June 2025

At the end of June I am reviewing the thistles I have in my garden. I love thistles and so do the bees BUT so do slugs. I don't understand how they manage to eat them with all the sharp bits but they do.

spear thistle, this one has avoided any slug damage

nodding thistle, my only survivor from seeds sown last year

2 surviving woolly thistle from seeds sown last year

woolly thistle

I had 3 surviving cotton thistles but the slugs seem to have eaten 2 of them so this is the last one, totally overwhelmed by surrounding plants. I will try to prune around this but not sure it will survive

and my one bought thistle plant, cabbage thistle (Cirsium oleraceum), already the slugs have gotten to it but hope it will survive

29-6-2025

chicory with a bee

chicory with a hoverfly

sea holly with a bee

red campion with a bee

polemonium with bee

Verbascum Arctic Summer with a bee

26-6-2025

giant knapweed with bees

campanula with bee

lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina) with bees

I do love self-seeders. I have a large marsh mallow growing in a crack in my driveway. I first noticed a leaf at least a year ago (will check) but didn't know what it was. My patience has been rewarded. I grew marsh mallow in my previous garden, from seed. It flowered for years realiably. Not sure where this came from. Was it from some of the gardening stuff I brought with me? I didn't bring the marsh mallow as it was in a very big pot. 

25-6-2025

lesser knapweed, not sure where this came from, didn't have any knapweed flowers last year but I did have them in my previous garden so many there was a seed in some pot I brought with me 

agastache I bought as small plants, I meant to plant them in the garden but the ground is so rock-hard that's impossible after months of drought and hot weather so put them in a large pot, in the same position on the patio where the bees were visiting so that will keep them going, giant knapweed in the foreground

thistle bud, I seem to have only 1 of these thistles (nodding I think) as the slugs savaged them

unknown rosette, possibly Verbascum virgatum, that self-seeded in a pot, I'm leaving it to grow and hope to see it in bloom

closer view of the centre (which is soft)

the hibiscus is in bud, but suffering from the drought and heat

24-6-2025

I've seen them online but never in person, so pleased to see thick-legged flower beetle or swollen-thighed beetle (does exactly what it says on the tin!) (Oedemera nobilis), male on a giant knapweed in the back garden 

and female thick-legged flower beetle or swollen-thighed beetle (Oedemera nobilis) on a yellow chamomile flower in the front garden but the female does not have the same legs as the male

ragwort with a bee

chicory with a bee

common hogweed with a hoverfly

22-6-2025

common hogweed in flower

last year the hogweed seemed to have a fungal disease - all in my garden were affected - I didn't have any flowers, in fact the plants died down but this year the hogweed has come back and no signs of the fungal infection and even flowers although this one seems to be sticky from aphids? but doesn't seem to be affecting the flowers

saw-wort (Serratula  tinctoria)

I brought this with me from my last garden and actually managed to plant them in the ground last year (the ground was rock-hard and difficult to plant into, even more so this year as it's been so  dry and hot) and it survived and has buds, perhaps not that many but will hopefully get acclimatised and grow more

self-seeders

I have greatly enjoyed and relied on self-seeders in my garden, especially one of my favourite bee-loving flowers, green alkanet. Recently I had some surprise self-seeders: the chicory below and what looks like marsh mallow which self-seeded in a crack in my driveway. I grew marsh mallow in my last garden. I moved here 18 months ago, did I unknowingly bring a marsh mallow seed with me? If not, where did it come from?

The chicory was a surprise in a pot in my back garden. I did actually grow chicory from seed but the seedlings are planted out in the ground in the garden. Where did a chicory come from in that pot?

19-6-2025 when I went outside at 5:45 this morning I noticed all the chicory buds

 a little while later at 6:45 the flowers are starting to open

by 9:00 the flowers are fully open, I guess the heatwave is helping

the bees are loving the moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria)

I have lots of moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria) self-seeding in the garden. It all started with one packet of mixed perennial seeds and I've had them self-seeding ever since and the bees loving them. 

Growing from seed can take a long time from sowing seed to seeing flowers, some times longer than others. The giant knapweed (Centaurea macrocephala) has been years as I sowed seeds in my last garden but was not able to bring them with me so had to start again after I moved. I again sowed seeds last year and I am seeing flowers this year. It hasn't been smooth sailing. The slugs ate them savagely and I had to retrieve some seedlings / small plants from the garden where I had planted them out back into a pot to save them. So I now have this plant with two flower buds and one in the ground in the garden with two buds. 

this view shows a second bud to the right

I sowed seeds for these Erigeron speciosus Azure Fairy last year.

yellow chamomile (Cota tinctoria)

I sowed seeds for these last year. The seedlings were savagely eaten by slugs and less than half survived. I planted some of the seedlings in the front garden where there are fewer slugs and I have a number in bloom there now. I discovered this plant the other day in the back garden. It somehow survived the slugs. 

more Lauren's Grape poppies with bees

first chicory flower

new flowers just opening

first evening primrose flower

14-6-2025 first fox-and-cubs blooms this year

the Lauren's Grape poppies are fantastic

next flowers and melancholy thistle to the left

melancholy thistle

8-6-2025 corncockle, with a visitor

corncockle with another visitor, right inside, not sure what it is

scabious with visitor

sheepsbit blooming

bristly oxtongue (Helminthotheca echioides) flower with those distinctive bracts

a magnificent plant

a few green alkanet left, bees still visiting them

nepeta just blooming and attracting bees

I found two amaryllis bulbs in my shed. I can't remember when I got them or if I'd used them already but they were sprouting and I've found amaryllis can bloom in the summer even though we often grow them for Christmas.

the delphinium has been fantastic for the bees, they kept visiting even when I was tying it up, this is after I tied it up

this was before tying it up when it was sprawling

the bees are completely mad for the Knautia macedonica this week

8-6-2025

7-6-2025

there are three bees in this photo

cornflowers with bee

Verbascum Arctic Summer with a bee and mullein moth caterpillars

the next day, the caterpillars had eaten this plant so much the stem broke

bee on red campion

sheepsbit

echium vulgare

comparison of Erigeron Azure Fairy, left and Echium vulgare right

sweet alyssum, from the Sainsbury's Pink and White wildflower tin

giant knapweed

giant scabious buds

yellow chamomile

I had a catsear last year but hadn't seen it this year but after some time in the garden tidying up, I discovered it under some overgrown grass so I hadn't seen the initial distinctive basal rosette. 

the leaves at the bottom were covered with grass, this is after I trimmed the grass

closer view of the leaves which are usually just a basal rosette, I guess they grew up to reach the sun

violet in bud

poppies, I think Giganteum

Lauren's Grape poppies

huge poppy buds

spiderwort, I saw a bee on them the other day but missed getting a photo

water figwort buds

monkshood buds

Erigeron Azure Fairy buds

scabious bud

agastache buds

purple loosestrife in bud

a self-seeded cornflower I found in the garden yesterday

bristly oxtongue which I also discovered in the garden yesterday, hadn't realised it was there

two dandelion-like rosettes on my patio which I suspect might be Crepis vesicaria

perennial sow thistle I saw in Camden Town the other day

from the other side

closer view of the lower leaves

campanula with hoverfly

bees on lupins

knautia

Black Ball cornflower with bee

cornflower with bee

goosegrass flower

Verbascum blattaria buds just opening

violas I grew from seed last year, possibly Arkwright Red

scabious

wall lettuce buds and flowers

an unknown that has appeared on my patio, I hope to observe it until it's identifiable