September | 2019 | Cardesque Garden

We had a lovely day day of sunshine yesterday and today is warm and sunny too. Sadly that won’t last but at least it has been nice weather to do some gardening in. I have been ripping out a few old rather scraggy looking ferns that were just filling some space until I got some new plants. So some lovely new ferns have now been planted out, some of them have coppery tones, some are small spreading ones, one is silvery coloured and one is for a hole in the wall. Can’t wait to see how they come on next year. I really wanted to tackle the viburnum bodnantense dawn as some of the older stem/trunks are very gnarled and really aught to come out but I will have to be patient and do that late winter/early summer after it has had it’s main flowering season.
I finally managed to get a quick snap on my phone camera of the Speckled wood butterfly. Wow are they flighty! I have spotted quite a few speckled woods this year and as far as I know they have green caterpillars. I also spotted a Grey dagger moth caterpillar (just molting it’s skin I think). It brings back childhood memories of when I used to sit beneath our very small tree in our back garden, with my collection of these these bright caterpillar on my face! I know it was a strange thing to do, but at least I put them all back where I found them.

Pararge aegeria (speckled wood butterfly)

Acronicta psi (Grey dagger moth) caterpillar

sunshine and showers. For the last couple of months it has been showery weather, but you never know if you are going to get a quick sprinkle of a shower, or a heavy ninja shower. Some parts of the garden are moist, whereas the areas under the tree canopies are so dry they are cracking up. I am going to have to get the hose out even in the rain! Lots of plants going over now but some are hanging on.

It was the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club Annual Flower Show at the weekend and it was a great day. Jolly hard work but worth it all in the end. Back in April I photographed my streptocarpus and button fern plants and some snails. I entered those at the show and woohoo…the streptocarpus won 1st prize in that class, and the button fern won 1st class in the foliage pot. My pot of leaf celery won the pot of herbs class, and the snail photo got me 2nd prize in the photography class. I also got a prize for my handicraft but did not do very well on my vases of perennials, vase of foliage, and single rose. It was nice to see the riot of colour of all the entries for the floral art and vases of flowers.

Early one morning in august, I took a quick snap, with my phone camera, of a couple of foxy visitors. I always like to see them in the garden. They don’t come into the garden very often now. I haven’t been quick enough to get good photos of the butterflies, but again, I got a quick snap, with my phone camera, of a peacock butterfly as it rested on the path in front of me. All those lovely flowers and it settles on the path.

I have been trying to get to grips with my mirror-less camera so took various shots of a cactus flower as it went from bud to full flower. These flowers go over very quickly, sometimes lasting just a day, but they smell absolutely wonderful, filling the whole conservatory with scent just from one single flower. I have only ever had 2 flowers on the same cactus at one time. The hoya bella has strange little flowers that feel quite waxy and give a lovely scent, but he petals look almost furry. Previously I had a hoya bella that was quite compact and I hung it up so that I could see the flowers that dangle facing downwards. but I was given this one which is more like a triffid with only a few very long stems and not many flowers. I am not sure what to do with it really – I could wrap the long stems around a frame I guess. The cyclamen in the conservatory are starting to wake up and flower now. The big old one is much slower at waking up but I am so glad that it is still alive and well. It may be old and craggy but it flowers well.

Well it is sunny at the moment but we are getting ready for the next lot of heavy rain. Sigh!