Finally…

fox, wildlife

got a picture of the little fox that has been visiting the garden.  It pops over from the next door neighbours and through the gap between the trellis and next door’s garage.  After a wee bit pottering around it nips back over again but I have never had my camera with me when it is about until today.
One day, while I was topping up the pond with the hose, it heard the splashing noise and came to investigate.  It looked at me, and then the pond, then went back to it’s own business again.  What a cutie!

fox, wildlife,
Little fox

Brrrrrr it’s chilly out there!

frost, plants

So today is the first time the bird bath has frozen completely this winter, however, the pond is ok as it is situated lower than the bird bath.  I still wouldn’t like to be a little bird bathing in the pond today though.  As much as I detest being cold, I do love the patters that the frost makes on the different leaves. Hairy leaved plants pick up the frost sparkles on the tiny hairs, whereas the smoother leaves have frosted edges.  Others can have frosty highlights on prominent veins.  As a kid growing up without central heating and no double glazing, I adored the frost patterns on the inside of the windows in winter.  This morning I braved the cold to get a few snaps of some frosty leaves.  My hands were shaking a bit so they are a little out of focus.

patio,
Frozen bird bath
plants,
Frosty clematis Pixie
plants,
Frosty acer palmatum Garnet
plants,
Frosty hairy leaved thyme
plants,
Frosty tierella

Out with the old…

Uncategorized

and in with the new.  Yes I know it is a bit early for all that but I have noticed that the older branches of my Viburnum x Bodnantense ‘Dawn’ are getting rather gnarly even though they are still flowering well.  The nice young branches have fewer flowers but are lovely and sleek.  The perfume from the flowers is wonderful, and the colour change in the foliage is going from green to dull purple/claret right now.  It is situated in the raised bed and one side get more sunshine than the other and it is quite obvious which side is which.  The sunny side has more flowers and the colour change is more obvious on that side too.  I am going to have to remove some of the older trunks and branches to rejuvenate it.  We did start doing this last year but need to take out more next year once it has stopped flowering.  The Rowan, Sorbus hupehensis ‘Pink pagoda’, foliage is changing to red and has pink berries on it, and the Acer palmatum disectum ‘Garnet’ is turning bright red.  However my Acer Shirasawanum Auereum has gone from lovely bright green edged in pink to crinkly, brown, not very pretty right now.

plants,flowers,
Viburnum new growth
plants, flowers,
Viburnum old branch
plants,
Sorbus hupehensis ‘Pink pagoda’
plants,
Acer palmatum disectum ‘Garnet’

Autumn is approaching…

ferns, flowers, plants

and things are gradually slowing down in the garden. When I first started the stumpery area, I filled in a lot of spaces with ferns (soft shield ferns I think) with the intention of replacing some of them later with different plants.  Some of these ferns are huge now and are really outgrowing the space or hiding other plants, and not just in the stumpery. So, at the weekend, my husband dug out one of them from beside the ramp and replaced it with Persicaria amplex Blackfield – I love the colour of the flowers.  I just hope it isn’t going to become a thug.  I have another 5 or 6 of the same ferns so I will ask hubby to divide a couple of them so at least they will be smaller, and completely dig up the rest so I can buy some new plants for the spaces.  He also dug out the Rosa rugosa which has been a big disappointment.  It has been there for 3 years and only produced 3 roses!  All the rest of the growth has been hight and suckers. I would really like another rose there but it is just too shady, unless I can persuade our next lot of neighbours to chop down their rather large shrubs and trees.  I have acquired a bench to put in the dry shady area at the back of the garden but as not a lot will grow in deep dry shade so I will have to think about what else to put around the bench.  The corner wall is in need of repair but again I will have to wait and speak to our new neighbours.  The trouble with that is that the actual owners are planning on splitting that house and garden into two, but they haven’t actually started any work yet so I may have a heck of a long wait for that work to be done and the house sold.

At the Annual flower show last weekend my little Davallia canariensis Hare’s foot fern) won an award!  Not only did it win first prize for the foliage plant section, but it got the Jones trophy for best exhibit in pot pants too. Dead chuffed.  I am so glad I scrubbed the pot the night before and took off the not-quite-so-attractive fronds.

plants, ferns,
Ramp with overgrown fern to the right.
plants, flowers,
Ramp now with Persicaria amplex Blackfield
plants, ferns, foliage,
Davallia canariensis and Jones trophy

Duddingston Garden club Annual Flower Show …

flowers, plants

getting some plants ready to sell at the annual flower show.   There are: tiarellas, chives, rosemary, lavender, ferns, fuschias, grasses, sempervivums and a couple of unknown things that just popped up in the garden.  The weather isn’t looking that great though and some ninja showers on the way so it might put people off coming.  Shame we had to get rid of the greenhouse due to the neighbours high trees and the golf course trees as I am having to do all my propagation in the conservatory and on the garden table.  I keep having to move them to under the table outside when the heavy rains are due and bring them back out again once they have passed.  I was going to put a couple of plants in the show myself but my Streptocarpus saxorum  only has 3 flowers on it and my roses are either just gone over or just not quite open enough.  I may put my little Hare’s foot fern into the foliage section.

plants, flowers,
Plants ready for the sale.

A few wee snippets…

Uncategorized

I read somewhere that wasps feed on nectar and take insects back to the nest to feed the larvae as the larvae need protein.  I sat watching a wasp in the conservatory pulling wings from a hover fly (and the head too I think) then rolled it up into a neat package and flew off with it. This year there have been a lot of wasps around the pond and the bird bath to drink and I have had to save quite a few after they have fallen in.  I did put a stone in the birdbath and that helped a bit , but when they land on the duck weed in the pond it sometimes doesn’t support them, and they don’t appear to be able to fly away from the surface tension of the water.  I also read somewhere that if you want to keep them away when you are eating al fresco, they don’t like peppermint oil so keep some handy.  They might only after something sweet so maybe just leave a saucer of jam out just for them away from where you are sitting.  Or they might be after the ham inside your sandwich to take to feed their larvae.  I have watched them cut a small bit from my salad.
I spotted some brown spider’s webs in amongst the ferns.  All those spores falling on them make them look really tatty and dusty even with some of the nija showers we have been getting.
I also spotted a mushroom on a log at the back of the stumpery.  Someone else has spotted it too and had a nibble.  I have no idea what type it is and it looks a different colour when the sun shines on it.  Brown on the top in the sunshine, but a dark grey when the clouds come over.
We have had a few showers lately, which the garden and the pond desperately needed so things are looking a little fresher and less arid now.

wildlife,
wasp with hover fly
wildlife,
spore covered cobwebs
plants,fungi,stumpery,
in the sun
fungi,olants,stumpery,
in the shade

Cyclamen are stirring…

flowers, plants

into life already.  Most of my garden cyclamen are flowering already and it is only the beginning of August.  I can’t find any of my white ones but only the pink ones in flower.  In the conservatory the small tubers are flowering but my huge ancient tuber is still totally dormant.  I have potted it on and the soil was quite damp so I am hoping it is ok.  As promised in  January  I measured the tuber and it is roughly 12.5cm at it’s widest and 10.5cm at it’s narrowest and it old and craggy looking.  I plant it quite proud of the soil level with a moat around it so it doesn’t get water on the top. I bought some small ones last year  they looked like a really dark burgundy colour, but this year they have come out  red.  Still attractive though.

plants,flowers, seeds,
Cyclamen seed pods
plants,flowers,
Cyclamen neapolitanum ?
plants,flowers,
indoor cyclamen tuber
plants,flowers,
Cycalmen that was meant to be dark burgundy.

It’s all fairly quiet here…

birds, squirrel, wildlife

just waiting for some rain that was promised.  I thought we were going to get thunder storms and lots of rain so I brought in all the small pots of  cuttings for the next charity sale, hid some others under the bench where they wouldn’t get water-logged, and put a large trug under the garden table (under the hole where the parasol should go) to collect lots of rain water to help top up the pond.  Sadly, we only had a short shower so just collected a dribble of water.  The back area of the garden under the golf course trees is still like sand! Back to blue skies and that horrid muggy feeling. Just sitting, watching the world go by just now and planning what needs to be tackled next in the garden.  Doing a bit of dead-heading, cutting back, and getting a few weeds out today.  There are some young squirrels about who are making little holes everywhere, and young crows making a heck of a racket waiting to be fed by mum.  This photo shows a young squirrel in amongst a pot plant, a crow collecting seed on the small tray feeder, and a young pigeon waiting for it’s turn on the feeder.

wildlife, birds, squirrel,
Squirrel, crow and pigeon.

I need more of…

plants

these Verbascums.  I was promised (years ago now) that the the plants I bought would flower at the same time: Cirsium rivulare Atropurpureum, Papaverorientale ‘Patty’s plum’ and Verbascum chaxii album.  But in fact, in my garden, the Cirsium come up first and flower for a good while, then the poppies and now the Verbascum.  The poppies are over and have been chopped back as they were straggly and the Cirsium are going over and have only a few flowers left.  The Verbascum is now looking a bit lonely.  This year I will take root cuttings and hopefully get a few more and make a good clump.  The Verbascum ‘Raspberry ripple’ is flowering a bit strangely this year.  In previous years, the flowers at the base opened first the the gradually the others would open from base to the top.  This year some are open at the base, some open half way up and some at the top.  I do have a space to fill beside them so I would like to take root cuttings of these ones too.
We have had a couple of visitors at the base of the red rose Erotica under the bird feeder: brown rats.  At first I saw a large rat on the tray feeder but now I have seen two young ones, bold as brass, getting the fallen seed and running behind the pond.  I don’t need more of them!

plants,flowers,
Verbascum chaxii album
plants,flowers,
Verbascum Raspberry ripple 2010
plants,flowers,
Verbascum Raspberry ripple close-up
plants,flowers,
Verbascum Raspberry ripple 2018
wildlife,
young rat

The new bread bath…

birdbath

apparently it isn’t a bird bath any more!  I haven’t seen any birds bathing in it these day as the pond has a nice shelf for them to use instead.  They do still drink at it, but nowadays the crows bring along their food and dump it in the water to soften it.  I have to clean it out 2 or 3 times a day and more if the pigeons  poop in it!  Normally they bring sliced bread or rolls but I have also seen noodles, left over chicken drumsticks, unidentifiable things with traces of blood.  And once the birdbath was black because they had dumped a whole slice of burnt toast in it!  I only ever put seeds and peanuts out for the birds, because leftover food  attracts vermin, so they are getting it from neighbours or further afield.  Yesterday a parent crow took lots of seed from the bird table then took a drink from the water bowl with his beak full, then fed a youngster with it.    Once, a crow brought down a large roll and dropped it in the birdbath, saw me watching and got a fright so flew onto the garage roof.  By the time he turned around a magpie had swooped in and stolen his soggy roll.  He looked down in disbelief that it had vanished in a mater of seconds.  The roll was so soggy that half of it fell all over a plant on the patio.  The big birds, such as the crows, magpies and jackdaws, like to bathe in the dog’s water bowl instead of the birdbath as it is deeper.  The pigeons now bathe in the pond and leave grey scum on the surface.

birdbath,
Birdbath with a sliced bread in it.
birdbath,
Birdbath with a roll in it.