(click to enlarge to full size) This exotic looking Canna lily screams for attention with its rumpled vivid yellow and orange flowers amongst the spectacular green foliage with yellow-striped veins. A late summer / autumn flowering plant the Canna lily is a tender perennial which won’t survive the frosts, so dig up the bulb and…
change the way you feel
Recently there has been a lot of talk about the way in which gardening is helping people to change their lives: particularly people with mental health issues, disabilities or suffering from loneliness. Research has discovered that gardening can help reduce anxiety, improve cognitive recall, help with dementia, help combat isolation, improve physical health and stamina and…
Macro Monday #99
(click to enlarge to full size) Clerodendrum splendens (glory tree, flaming glorybower) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Clerodendrum of the family Lamiaceae, native to tropical Western Africa. It is a twining evergreen climber, growing to 3 metres (9.8 ft) or more, with panicles of brilliant scarlet flowers in summer. With a minimum temperature of 10 °C (50 °F), it…
Macro Monday #98
(click to enlarge to full size) Hemerocallis (daylilies) produce elegant, usually trumpet-like blooms in summer. They are rugged, adaptable, vigorous perennials that endure in a garden for many years with little or no care and come in all sorts of lovely colours.
Macro Monday #97
Indecision This bee couldn’t decide which flower to go for so ended up straddling two pretty blue Salvia plants.
Up the Garden Path
There are many different pathways through a garden, and I do spend a lot of time walking them as visiting gardens is my passion. Here are some I have trodden on over the years. Paths can lead us directly between borders on either side, or along terraced slopes, with steep or shallow steps, sometimes paved,…
Macro Monday #96
(click to enlarge to full size) Japanese Anemone (Anemone hupehensis) is a wonderful flower for the late summer and will grow in sun or shade so a good addition to the woodland border. The leaves are semi-evergreen and deeply cut and bring interesting texture to a herbaceous border. I just love the contrasting coronet of intense yellow…
Bee #7
The female red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) is a very large, black bumblebee with a big red ‘tail’. It is a social bee, nesting in old burrows, or under stones and can be found in gardens, farmland, woodland edges, hedgerows and heathland: anywhere there are flowers to feed on. This was spotted on some Asters (if I can…
Small is Beautiful…
(click to enlarge to full size – if you dare) The spider species Araneus diadematus is commonly called the European garden spider, diadem spider, cross spider, or crowned orb weaver. It is a dangerous time in the garden, whilst cutting down or pulling out dead and finished flowers you run the gauntlet of coming face-to-face with one…
Macro Monday #95
(click to enlarge to full size) Rosa x oderata Mutabilis is an old tea rose with a light fragrance. She is repeat flowering and ideal for hedging and loved by bees. The pointed flame-coloured buds, open to butterfly-like, coppery-yellow, single flowers on airy growth; changing to pink and finally coppery-crimson. Requires a warm, protected position.
