During the month of March, Becky, Queen of the Square format, is back. This month she would like to see anything spiky, jagged, bristly, serrated, prickly or barbed in whatever interpretation you like. The only rule: it must be a square.
March Squares
(click to enlarge to full size)
filigree
September’s colourful borders give way to seed heads and dying foliage in silvery greys and browns often silhouetted in the misty late autumn light.
“All the flowers of all the tomorrows
are in the seeds of today”~an Indian proverb
So what do you like best in October?
Honesty (Lunaria annua) is an annual which has lovely spikes of purple or white flowers in summer. In winter the seed pods are round (moon-shaped) and when the skin drops off to release the seeds, a lovely silver disc is left. Called ‘The Money Plant’, ‘Silver Dollars’, or ‘Chinese coins’.
This plant hails from Turkey where it grows in the wild. It flowers from May – September with multi tiered bi-coloured flowers. Russeliana is in honour of Dr Alexander Russell (c. 1715 – 1839), author of a natural History of Aleppo.
I like the intriguing structure of its faded multi-storey flower spikes which add a new dimension to the garden in the autumn and winter months.
Clematis orientalis ‘Bill MacKenzie’ and other tangutica varieties flower from early to midsummer. ‘Bill MacKenzie’ goes on looking good with lemon-coloured, lemon-peel-textured flowers and then their spidery, puffball seed heads into the late autumn
Cleamtis tangutica
Teasels are easily identified with their prickly stem and leaves, and the inflorescence of purple, dark pink or lavender flowers that form a head on the end of the stem(s). They make fine dried flowers for arrangements.
Teasel
Earth laughs in flowers 
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