The most frequent commenter on this blog posted photos on Facebook of her garden flowers, which were predominantly pink and mauve. She asked about the colours in other people’s gardens. When the weather became sufficiently clement I popped out and took some photos in my overgrown garden. It is predominantly pink as the true geraniums are making a takeover bid and will need to be thinned out soon.
I found other colours too.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
There is a trend towards the yellows and oranges of late summer and early autumn.
My loyal readers may remember that I made friends with another short-listed entrant for the 1st UK Blog Awards. He is Fletch the Perchcrow, who lives in the garden at Wordsworth’s House, Cockermouth.
On a beautiful sunny day hubby and I went to see him again. His garden is a riot of colour as you can see from the photos. We were surprised to find that he seemed totally unaware of a very pretty scarecrow the other side of a wall. I wonder what she is called.
Selection of photosFletch’s gardenDifferent views
There were more bees than I have seen anywhere else this summer. They particularly liked a low plant with yellow leaves and white flowers, which has been planted around the edge of many of the flower beds.
Yarn-bombers had been at work. This time some of the woolly items included sticks, making a framework. There were woolly insects too.
Inside the house we were treated to a talk by one of the costumed servants. Fletch had mentioned the various activities on offer in the summer holidays. Life in Georgian England was very different from today.
The staff and volunteers were friendly and helpful. It was interesting to consider how different some nearby places were in the past.
When I signed up for the revised A to Z challenge I had a photograph of a flower for B. Then I decided to use it under another name for a letter later in the alphabet. You’ll have to wait and see where it appears!
Bluebells
Being in an exposed location in the North of England, our bluebells flower later than those farther south or lower down. There are wonderful swathes of bluebells mostly in woods in the county where I live. The first photo I used as a profile picture on Facebook was taken in a bluebell wood.
Not all bluebells are the same. Here in the UK there are native bluebells and invasive foreigners – in this instance, Spanish ones. Some bluebells may be pink or white. That is an oxymoron (or a contradiction in terms). I was disappointed to learn yesterday, that our garden ones – in the first picture – are Spanish.
Hyacinths are similar to bluebells, but with much bigger blooms. Planted in the garden, they may flower for many years, but become smaller. They begin to look more like bluebells.
In my childhood, when car ownership was less usual, people were not able to visit the countryside easily from towns and cities. Country children and visiting townies used to pick wild flowers. In Britain this is now illegal. Picking or digging up wild plants is not allowed in order to protect them from extinction in their natural habitat. The country code includes “Take nothing but photographs. Leave nothing but footprints.”
Bluebells were growing in our garden before we lived here. Wild flowers are propagated by many means. Birds and animals spread the seeds. Bluebells go to seed, but they also have bulbs. Plants with bulbs or corms often produce new ones underground. Bluebells certainly spread easily. I usually cut the dead flowers off before the plants use lots of energy making seeds. The foliage dies back later in the year and is more likely to nourish the bulbs. In any case dead-heading is a relaxing occupation.
Bluebells in a wild flower garden
At present there are other plants in flower beginning with B. The blackthorn has been flowering for a few weeks. Later there will be sloes in the hedgerows. Buttercups are beginning to bloom. Blossom of all kinds is brightening the view. Bumble bees and other insects are busy pollinating them. Bees are fascinating. We have had bees living in the garden previously. They set up house underground. I wonder whether they’ll return this year. I know at least one beekeeper and have written about bees in posts on Sue’s Trifles.
My photos are of a clump of bluebells in our garden and some in a more natural setting not far from here.
Do you find the natural world fascinating? What about creepy-crawlies?
