photographed in a garden I visited recently.

I don’t know the name of this particular astrantia cultivar. A quick look around with Google has shown me that there are now many cultivars in a range of pink, red and burgundy shades. All are stunningly beautiful, so you can imagine how tempted I am by them…nothing surprising there, hehe!

Fortunately for me, they don’t take up a huge amount of space, so I should be able to fit one or two in here. (But they do prefer a more moisture-retentive soil than we have, so a good addition of compost would be necessary first.)

Dark flowers and foliage have a strong appeal for me. They help to prevent borders from looking a bit too sweet and add a suggestion of mystery and moody allure. My only problem will be deciding which of the dark astrantias to go for!

Similar but Different: Orange and White Lilies

August 27, 2023August 26, 2023 Ann Mackay10 Comments

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It’s a fascination to me to see how diverse cultivars of the same flower species can be. If you think of something like dahlias, for instance, there’s a massive variation between their flower types. But even flowers that might sound the same when described can actually look quite different.

The lily flowers here are similar enough that when I reviewed my pictures after a garden-visit, I initially thought I had two sets of photos of the same plant. As soon as I paid them proper attention, I realised that they were in fact quite unalike. They have only superficial similarities of colour and flower shape.

At first glance, both lilies have swept-back (‘recurved’) petals and an orange and white colouration to their flowers. But a second look shows that the orange of the lily below is much softer and more muted than the one above. Additionally, the top lily has dark speckles on its petals and little bumps called ‘papillae’. (I’ve read that these papillae are important, because they secrete a substance that attracts insects. They are also exploited by lily breeders to produce a different look to flowers.)

I don’t grow lilies in my own garden (because I have cats and lilies would be a danger to them), so I don’t often get the chance to look at lily flowers very closely. Seeing and photographing them in other people’s gardens feels like a little voyage of exploration – one I enjoy tremendously! 🙂

Into the Blue: Agapanthus

August 20, 2023August 19, 2023 Ann Mackay21 Comments

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I’ve been very busy in both house and garden recently and haven’t had so much time for photography here. (There has been a lot of change in the garden, which has created plenty of work to do. At the same time, work on the house has meant lots of rearrangement and change there too.)

But I have made time to visit a number of local gardens, so I’ve photographed flowers in them instead. That’s good, because it allows me to photograph plants I couldn’t otherwise. However, this is one that I should have been able to photograph at home. I left it a bit late, and my own agapanthus had too many flowers that were starting to go over. Happily, I’d already photographed these in someone else’s garden.

These flowers are actually a stronger colour than mine, which are a much paler blue. The individual flowers are a good size too. I find that my agapanthus can sometimes produce very small flowers and I wonder if it’s because they aren’t getting enough moisture. (I should probably water them more often!) If that’s the case, the extra rain this summer will have been a big help.

The blues of agapanthus are absolutely lovely, but they have other colours that are beautiful too. I’ve seen a fabulous deep purple that I like (‘Black Jack’), and I’m also tempted by some of the paler purples and a white tinged with blue…I would need a bigger garden to fit them all in! 🙂