During September I want to see your favourite flowers.
(This month I’m looking at flower portraits – showcase a flower that you are particularly fond of or one that is unusual)
The Chilean Lantern Tree (Crinodendron hookerianum) is unsurprisingly a genus from Chile. Crinodendron are evergreen shrubs or small trees, with leathery, dark green leaves and nodding, urn-shaped flowers in the leaf axils. It usually flowers May – August and is fairly hardy. I have one growing in my garden, but it only had three or four flowers this year, though at the time of writing this (end August) I have noticed several new flowers forming!
Chilean lantern tree
If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂
Create your own post and title it September: Flower Portrait
Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in October.
Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.
This is the last week to showcase your favourite flowers. Next month we will be looking at beautiful gardens – share with us what is special about your favourite garden. Don’t forget this can be your own garden or any garden from around the world. You can post one photo, or since I am very greedy, several photos from the garden. If it is a public garden then please include details of how to get there. I look forward to visiting new places with you.
During September I want to see your favourite flowers.
(This month I’m looking at flower portraits – showcase a flower that you are particularly fond of or one that is unusual)
‘Velvet-Sage’ (salvia-leucantha) is an evergreen subshrub to 1.2m in height, with narrowly lance-shaped leaves white beneath, and small white flowers with conspicuous downy purple clayces. Also known as Mexican Bush Sage. It is definitely a plant you want to reach out and stroke!
Salvia-leucantha-‘Velvet-Sage’
If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂
Create your own post and title it September: Flower Portrait
Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in October.
Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.
One of the places I wanted to visit whilst in Edinburgh is a much lesser known garden than the Botanic Gardens and on a much smaller scale. Having read about it I was intrigued by the concept of this unusual garden and the symbolism of the planting. Fortunately it is very close to the Waverley railway station where a certain Restless One (aka Jo) had to catch her train back to Hartlepool. She had generously agreed to meet me for the day and it was also close to the Cafe Royal which she had earmarked for supper, though being extremely crowded we actually nipped next door to the Guildford Arms and ate there. Both are very much worth a visit for the delightful architecture, but probably best avoided at 5 pm on a Friday!
The Restless One – she has a thing about steps!
The Archivists’ Garden links the three buildings that surround it: The National Archives of Scotland, the General Register Office for Scotland and the Court of Lord Lyon which together maintain the history of Scotland. The garden illustrates the links between plants and Scotland’s collective memory.
Agapanthus and heather
Verbena bonariensis – Vervain
Agapanthus – African Blue Lily
The 57 plants in the garden are somehow linked to Scottish history and culture. Some were introduced from other parts of the world and so the beliefs attached to them have come from different cultures.
The plants have been organised under seven distinct headings: Birth, Death, Marriage, Heraldry, Tartan, Famous Scots and Homecoming. Since the human mind stores memories rather randomly, the garden has been planted in bands so that it flows and curves.
Birth
Apple (Malus Domestica) and Pear (Pyrus communis) have been associated with love, birth and fertility. The birth of a child was often marked in many cultures by the planting of an apple tree for a boy and a pear tree for a girl.
Crab Apple – Malus x robusta (Birth, Marriage, Death)
Death
The origin of the growing of daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) in a churchyard comes from the association of the flower with the Greek god of the underworld – Hades. St John’s Wort(below) is a medieval fertility aid also associated with birth, death and marriage.
Hypericum – St John’s Wort (Birth, Death, Marriage)
Marriage
The almond (Prunus dulcis) has long been associated with weddings, hence the use of almonds as ‘favours’ and in wedding cakes. It arrived in Britain in the 16th century and is associated with Cybele, the goddess of fertility.
Heraldry
Flowers often appear in heraldry, especially in the badges of Highland clans. Bell heather (Erica cinerea) is the plant badge of the Clan McDougall. White heather the clan badge of the Macphersons.
Tartan
Dark blue and black dyes could be produced from the root of the Iris (Iris pseudacorus). Bright green comes from the leaves.
Flag Iris
Famous Scots
The leaves of Bear’s Breeches (Acanthus spinosus) appear around the capitals of the classic Corinthian columns. This feature was greatly loved by Scottish architect Robert Adam (1728-1792). It was also used in his design of the General Register House.
Acanthus / Bear’s breeches
Homecoming
The Commonfoxglove (Digitalis purpurea) was often taken abroad by emigrants as a symbol of their homeland. It was traditionally associated with witches and fairies and as a source of folk medicine before being used by doctors to treat heart conditions.
Many of the plants in the garden have associations with several of the categories and a list of all the plants can be found in The Archivists’ Garden which was conceived and coordinated by David R Mitchell, Curator at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, who also researched and produced the interpretation. It was designed by Gross Max using his plant palette.
Another hoverfly this time visiting a self-seeded parsley plant which I think looks lovely when in flower. I hope to collect some of the seeds and scatter them in the herb garden where hopefully they will emerge next spring.
