Blogs

wider view of the back garden, Victor on the left on the chair, Scarecrow on the right on the wall

the bees are still loving the giant scabious

and a hoverfly was visiting

my first borage in bloom - it was a totally unexpected self-seeder

the next day, a second flower, they seem to start off pink and then turn blue

Having 5 cats and loving bees in the garden - nepeta is an essential plant in my garden, both catnip, Nepeta cataria with white flowers and garden catnip / catmint, Nepeta fassennii cultivars with purple flowers. As far as I've seen Nepeta cataria is only available as seeds so I've grown it myself from seeds and Nepeta fassennii is only available as plants from the garden centre, I've never seen seeds.

Nepeta cataria, catnip, grown from seed. It is a perennial but I don't have many plants lasting very long.

some of the flowers are quite pink

one of my pots of Nepeta cataria

Rocky gives it his seal of approval

some of my Nepeta fassennii with purple flowers, not as upright as Nepeta cataria, quite sprawling with flowers along the stems

sheep's-bit

I love sheep's-bit and have loved the massive number of flowers I've had. I thought they were just about finished.

I gave them a good watering and was rewarded by bees visiting - and I thought they were past attracting bees.

I also thought the poppies were just about finished but have been rewarded with more blooms, both Lauren's Grape (with a bee)

and Amazing Grey

I found my first selfheal in bloom amongst some other plants

greater knapweed

lots of self-seeders in my seed tray but none of the seeds I actually planted (I do NOT recommend Plant World Seeds, zero germination), annual mercury male bottom left and female bottom right, makes comparison and close-ups so easy having them in my garden (shoo-fly largest on the right, green alkanet at the top, verbascum and an oxalis top left)

annual mercury male flowers in spikes above the leaves

annual mercury female flowers under the leaves

The giant scabious is giant! sky-high. So happy it's blooming - and then the icing on the cake - a bee visiting the flowers yesterday.

closer view of the bee, will try to get a better shot today

a few days later, more flowers, more bees

more fabulous Lauren's Grape poppies in bloom

one of the flowers with a bee

foxgloves with bee

Amazing Grey poppies with a bee

another view of a bee on the poppies

and another

at one point I had 7 poppies in bloom

fox-and-cubs, echium vulgare with Scarecrow in the background

verbena bonariensis in bloom

monkshood

hogweed bud

hogweed bud the next day

emerging more

another eruption from a stem below

water figwort large stem

globe thistles with buds

small teasels in bud

greater knapweed buds

lesser knapweed buds

One of my first giant scabious (Cephalaria gigantea) flowers

view of the entire giant scabious plant, teasel just to the left

better view of that teasel to the left of the giant scabious, marsh mallow to the left

another teasel in the garden

My first Lauren's Grape poppy in bloom

In the afternoon, after the downpour, the flower on the ground but still glad it rained, we needed it so desperately.

another Lauren's Grape poppy, quite small in comparison, in a pot, adapted to its environment

Amazing Grey (Papaver rhoeas) poppies just emerging

more Amazing Grey poppies the next day

I love so many plants in the Centaurea genus and grow what I can in my garden. One of the more challenging ones, for me, is greater knapweed. The buds are just appearing.

I went to take another photo of more buds and Bear appeared and started rubbing against the plants making focussing challenging. Finally I realized there's a pot of nepeta (garden catmint / catnip) there to the left which is what he was so interested in.

I've had so much going on in the garden. These fox-and-cubs were in bud in the sun suffering from the dry weather. I moved them into the shade and a little while later I saw all the buds had opened.  

more fox-and-cubs emerging

and more fox-and-cubs buds

sheep's-bit with bee

the bees have been going mad going into and out of the foxglove flowers

bee bottom right

nepeta with bee

bee on a hogweed leaf

Victor

Rocky and catnip (Nepeta cataria)

Jeffrey and some catnip stems

Socky

Scilla peruviana

knautia macedonica

Amazing Grey poppy from seeds from last year

common vetch

viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare) buds on a plant that self-seeded last year, it's bienniel

Veronica beccabunga

my first passionflower in bloom

I have lots of iris foetidissima in bloom

ground elder - not a bad umbellifer if kept under control

broad-leaved plantain in a pot with a foxglove and a snapdragon

the purple loosestrife is coming into bud

.

lesser knapweed

Papaver somniferum buds

artichoke buds

small teasel, bought as plug plants, globe thistle in the middle, a cheeky wall lettuce self-seeded in the middle

sage coming back to life after being brought out of the jungle of plants smothering it

honesty, this was self-seeded on the path, they don't like being moved but I really wanted to save it so repotted it in this pot and after a few days it's revived and looking a lot better

Since doing my own poppy inventory (below), I walked past a house with some magnificent oriental poppy buds in the front garden

and a few days later a huge flower

I decided to do an inventory of my poppies. I haven't been able to plant many seeds this year so these are the result of self-seeding. All the poppies in my back garden are annuals: opium poppies (Papaver somniferum) and red / corn / field / common poppies (Papaver rhoeas).

Opium poppies (Papaver somniferum), in past years I've sown Lauren's Grape poppies so these could be those. The leaves are smooth lighter greyish-green.

they vary in size enormously, those above are in a large pot with lots of room, below in a crack on the patio and the edge of a  pot

this one is tiny

another small poppy self-seeded in a pot (with foxglove, verbena bonariensis and creeping yellowcress)

2 poppies self-seeding in this pot of saw-wort small plants

red / corn / field / common poppies (Papaver rhoeas), they have various common names, also vary enormously in size, these small ones have self-seeded in this pot

I've had one flower so far. They don't last long.

another couple of poppies blooming in that pot

a couple days later, more flowers in bloom

this poppy (on the right) has self-seeded in the Centaurea dealbata pot

this one is much more upright than the one above, something is telling me it's a poppy self-seeded in that pot in front of Rocky (the nepeta cataria (catnip) is on the right)

a better view of the bud on the poppy above

a few poppies which had self-seeded in the centaurea pots, I left them to allow them to bloom, so they were included when I repotted the centaureas

London rocket (Sisymbrium irio)

common valerian, the first time I've seen this as a pavement plant

shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)

wall lettuce (Lactuca muralis)

Eastern rocket in the centre and a small one to the left, buddleja on the right

Pseudofumaria lutea (previously Corydalis lutea) I think

Oxalis corniculata var. atropurpurea in bud

teasel with the typical water filled cups along the stem

foxglove, so untypical in my experience, the drought and heatwave prevented it flowering properly last year, it's sprouted these small flowering stems (from what I can see) rather than the typical single stem from the centre

water figwort

giant scabious I grew from seed a couple years ago, still awaiting flowering and teasel which self-seeded

I have 2 pots of sheep's bit I grew from seed. I've had ups and downs with them. I had more than 2 pots before but I'm down to two and I'm not sure if they're all Jasione montana. I seem to have 2 types and I did buy some Jasione perennis Blue Light seeds when I couldn't find montana and haven't seen flowers from perennis yet so maybe some are perennis.

** later ** I have been so upset by slug damage to these plants. Have lost many buds. I see there's a slug in the pot I hadn't noticed when I took the photo - must be more observant!

some leaves seem to be smooth and shiny, this bud is surrounded by the smoother shinier leaves (Jaione perennis Blue Light?)

this bud is surrounded by the furrier hairier leaves (Jasione montana?)

I have these "garden in a pot"s. All self-seeded without any intervention. I now want to separate them and give some plants more room. this pot has a large globe thistle.

and a foxglove, verbascum, snapdragon and a wall lettuce, probably others

better view of the wall lettuce on the other side

another "garden in a pot": tulip (spent), poppies, selfheal, great hairy willowherb

one with foxgloves,  snapdragon and plantain

Estella Rynveld tulips

the ceanothus is taking over my house

below the ceanothus, two kinds of vinca

and pink bluebells

calendula

I love those calendula buds

ajuga

the red campion has self-seeded extensively in the back garden over the last couple of years, Rocky smelling the catnip (nepeta)

I have 3 pots of a centaurea plants from seeds I sowed. I lost track of the exact cultivar. I noticed lots of plants have self-seeded in the pots so decided to tidy them up.

I tried repotting some of the plants (forget-me-nots, a teasel, a verbena bonariensis, great hairy willowherb), some are not looking good, I'll see how they do

another view of the repotted plants, some look quite limp

there were lots of foxglove seedlings which I repotted

other plants removed that I did not want to keep

the centaurea pots after the other plants were removed except for poppies which I didn't think would transplant well and thought they could bloom before causing much trouble

views of each pot

I noticed a large nipplewort rosette in my neighbour's garden. It was so large I had to go get my expanding rule.

56 cm across, one of the largest rosettes I've ever seen.

my fox was in the garden, about where the nipplewort rosette was in this photo

the path through my garden had a lot of dirt accumulated so decided to remove it, I discovered some eyelash fungi, I'd found it in a pot a couple years ago which I lost, so I'm very happy to rediscover some in my garden.

I've never noticed this on a foxglove before, smaller shoots amongst the leaves. Usually there's one large rosette of leaves and a flower spike in the middle. In the midst of the drought and heatwave last summer, it did not bloom properly and over-wintered. I've never had one over-winter, only the first year plants which bloom the second year. Those foxglove shoots not to be confused with the 2 verbena bonariensis shooting up amongst the leaves.

While I was next door I noticed the veronica longifolia which I'd given to my neighbour, is looking good - much better than mine.

and an enormous moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria) rosette in a pot I'd given her

The drought and heatwave last summer had a profound effect on my garden. It seemed to have killed off my auriculas or the slugs did who were desperate and at anything surviving. This is my only auricula this year. The drought and heatwave also seems to  have killed my Chinese lanterns which did not grow at all last year. I was hoping there's be some remnant of life in the roots but no sign of it so far this spring.

surprisingly the monkshood has survived, I have this one in the ground

and this one in a pot which I think grew from collected seed I sowed

Socks with my snapped off tulips - I don't know if it was the wind, birds or even foxes

Yesterday I noticed the first ajuga in flower this year

muscari and tulips (Princess Irene, I think)

Little Princess tulips with the muscari and tulips in the background

Verbascum blattaria, moth mullein makes a fab rosette the first year, this has overwintered as a rosette and should bloom this year.

claytonia

cerinthe

honesty leaves

a very small seedling I noticed yesterday, think it's a speedwell

sheepsbit

bud on the sheepsbit above

this pot which started off as sheepsbit, has lots of self-seeders, I don't even know if any sheepsbit is left in that pot

A catsear I saw in a pavement crack with buds at the end of the flowering stems.

Two autumn hawkbit nearby. I only know it's autumn hawkbit as I've observed the flowers in previous years. Otherwise I find smooth hawk's-beard (Crepis capillaris) and autumn hawkbit (Scorzoneroides autumnalis) difficult to differentiate until I can look at the flowers.

I grew this centaurea from seed but I lost track of what it is exactly. Despite some slug damage, the 3 pots of it have survived the winter. I hope they bloom this summer and become identifiable. I see I have a number of self-seeders in the pots: green alkanet (of course), foxglove, poppy, teasel, great hairy willowherb). I'm going to try to carefully remove them, saving some where feasible.