Friday Smile

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for visiting, it's much appreciated. And a very happy Friday to you all.

This red campion, Silene dioica, is flowering beautifully in our wild flower patch. And that is really something to smile because it seems to be one of the areas in the garden that has benefited from the neglect of this last year. I think it's interesting that this flower is named as red and not the pink it quite clearly is. There is, though, always a good reason for wildflower names and, for this one its all to do with the English language of olden days. When this plant got it's common name, there was no word for the colour pink, that came much later. So red campion it was then, and still is today.

That's it from me today.

Have a lovely weekend and take care.

In A Vase On Monday - Autumn Forage

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday was such a perfect autumnal day - cool but bright, sunny and dry - we took a walk along the riverside, and for once I remembered to take the scissors with me in the hope of finding material for today's vase.

There's was plenty to tempt me but, as part of the walk was through the university campus, on one bank of the river, I resisted some very tempting berries and instead cut some holly with berries, wild rose hips and ivy flowers from the bank on the other public walkway.

Once home, I popped into the garden where I found red cotoneaster,berries, silvery honesty seedheads (Lunaria annua), more red in the dogwood stem and leaves (Cornus alba 'Siberian Pearls'). A great surprise was to find a couple of flower clusters on the golden hop (Humulus lupulus 'Aureus'). This hop has been growing in a pot for something like eight years and this is the first time it has flowered.

And because the colours were perfect, I added the last bud from the rose 'Hot Chocolate' and the last three blooms from Echinacea 'Tomato Soup'.

I couldn't resist picking up these feather found on the walk to add to my very own 'nature table' (actually the top of a bookcase). Ever since my primary school days I have enjoyed having a nature table. The black and white striped one looks as though it came from a magpie and the other could be from a collared dove. Both birds are frequent visitors in our garden though they don't usually lose their feathers there..

While in the garden I picked some bright asters (the pink one is Aster novai-angliae 'Andenken an Alma Potschke' and the purple is a dwarf form, name forgotten) and clematis flowers which I popped into another vase with a sprig of Viburnum 'Eve Price'.

Clematis 'Barbara Dibley'.






Hope you enjoyed my vases today. It's surprising what can still be found when out autumn foraging, whether it is in the garden or in the wild. I forgot to mention that the rose hips were found growing on the sand dunes down on the beach - not a place I associate with roses.



I will be joining in and adding a link to this post over at Rambling in The Garden for Cathy's lovely meme, In A Vase On Monday.

Have a marvellous Monday,

In A Vase On Monday - Wildflowers and Apple Blossom

Hello Everyone,

It's Monday again! Where does the weekend go? Still, being Monday is not all bad. At least we get to join in with Cathy's In A Vase On Monday and that's got to be good.

Most of the flowers in my vase today were found in the wildflower patch. Last year I sowed some mixed seed packets which contained mostly annuals such as poppies, papaver rheoas and orientale , corn marigolds, glebionis segetum, and corncockles, Agrostemma githago, but the list of contents did contain the names of a few biennials. Of course, I totally forgot about that! One of the lovely advantages of being forgetful is that it's been a wonderful surprise to discover a few new wildflowers popping up here and there in the patch.

For example, this red campion, Silene dioica,  - a little flower that holds memories in it's wee pink petals of spring holidays in North Yorkshire where the hedgerows were a delight to see. Also in the mix is a few sprays of London Pride, saxifraga × urbium, and a little piece from our very young gum tree, eucalyptus.

Again this week, because it is so pretty, there's dames violet, hesperis matronalis. Another name for this flower is sweet rocket, very apt because it is deliciously scented. I've added one deep purple aquilegia ... I'd love to tell you the variety but the label has long gone ... and a couple of stems of apple blossom. Last year we had very little blossom and only two apples but it was the first year of planting. This year the tree is covered in blossom and I have high hopes for a bumper harvest, so don't think pinching a few blossoms is too bad.

Tucked in under the flowers are a couple of sprigs of feverfew, tanacetum parthenium, which has happily seeded around the rose bed. The three orange/yellow geums are survivors from last week's vase. The colour is a bit of a mystery because according to my records these are Mrs Bradshaw, a red variety. Another mystery to me is the brown coloured brush shaped flower you can see in the shot above. It is another surprise from the seed packets but I have absolutely no idea what it is called. Any ideas?

Once I picked my little posy of wildflowers it seemed appropriate to plonk arrange them into a vase that is decorated with some of my favourite Scottish wildflowers.

It's taken me since this morning to complete this post. So many interruptions and distractions, if you can call the mountain of ironing, of Ben Nevis proportions, a distraction. I think perhaps I should take a leaf out of Sam's, A Coastal Plot, and cheat a little by doing it all Sunday evening but then there's usually something else distracting me then too ... sigh!

As usual, thanks to Cathy for hosting this friendly meme.

Happy gardening,

Blooming April + Our Wildlife Corridor

Good Evening Everyone,

Today has been glorious and too good a day to spend indoors - especially here on the west coast of Scotland, an area notorious for its wet climate. So I took a wee stroll round my tiny plot with my camera at the ready. The first thing I spotted was this auricula. Years ago the Under Gardener built an auricula theatre so that I could indulge my passion for these little beauties. Sadly, this is the only one I have - our local garden centres/nurseries don't seem to cater for auricula lovers. However, this one rewards me with it's pretty crimson and cream flowers year after year. Here are a few more of the flowers in bloom now.


Bellis in a window box



Wallflower among the poppy leaves



Pot grown Pieris Forest Flame

This Pieris has never had so much blossom on it - truly the best it has ever done in the 13 years it's been growing.


Red/white striped tulip

Sadly, I've forgotten the name of these tulips but they have survived in a pot over the last three very harsh winters. We have lost another pot and I do mean lost - I've looked all over the garden and it's nowhere to be seen. I suspect the Under Gardener got carried away with some over zealous clearing up in the autumn : (  


Golden Hop

And last but not least - our wildlife corridor.


The wild flower border

Last year we took over this unloved patch which is not strictly in our garden but borders on the communal path behind our house. It's owned and neglected by the local council but as our bins are kept there we kept it tidy. After seeing a programme on the desirability of creating wildflower areas to provide a wildlife corridor it seemed a good idea to plant this patch up with wildflowers. The soil is really poor as it is under some huge fir trees but we dug it over as best as we could - difficult work because it had been trampled on for years. I mixed up lots of packets of seeds, mostly wildflowers but a lot of annuals and even some perennials too, and broadcast them over the patch. Watered them in and left the rest to mother nature. Last summer it was covered in poppies but this is the first spring and look at the wallflower - I didn't expect that! The smell is divine and the insects are loving it too : )

If you've got this far, thank you for staying and I hope you enjoyed seeing my blooming garden!

Take care and good night.