plants – Page 28 – Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature

Pure Elegance

September 20, 2020 Ann Mackay26 Comments

The white flowers of passionflower ‘Constance Elliot’ have been gradually appearing over recent weeks. There are never many at a time, but the sprinkling of delicate blooms feels like something very special to me.

This climber has only been in the garden for a couple of years, so it will no doubt spread and have a greater number of flowers in time. That’s if it can come through the cold of the winter!

There’s something about growing plants that are not really hardy or are only borderline hardy in your area that makes it all the more exciting and satisfying when they survive and flower.

Having lived most of my life in Scotland, it was a surprise to find that we could grow such things as passionflowers and grapevines here in Suffolk – and a tempting novelty! (Of course, there are things we could grow in Scotland that won’t grow here – rhododendrons particularly.)

Right now I’m trying to work faster in the garden to get as much as I can done before the weather turns wet and windy and winter arrives. Autumn can be a busy time, with plants to be split and moved, but this year there is plenty more to do on the new pond border. I’ll probably find myself working outside through the better weather of winter too – there’s so much to do! But for the moment, I must remember to take the time to enjoy the beautiful flowers that appear so briefly in the garden, especially these passionflowers.

A Ray of Sunshine: Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’

August 23, 2020March 10, 2021 Ann Mackay19 Comments

At this stage of the summer, there are fewer flowers around for me to photograph. So I’m grateful that the perennial sunflower, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, has done well this year.

In previous years this plant has struggled to survive. It would really prefer to be growing in a more fertile soil with a bit more moisture. Instead, it’s in a rather impoverished area that was close to where the roots of the neighbours’ conifers must have been.

Those huge trees were taken out a couple of years ago and the border on this side has been slowly recovering ever since. I thought the heat and drought of this summer would make the helianthus suffer badly, so I remembered to give it an occasional thorough watering. And I’ve been well rewarded with a healthy plant that’s just a little taller than me and covered in radiant yellow flowers.

The bees seem happy with the result too, and have been busily visiting the flowers. (That pleases me especially, because I want to keep up the supply of flowers for the bees and other pollinators for as long as possible in the year.)

Maybe next year I’ll try growing some of the bigger annual sunflowers too, if I can find the space. Talking of space, I’m waiting to see how far this sunflower will spread – some say that it can be invasive. But for now, I’m very happy to see these sunny little flowers brightening up my garden and feeding the bees.

Honeybee on a flower of Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’

Hungry Critters 2: Butterflies

August 16, 2020February 19, 2021 Ann Mackay20 Comments

Recently I’ve been chasing around after butterflies to take part in the ‘Big Butterfly Count’. This is a UK survey where people from all over the country count the numbers of butterflies and some day-flying moths that they see in a 15-minute period.

(Actually counting the butterflies was quite tricky – some had to be ignored because they were too fast moving for me. A sudden flash of something brownish could be one of many butterflies. How frustrating!)

Small tortoiseshell butterfly — Small Tortoiseshell butterfly photographed in early summer.

Butterflies were being counted from the middle of July to the end of the first week in August. Anyone can take part in the butterfly count (the more the better) and from anywhere – gardens, parks, fields or forests.

The butterfly count was set up because butterflies are important as both pollinators and as part of the natural food chain, and because they react quickly to changes in their environment. A decline in butterfly numbers is a strong indication that other wildlife species are also struggling.

Unfortunately, because I was so busy with preparations for the fence being renewed, I only managed the one count right at the end of the survey. By then, there were only a few butterflies left in the garden – several Red Admirals, a couple of Commas and lots of Large Whites (which were probably taking advantage of the neighbours’ veggie patch).

Just a couple of weeks before I did my count, there had been around ten to a dozen Peacock butterflies sunning themselves on our brick path. I had hoped to be able to include them in my count but when the time came, they had all disappeared.

red admiral butterfly — A Red Admiral butterfly enjoying sedum flowers.

Nor were there any Painted Ladies or Essex Skippers, both of which I often see here. And I think that the Small Tortoiseshell that I photographed in May or June was part of an early brood. I haven’t seen any recently, so maybe there won’t be any from a later brood to overwinter here.

The variability of butterfly numbers here (and those that are scarce or just not seen in my garden) makes me feel that I need to do more to help. Like making sure I don’t weed out the food plants needed for caterpillars! (Nettles and other invasives may have to go in large tubs though.) And I need to do a bit of research to discover more plants that I can grow for butterflies. I hope that next year I’ll be able to count more butterflies in my garden.

Soft Blue: Himalayan Blue Poppy

August 2, 2020March 10, 2021 Ann Mackay17 Comments

This is a bit of a post and run today, because it has been a very busy time over the last week. It’s been frustrating not to have time to take new photographs, but hopefully I’ll be able to get back to doing what I love soon.

The photograph above is a flower I love to see – a Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis). It is frequently grown in Scotland, where the conditions suit it. (It looks wonderful near water, with trees and shrubs growing around it.)

I tried growing a couple of plants in our previous garden in Scotland, but they only lasted two or three years before dying out. At the time I thought I simply hadn’t kept them moist enough but I’ve learned since that they’re short-lived perennials. So maybe they wouldn’t have lasted a lot longer anyway.

There’s something about a plant being difficult to grow or hard to obtain that makes them all the more appealing to gardeners. I’m trying to learn to keep to plants that have a good chance in my very warm and dry garden (still a learning process). That means that I won’t be buying any blue poppies – they really wouldn’t like it here. But I can enjoy the memory of them.

The reason for being so busy this week is that we’re getting the garden ready for a contractor to come in and replace the fence around the garden. There’s far more to do than I had first realised and it seems to have taken a lot of time! Shrubs and trees have been cut back, lots of things, (including a large compost heap) have been moved and room still has to be found to store the new fence panels, posts and gravel boards…phew!

It will be a great relief to get this work done. The oldest part of the fence was blown down by gales in early spring. Since then it’s been cobbled together and propped up as best we can, so that the neighbours’ young dog can’t escape from their garden. (He managed it once, and had a lovely time playing and evading capture in our garden.) Originally the new fence was to be started mid-May – but Covid stopped it.

The job will take three weeks and there’s till plenty for me to do to create enough working space. After that I’ll be glad to get back to my photography and to planning some new planting!

Hot Spot: Echinaceas

July 26, 2020March 10, 2021 Ann Mackay21 Comments

There’s a small patch of border that’s become quite a hot-spot this year. Red, orange and magenta-pink echinaceas (coneflowers), red geums, dark red scabious and the deep reddish-purple leaves of a heuchera are the start of a new planting scheme that radiates warmth.

There hasn’t been much red or orange in the garden before. Most of the other areas are planted with softer colours. These include lots of pink and mauve flowers, with plenty of lavender-blues added into the mix.

I find that these gentle pinkish shades can be difficult to use near red or orange – they can end up looking washed-out and feeble. On the other hand, a bright magenta – like rose campion (Lychnis coronaria) – works just fine and adds its own intense colour to the fieriness of the new border.

It feels good to now have an area specifically for hot colours. Last year I had some tithonia (Mexican sunflowers) in that space, and I found that I really enjoyed the intense colour. The tithonia is annual, so this year I’ve planted perennials instead.

(Although I grow a few annuals, at the moment I’m trying to concentrate on perennials so that I don’t have too much re-planting to do every year.)

The only problem with echinaceas is that they are short-lived perennials. I’ve read that the older pink varieties appear to go on from year to year because they self-seed and their offspring continue the display after the original plants have died. (It was something of a relief to discover this, because I was worried that I couldn’t keep the plants alive for long – some years they just seemed to disappear for no apparent reason.)

Some of the new echinaceas are said not to come true from seed and may die out after a few years. If that’s the case with those that I’ve planted here, then, because the colours are so gorgeous, I won’t mind buying more. (I’d like to plant yellow echinaceas too – they would be a good alternative to rudbekias because they’re much more tolerant of drought.)

In contrast to these brightly-coloured daisies, I also have an echinacea which has white flowers with centres that start off green and turn yellow. (If I remember correctly, it’s ‘Powwow White’.) It has a very different look to the hot-coloured flowers and suits a softer, more relaxing colour scheme. I photographed this particular flower when it froze last winter – you can see it here: https://annmackay.blog/2019/11/24/frozen-flowers/

Pink and orange echinacea flowers. — Echinacea flowers in a mix of orange and magenta-pink.

Bad Hair Day?

July 5, 2020March 10, 2021 Ann Mackay22 Comments

I feel that this flower and I have something in common at the moment – a ‘hairdo’ that’s totally out of control! (At least I suppose I can blame mine on Covid!)

But the flower has a big advantage over me…it looks good with its strangely shaggy petals sticking out at odd angles. (Even if you might imagine that someone plugged it into the mains, cartoon-style!)

This is Dianthus ‘Rainbow Loveliness’, which I have previously photographed in the studio but not outside. The fringed petals make it an unusual and striking flower but they can make it more difficult to photograph in the garden.

The reason for this is that it can be difficult to isolate a single flower when it’s growing as part of a clump. And for this little dianthus, you do need to, if you want to be able to see the details of its complex shape. Otherwise, the fringed petals of the other flowers get in the way and create a confusing mass. (You can see what I mean in the bottom photo!)

I find that it’s useful to try propping the flower where there’s a plainer background using a thin cane and a clothes peg. And using a larger aperture to give a shallow depth of field helps too. But it is much easier for me to pick the flower and bring it into the studio where it’s easier to isolate it. (That’s one of the reasons why I tend to do a lot of my flower photographs there – and I don’t have to worry about the wind blowing the flower around either.) So I’m still planning to try to get some of the pink flowers into the studio – when they come back into flower!

You can see the studio photograph from last year here: https://annmackay.blog/2019/12/15/dianthus-rainbow-loveliness/

Evening Primroses: Ethereal Beauty

June 28, 2020March 10, 2021 Ann Mackay19 Comments

The heat of the last week has made working in the garden during the day very difficult. So I’ve spent most evenings out there instead.

A perk of this change has been seeing the evening primroses at their best. The pale yellow flowers show up well even as the light starts to fade, looking delicate and ghostly above the shadowy foliage of the border.

But before it gets too dark, it’s worth taking a close look at the detail of the flowers. The long stamens and style, with its large, cross-shaped stigma are elegant and give a distinctive look to this evening primrose. (I believe it’s Oenothera stricta ‘Sulphurea’, a short-lived perennial.)

The evening primrose below is a different plant – this one is Oenothera macrocarpa. It’s much shorter and has darker yellow flowers, which stay open for longer. (They’ve been open all day here today, perhaps because it has been cool and rainy for a change.)

I hope that macrocarpa will self-seed around my garden the way Oenothera stricta does. They are drought tolerant and great for moths and early-morning bees, so they’ll be welcome wherever they pop up. I shall be sprinkling some of the seeds around as they ripen to give them a little help.

And before I go, I must just give this link for anyone who fancies a bit of armchair garden-visiting: https://ngs.org.uk/virtual-garden-visits/

The NGS is the National Gardens Scheme in the UK, which holds open days in private gardens aid of charities. (Mostly nursing and health charities, so particularly appropriate this year.)

Because the gardens have been unable to open to the public, they have posted videos of them instead. (Though now many of the gardens are starting to be able to open.) There are lots of excellent garden videos there, so I hope you enjoy them!

Crumpled Silk: Oriental Poppies

June 21, 2020March 10, 2021 Ann Mackay12 Comments

Somehow it feels as if the summer is moving fast. It’s all the fault of the flowers in my garden. (Well, just some of them!)

One day the opening flowers of a plant are teasing you with a flash of colour as they strain to pop out of the confinement of their buds. And just a few days later they’re already gone, leaving you with just a passing memory.

Oriental poppies are amongst the fastest-moving. From that first hint of the glorious petals as the flower emerges, to the rounded seed-head, takes hardly any time.

But the crumpled silk flowers with their dark and mysterious centres are so gorgeous that their short life is something special for me. Nothing in my garden can match the flamboyance or drama of these prima donna blooms and every year I excitedly await the moment that they will open.

The poppy in the top photograph is ‘Patty’s Plum’, a very popular cultivar. The second photograph is of a poppy that was labelled ‘Lilac Girl’, but is really a pretty pink rather than lilac. I tried Googling this plant, but could find little information on it, other than that it may be a seedling of Patty’s Plum. In any case, it’s a lovely flower, and I shall look forward to seeing it again next year.

Papaver orientale 'Lilac Girl' — Papaver orientale, said to be ‘Lilac Girl’

Early Summer Clematis

June 14, 2020March 10, 2021 Ann Mackay19 Comments

The clematis above (Guernsey Cream) was planted just last year. I had forgotten that it flowered early in the year, so it was a happy surprise to see lots of buds already beginning to open last month. I’m hoping that it will flower again in late August too.

The petals of this clematis have a green bar down the centre that is more strongly coloured if the plant has shade. In this particular flower, the bar marking wasn’t very pronounced. Instead, there was more of an overall green tinge which faded to cream as the flower aged.

Like many other pale-coloured clematis, strong sun makes the flower colour fade. So if you want to preserve the colour of a delicately-hued clematis, plant it somewhere that gives it some shade.

Unfortunately, Clematis ‘Multi-Blue’ has struggled this year. I planted it in an unsuitable position in the hottest part of the garden. Even with a bit of shading at its roots, the plant gets baked by the sun all day. When it’s windy, as it has been recently, it gets even more dried out. Lesson learned! I shall take a bit more care with future plantings.

‘Ernest Markham’ (below) is doing much better. Apparently this one can grow to 4 metres high, so it may take over in the shrub border behind it…I won’t mind if it does.

After weeks of drought and high temperatures, we’ve had a few days of wonderful, life-giving rain. It’s such a relief! And all the plants, including the clematis, are doing much better for it. The moist soil makes it possible to dig in the garden again and I’ll make sure to create some good planting-places for future clematis purchases. There are sure to be some!

Allium Christophii: Star of Persia

June 7, 2020March 10, 2021 Ann Mackay27 Comments

We’ve just had our first little bit of rain in weeks. The garden has been desperately dry, with small cracks appearing in the ground in the worst areas. So this rain is a huge relief!

At the same time, we’ve had the sunniest May here since records began in 1929. Wonderful for sitting out in and giving us lots of flowers everywhere, but making it even harder to keep up with watering.

Many plants have suffered in the heat, but a few have coped well. One of the best has been Allium christophii, which seems quite unbothered by drought. As long as it gets lots of sunshine and has well-drained soil, it’s happy.

The allium leaves become yellowed and dead-looking by the time the flowers open. These can to be hidden by planting the bulbs with something that they can grow up through.

When the allium flowers are over, there are the lovely dry seed heads to give an interesting display for the rest of the summer. You may find seedlings if you leave the heads – or you can just cut the heads and bring them indoors to display. (Allium christophii will also multiply by bulb offsets.)

One big bonus of growing alliums is that they’re highly attractive to bees. I’m trying to increase the number of good plants for pollinators and other insects in my garden, so these really earn their place.

These alliums are well settled in my garden. I have two areas where there are spreading clumps of them and it’s a delight to see the flowers increasing every year. They’re so pretty that I won’t mind if they get a bit invasive. That just means that there will be more for me to photograph!