Blogs

Hen and Chicks poppy with a bee and hoverfly. When I took the photo, it was of the hoverfly. It was only when I was processing the photo, I saw the bee as well on the right.

hoverfly and I think there's a bee behind below

Hen and Chicks poppy with a bee

purple loosestrife with bees

Lauren's Grape poppies

Amazing Grey poppies

lupins (left) and echium Blue Bedder (right)

white dwarf mallow (Malva neglecta)

pillbug in the middle of moulting, as I watched it, that white bit on the right came off

Amazing Grey poppies - variable shades of colour

possibly Hen and Chicks poppy

the bees have discovered the purple loosestrife, there were 3 bees on them but I only captured 2 in the photo

the bees have discovered the veronica, there were 3 bees on it but I only captured 1 in the photo

greater knapweed

Little Dorrit sunflower

garden catnip (Nepeta faassenii) on the left with purple flowers, catnip (Nepeta cataria) on the right with white flowers

mallow, I think, from wildflower seeds

mallow, I think, from wildflower seeds

Centaurea dealbata with a dandelion self-seeded on it / in it, doesn't look like it will be able to bloom, certainly no sign of a flower stem

bee on heleniums

the heleniums have survived the slugs and snails last year

bee on lupin

marsh mallow

pink dandelion (Crepis rubra)

bread-seed poppy

the slugs and snails ate this flower stem on the hosta and it has collapsed

my fox and Rocky

Victor using a piece of stone edging as a pillow

Scarecrow

greater knapweed, one of my favourite wildflowers, I'm lucky enough to have it in my garden

monarda Cambridge Scarlet

marsh mallow, blooming

purple loosestrife

hosta flower

bud on the self-seeded shoo-fly

Amazing Grey poppy

14 hollyhocks planted out, 5 more to somehow get into rock-hard ground

that plant with the red flower was already in the garden, the lone survivor or the hollyhock weevil, ox-eye daisy and drought

while I was planting out the hollyhocks, I noticed these leaves and didn't recognise them, also, sadly, damaged them by accident but the slugs and snails have also had a go, finally realised a few days later - melancholy thistle, which I have in the back garden, how it self-seeded int he front, I don't know

I planted out the small morning glory Heavenly Blue plants into larger pots, 4 in a pot

bread-seed poppy

Amazing Grey poppies

marsh mallow, one of my more successful grown-from-seed plants

crocosima, I had no crocosima flowers last year because of the drought but this year I do have a few flowers - they are still struggling as we've had so little rain but they are just making it

selfheal, I did grow these from seed but it took a few years for them to really get established and now they are doing well

Hollyhocks, I did grow these from seed but for the front garden and this has self-seeded in the back garden. I was going to try to move it to the front but never got around to it. After attempting to plant some other hollyhocks out the front recently and finding the ground rock hard, I realise the impossibility of digging a hole there large enough so it will stay here for the moment.

Veronica is one plant I buy rather than attempt from seed. I used to buy various Veronica spicata cultivars, which I love, but they never lasted so I decided to just get bog-standard Veronica longifolia. It blooms great every year and even self-seeds.

the Little Dorrit sunflowers I grew from seed are blooming - the ones that survived the slugs anyway! a number were destroyed

this photo shows better the poppies that are blooming - they don't last long but more flowers bloom imminently

a close-up of some of those Amazing Grey poppies

I find lupins easy to grow from seed - until they get noticed by the slugs. So this year I decided to buy some small plants from Peter Nyssen. I had one nice flower and I see buds on another of the plants which are sitting on the patio table to keep them away from the slugs and snails. Sadly I don't have room for all my plants on the table.

I finally have some flowers on this white stonecrop which self-seeded a few years ago and has bloomed for the first time.

more Amazing Grey poppies in bloom

Amazing Grey poppy bud

bread-seed poppy, my first in bloom

Little Dorrit sunflower

Dwarf mallow (Malva neglecta), I found this in a pot today in my garden and I'm not certain where it came from. I did sow some wildflower seeds so I assume it came from those. Is dwarf mallow put in wildflower seed mixes?

a huge teasel in my front garden - I love them, there was a bee on it yesterday but I didn't have my phone with me to take a photo

close-up of a flower emerging from a leaf node

bee on bramble

One of these seedlings disappeared from this tray, presumably removed by a bird or fox. It was the verbena of which I only had 2 surviving seedlings (the 3rd was eaten by slugs). Now I only have 1.

I rescued this creeping yellowcress from the slugs at the end of my garden. I had collected it from a park last year before it was savagely mown down. Turns out it's extremely attractive to slugs and snails and was almost destroyed. I have a few small bits of plants now. Where to keep them away from slugs??

green alkanet seedling, I do like to identify the smallest seedlings so I know what I have self-seeding in my garden

this pot with a rose by the front door has attracted a lot of self-seeders: morning glory, shoo-fly, poppy, passionflower

closer view of the shoo-fly plant, I grew them from seed last year or the year before and often seem to see shoots from seeds in the soil

heart-shaped leaves are morning glory, on the right a passionflower, which I have in the back garden so not sure why this is self-seeding here, and a poppy front and centre, selfheal in the pot next to it

close-up of one of the self-heal buds, purple petal just emerging

I squatted down to take a photo of my first greater knapweed flower of the year and a bee landed on it, right in front of me - amazing!

the Amazing Grey poppies are blooming, some colour variations - not really like the photos advertised but pleasant enough

this was this pair of flowers in the morning, next photo below, later in the day when they were fully open

later in the day when they were fully open

I took this photo in the morning

by the afternoon the red poppies had dropped their petals and I think at least 1 more Lauren's Grape poppy opened

first Little Dorrit sunflower in bloom

the monarda Cambridge Scarlet have buds

I worry whether I'm doing the right thing, leaving these sheepsbit seedlings to grow together rather than trying to separate them. I worry I would disturb them too much trying to separate them. They look happy enough so far. They won't bloom until next year so I'll just have to wait and see.

I shouldn't be so surprised but I am when the seeds I sow eventually flower. It seems so hit and miss so much of the time.

Scarecrow likes to sit on this wall,

either dozing

or looking for mice in the neighbour's garden

Crepis rubra

before these flowers bloomed I'd forgotten I'd sown these seeds so I planted more so now I have another pot

hosta with buds, surprised still some existing are some were eaten by slugs and snails

this pot is full of poppies, I guess they grew to fit their space - the Lauren's Grape poppies are smaller than the ones in a larger pot

I'm still waiting for these poppies to bloom and I'm not sure which they are

I look after my neighbour's garden next door. It used to have lots of hollyhocks but then they got infected with hollyhock weevil. Then the ox-eye daisies took over the garden blocking out any struggling hollyhocks. I decided to try to revive the hollyhocks. I bought bare root plants, I think it was 10 but only got 9 surviving. I potted them up and they've grown well in tall pots. I also grew some from seed with 10 plants resulting. Time to plant out so I cleared the ox-eye daisies but the ground is rock hard. It rained last night but the ground is still rock hard. I worked hard today trying to get them in the ground and was gifted some home-made compost which I used to give them a little something to make them happier. I planted out 14 so have 5 more to do tomorrow. I'm thinking of putting some garden waste on the rock hard flower bed for a little while to soften it up, a couple weeks? I'm not sure if that method would help. 

salvia sclarea var turkestanica, one plant surviving after having about 3 last year

sunflowers in bud

self-seeded viper's-bugloss - so difficult to grow from seed

my best poppies this year were the Lauren's Grape that self-seeded

I have one sea holly surviving from last year flowering.

and one very very slug-damaged sea holly which does not have a flowering stem

marsh mallow in bud, behind the acanthus

I love green alkanet and have masses of it in my garden. In the spring it blooms, the bees love it and it provides colour in the garden before other plants get going. It dies back in time for other plants to take over. Below is an example of one of them wilted plants. They all die back like this.

Atlantic poppy rosette and one with a bud

a green alkanet looking very rosette-like, they don't usually, green alkanet is not a plant that tends to start with a rosette

evening primrose seedling I discovered behind some other pots, didn't know I had it, presume it self-seeded from plants I had last year

I'm not sure what this is, it self-seeded, not sure from where

wall lettuce I saw locally, surprised it survived Veolia