Standing Motionless

As we walked along the river bank last weekend we were being watched.  Normally this elusive Grey Heron doesn't stay around too long to get photographed but he/she got cornered.  No matter which way he/she turned either upstream or downstream there were humans so he decided just to stand motionless.  

When we were coming back from our walk he/she was spotted on these branches watching us from the far side of the river.

© 2010 Centre of Interest

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"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

UK Garden Worthy Native Plants

What's a garden worthy native plant in the UK................. any thoughts?  This time last year I might not have been able to tell you that much about the subject but over the course of the last 3 seasons I have been reading up on our native flora here in the UK.  So for today rather than take you for a walk along the lade I'm going to show you one of my garden worthy natives and it's a perennial called Carlina acaulis though it's past its prime by this time of the year.

Summer 2010

Wildlife Benefits

Carlina acaulis has the most wonderful ground hugging spiky leaves hence the name Carline Thistle and it is about 30 cm's tall when in flower.  It has creamy white flower petals that look and feel like a dried flower.  The flowers start to open in July and all summer it attracts the wildlife.  Sometimes it seems like there is a typical British orderly queue forming - a bit like the stacking system  above Heathrow Airport airspace as the wildlife wait to land on the flowers.

Coming down to land - make some room for me!

It is also the food source for the unattractive larvae of the Metzneria aestivella moth.  The larvae look like  maggots but I live too far north to have this moth visit my garden.

The Weather Clock

Each stem has only one flower but there's something really special about each flower - they can predict the rain!  When the plant senses that rain is on the way it closes its petals in order to protect its pollen and is aptly  nicknamed  "The Weather Clock".

The weather clock - rain is forecast!

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Autumn and Winter Interest

Winter Interest - Photo taken Feb 2010

I leave the flower heads to turn to seed each year but so far I've never had any seedlings germinate around the parent plant.  The seed heads look good during the winter months and in early spring I cut the dead stems down before the new spiky leaves appear.  It is pest and disease free, never needs staked and is just perfect to be classed as a garden worthy native. Mine has been happily growing in the garden for nearly 7 years. If you live in the Perthshire normally you can source the Carlina acaulis  from"Plants with Purpose" at Bankfoot which is a specialised nursery which only grows plants beneficial to wildlife.

Photo taken today 27th October 2010 - it has been raining most of the day

UK Postcode Data Base

Finally for today I just had to share this link with you.  I found a great UK database run by the Natural History Museum.  Just type in the first section of your postcode and press enter and a list of garden worthy native plants that have been recorded in your area will appear.  There is a little p icon to click alongside most of the names which shows you  a photograph of each plant..  You can access the database here.

Thanks for taking the time to visit today.  For more wildflowers you can visit Gail at Wildflower Wednesday.

 

© 2010 on all text and photographs by Rosie at www.leavesnbloom.blogspot.com

"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

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Autumn foliage bobby dazzlers in the garden

The heavy autumn dews each morning line the leaves and grass like little pearl drops.  While festooning webs of silk drape over the branches of the trees and shrubs and glisten as the sunlight breaks through the misty mornings.   Jack Frost is discreetly venturing closer and closer to the garden and the first snows have fallen further north from us. Ahhh  autumn has well and truly made its presence known in the garden and I'm sure the scene I've described today is one that many of you can relate to just now as well.

The many colours from the wall climber - Parthenocissus tricuspidata "Veitchii"

The school holidays are nearly over here and I've managed to finally get all the weeding completed for now and the bulbs planted. The grass has had its final haircut and the edges are nicely trimmed. It has been fed with some special autumn feed that has mycorrhizal fungi added as my grass really struggles to get growing after the winter without some help. The only jobs still awaiting are the pruning of the plum tree in the next few weeks and a deep mulch placed over the hardy fuchsia to keep it snug and warm over the winter. If it can cope with last winter's temperatures I'm sure it can cope again this winter too.   For now all I can do is admire some of the bobby dazzlers  in the garden from the heat and comfort of  indoors as it is so wet here.

I  realise that there have been few photographs taken of the borders from a distance this year on the blog - my love of macro photography took over! So I went out in the rain to capture the scene above this afternoon in the back garden.  You can see my problem side of the garden when it rains heavy like today - its submerged inches deep! and sometimes the bark floats unto the grass.  It's a difficult part of the garden to keep things alive in despite conditioning the soil.

The Malus Red Sentinel (1)  crab apple tree is looking superb in the back garden but I also have three malus bonsai trees that I've never shown on the blog before  
Malus "Evereste" (2), 
Malus "Golden Hornet" (3)
and Malus "Profusion" (4)  in my Japanese style side garden.

There are plenty more foliage plants displaying their lovely foliage in the back garden  and here is a selection of my favourites.

1. Hamemelis  intermedia "Pallida"
2. Corylopsis pauciflora
3. Physocarpus opulifolius "Diablo"
4. Enkianthus campanulatus
5. Kalmia angustifolia
6. Prunus incisa "Kojo no mai"

I'll leave the foliage plants in the front garden for another day but wanted before you go to let you see our newest visitor to the garden in the past two weeks - a little hedgehog.

What interesting visitors have you had to your garden recently?

Thanks for taking the time to visit today.

© 2010 on all text and photographs by Rosie at www.leavesnbloom.blogspot.com

"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

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Prickles

Snuffle, snuffle, shuffle was the sound in my front garden on Monday night.  As I was chatting on the phone my youngest came running in telling me to get my camera as Mrs Tiggy-Winkle was visiting our garden and was shuffling across our gravel.  I said quick goodbyes on the phone and went out to meet her. Just look at these prickles!

"Her little black nose went sniffle, sniffle, snuffle, and her eyes went twinkle, twinkle" how right was Beatrix Potter!

Guess what - its been 27 years since I last saw a hedgehog!


Update

I've a little news for all of you who follow and subscribe to this blog.  From now on this blog is going to be purely wildlife, nature and wildflowers.  Any cultivated flowers from my garden  will not be featured here nor will my digital artwork.  Quite a few of you know that I have embarked on photoshop and photo editing and want to blog more about this especially during the winter months so instead of blogging here on that topic and derail the blog I've started a new creative blog called "leavesnbloom photography" which you are all invited to visit. You'll see my flower portraits from now on on this new blog along with many other scenes as I start to photograph outside of my comfort zone.  

One of my first posts is on blog design and describes how I have done some things on the new blog which might be of interest to you all especially if you are interested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and making favicons.  I look forward to seeing you over there aswell as on my other blogs.


Thanks for taking the time to visit today
Rosie


© 2010 Centre of Interest

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"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day October 2010 at leavesnbloom

The red, yellow and orange colours of Autumn are intertwining with the lavender blue and pink blooms in my October garden.   It's my favourite time of the year and nearly ten years ago it was the season that I first started to plant up my garden.

The tall purple stems of Verbena bonariensis still grace the borders though I've seen no butterflies on the flowers all week.

taken early Oct 2010 - the last of the butterflies

and below its willowy stems are Colchicum 'lilac wonder' with their lilac goblet shaped flowers.

Colchicum 'lilac wonder'

Dianthus

Pretty little blooms from the dianthus in all shades from pink to red flank the edges of the gravel path. These little blooms have never stopped flowering since last Spring and they look as if they have no intention of ever stopping. These pink dianthus above grow just in front of the colchicum.

While the blooms from (1) Rosa 'Abraham Darby' and (2) R. 'Zephirine Drouhin' are saying their last farewells to the gardener this year.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' -  photo taken near twilight

Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' is quite literally in the limelight as it sits centre stage in one corner the border showing off its creamy white clusters of blooms while the grassy leaves of the Schizostylis coccinea ( Kaffir Lily) have just started to reveal their long stems of cheerful red flowers that resemble miniature gladioli.

Schizostylis coccinea

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Cyclamen  hederifolium

The pretty little Cyclamen  hederifolium with their maroon blotched petals nod their heads in the slightest breeze while the little lavender blue flowers from the autumn Crocus speciosus open their buds wide open to reveal their colourful yellow and orange centrepieces as soon the sun starts to shine.    

Crocus speciosus

Sedum herbstfreude 'Autumn joy'

Sedum herbstfreude 'Autumn joy' certainly is another joy in the borders just now with its large flat heads of deep pink blooms growing in many parts of the garden.

Mahonia media 'Charity'

The Mahonia media 'Charity' has clusters of budding stems just beginning to open to give some yellow colour during the winter months while Caryopteris clandonensis 'Heavenly Blue' is certainly heavenly as there have been few blue skies recently.

Caryopteris clandonensis 'Heavenly Blue'

Finally the stars of the show this month have to be the Asters or Michaelmas daisies as we call them here.  It's the beginning of October each year before they start to perform in my garden with my favourite being  Aster frikartii 'Mönch'. As you can see from the picture below there are lots more buds to open on this large clump.

Aster frikartii 'Mönch'

There are many more asters in the garden still waiting in the wings to flower but the best at the moment along with 'Mönch' is the aster  Symphyotrichum novi-belgii 'Jenny' with its pink blooms. 

left: Symphyotrichum novi-belgii 'Jenny' right', right: Aster frikartii 'Mönch'. 

Those blooms along with the Caryopeteris certainly are nectar magnets for the few hoverfly that visit the garden these days.

Helophilus pendulus hoverfly - meaning "dangling swamp-lover"

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the more flamboyant blooms in my garden this October time. For more blooms this month across the world you can visit Carol over at May Dreams Gardens.

Thank you so much for all  your comments  in my last post and your emails.  I know that some of you were concerned when I didn't post for over a week - I've never left it that long before but all is well here and I enjoyed taking a little break from blogging.  My youngest has recovered and it's now school holiday time here and the boys have 2 weeks off school.  I took a break from the garden as well and the weeds have flourished in my absence so I'm hoping to get some enthusiasm back to get out there before the saying "One year of seeds brings seven years of weeds" becomes a reality in the garden.

Thanks for taking the time to visit today.

© 2010 on all text and photographs by Rosie at www.leavesnbloom.blogspot.com

"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

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A Summer snowflake's silk girdle

I found a little green caterpillar developing into its pupae stage last month.   This little caterpillar would by now have turned into a "small white" butterfly Pieris rapae which is commonly known  here as a summer snowflake.  You can just make out the silk cocoon/girdle that it's spining which it will eventually wrap itself up into as it transforms and emerges as a little butterfly.

 oooOOOooo

Update: Its been a busy week here since most of you last read here - just after posting my last blog entry my youngest ended up having an emergency operation after being transferred from our local casualty department to a much larger hospital further away.  Thankfully the operation was a success and they managed to save the organ as the diagnosis and operation were made within the 6 hour window.  He's doing well now that he is back at home though he is missing school and contending with 6 stitches.


My next bit of news is that I'm now part of the team at Nature Blog Network.  Its a real honour to be invited on to that team as I really feel like a small fish in a very big ocean over there as there are some superb blogs in their listings.  It was such a shock to get an invitation in the first place and it didn't take me too long to respond!  You can read my introduction to the network on the following link.  http://natureblognetwork.com/blog/leavesnbloom-introduction/


For more macros this week please pop over to NF Macro
and Macro Friday

© 2010 Centre of Interest

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"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

Just imagine these Spring blooms

You'll need a little imagination while reading this post today as we're going to spring forward to Spring 2011. Lets set the scene....... Imagine the sun is shining upon the fresh beads of morning dew. Nest building in the garden has finally commenced along with the sounds of the high and low notes from the birds as if to say "Keep away this is my territory".  The trees and shrubs are getting greener by the day as their fat buds break free from their winter dormancy. 

Some of the little ladybirds are basking in the sun and warming up after their winter hibernation and now and again you hear a flock of Hooper swans fly over head on their travels back to Iceland. At your feet  there are drifts of dwarf  tete a tete daffodils intermingling with dwarf tulips, crocus and primroses. While towards the back of the borders green shoots from the 2010 Autumn planting of new species narcissus bulbs arise topped with plump buds anticipating their unfurling in late March and April.

Rather than keep you in suspense here is what those plump buds will have unfurled into during March and April.  Keep using your imagination and think of these photographs being real narcissus growing in my borders rather than the fronts of the cardboard packets!   

1. Katie Heath - species, multi head ht 12"
2. Reggae - species, multi head ht 14"
3. Delnashaugh - double, show winner ht 16"
4. Fragrant Rose - large cupped fragrant ht 14"
5. Thalia - species, fragrant ht 16'

Last Spring I made a mental note that I needed some larger flowering bulbs in the front garden as all I have growing are some dwarf ones like "Tete a Tete" and "February Gold".  Rather than just buying an economy mix of bulbs which would have been a lot cheaper (I hope my husband doesn't read that bit!)  I wanted named varieties.  So on Saturday just as the rain commenced  I started to plant these bulbs but I'm an all weather gardener most of the time so I just carried on.  They've been planted in  small pockets along the backs of the borders as I know that it won't take them too many seasons to bulk up and multiply. I've lots more to plant but as you read my final paragraph you'll understand why they are still in their packets in the garage. 

For anyone who is quite new to gardening and is interested in how to plant bulbs successfully Melanie from Northern Gardeners Almanac has written a concise post on the subject which I can thoroughly recommend.  I planted most of my bulbs along side my hemerocallis and hardy geraniums as their fresh new foliage will help to disguise the ageing leaves of the bulbs as they die away after flowering.

6.   Pipit - species, fragrant, multiheaded  ht 10"

7.   Chanterelle - butterfly split corona ht18"

8.   Mondragon - spilt corona ht 20"

9.   Tahiti - double, late flowering in April ht 16"

10. Nicole - butterfly starburst centre ht 16"

11. Pheasant's Eye - N. poeticus var. recurvus, fragrant, late flowering ht 16"

I've taken having narcissus in bloom in the garden for granted all my life but I never realised until I started blogging how many gardeners have never even seen species narcissus before as their climates don't suit these bulbs growing conditions.

Thank you for taking the time to visit today I haven't been in a blogging frame of mind for past few days - I had no interest even in taking photographs let alone plant more narcissus bulbs.   Blogging is the first thing to get dropped when there's a family emergency and that emergency in the past few days was our youngest being sent from our local casualty department to the Tayside Childrens Hospital at Ninewells in Dundee for an emergency operation. Thankfully  the operation  was a success and he's just been discharged but is missing school already while I'm now catching up on lost sleep.  Hopefully I'll get the rest of the bulbs planted later on in the week and catch up with you all.

OK you can fall back into Autumn again and tell me how your spring bulb planting coming along.

© 2010 on all text and photographs by Rosie at www.leavesnbloom.blogspot.com

"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

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Dancing Bees

Ok I confess I don't have any pictures today of dancing bees but there has been quite a bit of activity around the nepeta flowers in my garden.  Below is a little wild bombus who just can't get enough nectar out of that bloom.   

Have you ever wondered how bees tell each other where to go to find good nectar sources.

Psalm 119:103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Well its all down to a set of dances and its been observed the honey bees really do dance. When a bee scout has found a new source of nectar she goes back to the hive and does a little dance - its this dance which lets the other bees know where to go to find this new source of nectar and depending on how she moves and wriggles the other bees can understand which direction to go.  source 


They certainly are little wonders of God's creation!


Thanks to Katie for hosting











© 2010 Centre of Interest

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"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20