Orchids Growing on...

The most advance Bletilla Striata growing nicely, it nearly has leaves :)

The chinese ground orchid, in sunny Wakefield, west yorkshire miles away from south east Asia.

Of pots and plants

The Asiatic Lilly I bought from Shelley nursery has gone mad in the ceramic pot. It has put up four leafy stems with the leaves falling outwards.


They are so soft to touch when you run your hand up the leaves. A very tactile plant.

There are flower buds now at the top of the stems, nestled between green leaves like eggs in a birds nest.

You can see the buds on the second photo.You can grow Asiatic lillys in a pot on a windowsill or table nearby to the window.

I hope to photograph the pink flowers, assuming it flowers like it said in the pot.

The other bulbs that i have put in pots have all come up. The oriental stargazer is developing slowly, but are not exciting enough to photograph. One plant has grown faster but the leaf development is much slower than the asiatic ones.
The Acidanthera I planted in the large pot have grown really quick. 11 out of 12 bulbs have grown stems that are pushing there way up. I hope they flower as they are scented and have beautiful white and black flowers. The lovely named peacock Orchid.
The only casualtys are the Nicotiana which i am thinking will all keel over soon, two of the rescued fuschias have died (from their treatment in the shop where they are displayed and left in heat and fluorescent lighting.)
The tomato plants seem to be struggling as well.The soil is moist, the light present.The lower leaves seem to get droopy, then shrivel. The upper leaves seem to curl up at night, then relax during the day.I wander if the temperature variations are hitting them.Warm during the day then cold at night.They were on the kitchen windowsill but have now moved to the bedroom table about a foot and half away from the windowsill on my black table.
My Dicentra Alba (bleeding heart with white flowers) has rallied around and has lots of new fresh green leaflets growing all over.I hope it might still flower, but maybe it wont untill next year.It is good to nurse an ailing plant back into health. Especially when it might reward you with showy flowers!!
My plants have one month before Hils Charity plant sale.I expect to have more room then on my windowsills. I want to make hanging baskets to for workmates. Angela has a caravan which she visits regularly and i want to do a couple for her to hang there.
Fran also will take some of my excess plants.I love growing them, but they want to be in gardens really flowering away.
I am back on nights this week, seven nights again. Its been four weeks since the last set!!I will post photos and a few words. Hope all your gardens are growing on well!

Lavender/Chamomile Snail

Look, what had found its way onto my washing powder. My old garden adversary the common garden snail..

I thought it was dead, as i could not detect any movement.The shell was filthy with mud.I think he hitched a lift in from Frans compost.It was in her garden and was damp.The snail thought it was a cool, dark place to hang out.Before he got transported to my flat.

I washed the snail shell so I could photograph the markings... when lo and behold he came alive.

He was ALIVE, and wandering whoo put him through a shell wash?His patterning is clear now, he started to slide away...

Snails are not renowned for their lightning pace out of the trap..he eased his way along the washing powder box. to look for somewhere dark and cool to hide untill dusk..

He is quarantined now in a glass jar until nightfall.I will release him then.

Its amazing how he moved from either the compost bag from frans, or on one of the pots from the shed. He moved out from his hiding place out, into the pan cupboard (which also doubles for plant pots, seed trays, compost, and vermiculite), then up to the top left hand corner. He settled on lavender and chamomile washing powder! My Fav smell...

I think snails are cute, when they are not demolishing my Dahlias. Snails are part of gardening, as are slugs, and other pests.

I read KC MO's Blog about the terrible weather he has had, and the damage done to the garden there.

http://kcgarden.blogspot.com/2007/04/power-of-mother-nature.html

Gardeners cope with all manner of bugs, animals, inclement weather, freak storms, ice, snow, hail, torrential rain, and droughts where the soil bakes to a crisp. We just have to shrug, see whats still growing, and keep on going.

There is much beauty in nature, even the common garden snail with its concentric ringed shell, has lovely colours and stripey patterning. They are some of Natures art forms.

http://brittarnhildshouseinthewoods.typepad.com/brittarnhilds_house_in_th/

As Britt Arnhild says there is beauty in everything, even the common place things, if we just learn how to look at them with fresh eyes.

Digging for Victory: Britains new pastime

I was up early today, watching the BBC new and there was a piece about people growing their own vegetables in there gardens and allotments. I googled for the news and found an article in the Guardian.

It says that for the first time since the second world war vegetable seeds are outselling flower seeds. People are getting fed up of the extravagant prices that large supermarkets sell their organic vegetables, fruit, and herbs. These are specially marked Organic, grown without chemicals or pesticides. The price is double or three times the normal cost for non organic vegetables. I guess these have been sprayed, GM altered, or something similar to not be organic.

Several years ago Allotments (community gardens to the USA) were declining in popularity, and plots lay deserted, abandoned. Councils began to sell off the land previously set aside for the growing of fruit or veg.

Today there are waiting lists of years to gain an allotment. Some councils are reducing the plot size in half to make more available.

The major seed sellers note that vegetable seed and plant sales are up 31%, whereas Traditional flower seeds sales are down by a similar amount.

People want to grow their own veg, for organic reasons, for health reasons, and for a return to old fashioned values. Family's are growing the potatoes, onions, green beans, carrots etc, and pick them for dinner from the plot.

Keeping chickens is on the increase as a pastime, and now beekeeping ,once a declining pastime has become popular, for home made honey I guess. Even within the city of London, bees are buzzing around.

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2052949,00.html

I have my three windowsills, until such time as I move again. The house MUST have a garden or some space suitable for growing fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

The poster is from the British National Archives. Whilst looking up Dig for Victory I found this article by a guy called Erin Koch about the British home front during the second world war. The flower beds and lawns were cleared for growing vegetables during the war when food rationing was in force, and when we were dependent on importing food from outside Britain.

http://sextant.cnu.edu/Erin_Koch/Koch_article.htm

How strange that time has turned 360 degrees from a country at war, to personal crusades against the buying power of the national supermarkets, and a desire to return to agrarian roots of our Island. How long have the British cultivated land and grown plants for personel use? The original cottage garden..

There are two main groups on allotments now, the typical older man, probably retired, and the thirty something growing exotic vegetables. That could be man or woman too. Families have also moved down to allotments too.

The satisfaction of eating something you have grown and nurtured is being fostered, a whole new generation of green fingered children will see their parents doing it.

Allotments will pass down slowly between the old timers to the younger generation, and potatoes, carrots, leeks, cabbages, cauliflowers, spring onions, etc will be grown to go from plot to dinner plate.

I think I will have a house before an allotment, as long as I have somewhere to grow things I will be happy.Until then I will dig and tidy other peoples gardens for pleasure :)

Mock orange in Wakefield

The white, sweetly scented flowers. Growing in a hedgerow along the alley.How did mock orange cross from the united states to Wakefield?

Did a bird eat the seeds then drop it onto the hedge.It germinated and has grown up and down the hospital alleyway.

A photo swiped from Cambridge gardens, of a Philadelphus, mock orange. Thanks to Eal who said what it looked like :)

End of week

Two days off now, after five long thirteen hour days.I can blog loads, catch up on garden blogs from around the world.

The photo is cherry blossom flowers blown along the kerbside.I saw them one day blowing into the physio department.Pink blossoms all over the blue entrance carpet.

Hope all your gardens are growing on well.

Little bird and unknown flower

Taken yesterday on my long day, between admissions..

This cheeky chappy was hopping around my feet yesterday as i ate a turkey sandwich.

He was unphased my camera clicking, and got rewarded with a piece of bread.

Does anyone know what type of bird he is?

His feathers are a mix of reddish brown with a yellow tipped beak.

He is looking quzzically on the second photo.

He grabbed his piece of bread, then hopped back into the hedgerow. It is full of Dandelions, queen annes lace, nettles, and an unknown flower . I will post, growing in the hedgerow on green shiny leaves.

The Hedgerow along one side of the Alley that runs up past the hospital. The queen annes lace blows in the wind.A sea of white flowers.

The birds love this, to sing in, hop around, find snacks to eat.

They fly between one hedge and the other, quick as lightning.

Its hard to photograph them, or they fly up to the trees in the foreground.

Pretty white flowers with cream circles between them. They smell faintly sweet, for attracting insects i guess. They are climbers grappling through the hedge to flower on the upper outer branches, taking in the light from the sun, and the first falling raindrops.

Does anyone recognise it?

The Jewel Orchid flowered...

.. last night.I have yet to smell the scent, maybe it comes out on a night.
It gets misted daily, and is sat on some wet pebbles below the pot.

The Orchid thinks it is in South east Asia, not cold but sunny wakefield.

This Orchid is supposed to be easy to propogate, so i want to try to grow lots more for friends and workmates.












The flowers have a vaguely bird of paradise shape.I can imagine them in a forest floor, growing in the shade. The velvety leaves and the bright white flowers with egg yolk yellow on the lower petal.














I am reading slowly the Orchid Thief and I will review it when i have finished.

The magic of Orchids.I think I will try not to buy any more Orchids.

Is there one called Black Magic? As they cast a spell on people who then covet them, and grow them, try to make a natural environment for them to flower.

Aquilegia today

Aquilegia Purple empereor.There is a mystery though with this nursery bought beauty of a plant..

If the flowers are all purple why did this one make a white flower?The aquilegia spurs are there with the stamen like a dragons tongue poking out of the flower.

This is the Purple Empereor flowers in its glory :)

Frans Caveman Poppy

The photo is from Fran of her Caveman poppy, the iceland poppy.It had the green furry flower buds.

It looks like red flying saucers.It likes the bark chippings i think.

I have just finished a 13 hour day on a surgical admissions unit (not my usual medical admissions).

Now is the time for gardening, and plant care.They help you unwind and focus on them and not on the daily stresses and strains.

Healing flowers and plants, wish i had a garden...Fingers crossed i do soon :)

Dont cry for me Argentina...

The peace lilly with the tear, droplet hanging off the end of the leaf...

Back to work again

Its 6.14 am, nearly time to leave house.I will do some posts tomorrow.I can tell when my days off are because I post lots of photos and words.

Aquilegia purple empereor is star like from the top, purple petals with yellow tips on edge.

Who cant be happy with a flower that mad looking and colourful?

Have good days wherever you are in the world :)

Jewel Orchid Photos

The Jewel Orchid today...

The velvety leaves with the red parallell veins running along the leaf..

The Velvety texture is captures here at the point of where the flowering stem comes up from the leaves.

The flower buds, these remind me of my table lamp with its golf ball shaped light bulb.

Hope they flower soon, the are suppossed to be scented too.

You can imagine these on the forest floor is south east asia growing in Dappled shade.

My growing list,part two

The second part of my list is seedlings raised from seeds in a mixture of either seed trays or pots.

Some seeds germinate quicker than others.The record on the seed packet was may take 90 days to germinate!Thats nearly 13 weeks from planting to seeing any growth :(

I have growing on now:

1) Mimulus, think these are called monkey flowers.They have spectacular flowers with an explosion of colours.I hope they grow for me as they will be good to photograph..

2) Viola Midnight Runner, these have grown really well in a mixture of compost and vermiculite.The mix was like cheesecake biscuit base!All the seeds germinated.I have high hopes for the very dark purple/black flowers.

3) Convolvulus Blue ensign, lovely blue flowers with white and yellow centres.

4) Echinacea Purpurea, Lustre hybrid mix.These cone flowers grow a mixture of red, pink, or white flowers.These were free from Hils and i did not expect them to germinate but they did.

5) Datura Ballerina: one seed has germinated, but this is the record slowest germinator i think.Up to 90 days before i know if its failed or not.One brave Datura has grown so far..

6) Clary, purple sage flower.These annuals are grown for their lovely foliage colour and can be used in dried flower displays with their purple, pink, or blue leaves.These were from Frans old seeds collection but germinated quickly and are quite strong seedlings.

7) Thunbergia Alata Salmon Shades: Another free seed packet of uncertain age, which has germinated.There are five seedlings.The seed case breaks open and forms what looks like two early leaves, then the first paired leaves grow from the bottom of the seed pod.They are nice colours of salmon, orange, and yellow.Commonly called black eyed susan..

8) Gazania Tigerstripe: every plug plant i bought from Wilkos has grown on..

9) Nicotiana: close to nightmare.I think these would be better sown into a garden, and left to grow.They do NOT like being transplanted, and are still keeling over...

10) Snapdragons: I have two lots growing.The first lot are growing on well.The second lot were Beurre Blanquii or something? Yellow flowered snapdragons, a present from Hils seeds collection.

11) Impatients: two lots of busy lizzies have been planted.Boy are these slow this year.Every year i try to raise some busy lizzies from seed.This year the germination has been erratic.Maybe when it warms up they will be quicker..

12) Lavatera: only one seed planted from a dried seed pod case.It has not done anything yet...

13) Purple flowering Honesty. Not a Single seed has germinated but this was an old seed packet and has been exposed to the air.

14) Frans poppys: In her shed, in a glass jar were some dried seed heads, and lots of black seeds.A small handfull got put into a seed tray, watered, and a propogator lid put on.These look to be starting germination.

My Growing List

Fran found this book, and bought it for me. Mr Smiths indoor garden, from a 1980 BBC tv series..

I have gone through the plants and seedlings and seed trays today to come up with my growing list.I have split it into two , pot plants and seedlings.

The pots have growing in them:

1) Candy pink trailing Fuschias

2) Bletilla Striata (chinese ground orchid)

3) Tomato plants: one each of red pear, tigerella, and gardeners delight.mmm cheese n tomato sandwiches..

4) Crocosmia from Frans garden, when we planted the Honeysuckles.

5) Geraniums

6) Primula, flowerless but alive.

7) Hydrangea, the cutting fell off the main plant and is growing nicely in a pot. Waiting for my garden..

8) Sansavieria: mother in laws tongue.Bought in york years ago.It keeps making baby plants for me.

9) Japenese Maple

10) Dicentra Alba: the white flowered bleeding heart.It took some damage at the nursery being left to dry out in the hot sunshine.This has damaged the growing flower buds and leafs.

11) Bird of Paradise: small but perfectly formed.It has a long way to grow before it flowers i think.This will be a long term goal :)

12) Asiatic Pink lillys

13) Jewel orchid: nearly flowering.The white flowers have lovely white flower buds like light bulbs on a pink stem, from the veined velvety leaves.

14) Easter Cactus, rescued from my Nans..

15) Peace Lilly; photographed today

16) Acidanthera (still asleep in pot full of soil.These are commonly called Peacock orchids, with scented flowers).

17) Oriental Stargazer lilly, slow growing compared to the Asiatic pink lilly.

18) Aquilegia purple empereor.

That completes part one of my whats growing list...

Whats growing today

The Aquilegia purple empereor is more beautiful in the daylight than lamp light. I have taken loads of photos off the flowers and the buds.

The two long days over the weekend meant I left the plants to grow with no interference from me.

My Nicotiana have keeled over terribly.For big flowery plants when fully grown they have very shallow roots.A dirt dozen have survived the repotting.

With so many pots its hard for me to keep track of what actually i do have growing, or am waiting for to grow...

Thanks god for the blog.I would love a notebook but I lost the last one Doh.Plant labels are also mysteriously dissapearing.

I have put more sugar syrup in the Dandelion wine, racked off last years wine.I have been told to wait for both containers to clear before bottling them.The handpainted labels are sat on the winebottles waiting for the clearness to develop.

The Asiatic pink lillys have gone mad in the Ceramic pot.They are very green, and have lovely rosette like leaves that fall from the centre, and grow outwards.

The Oriental stargazers are slower movers too.They are growing slowly on day by day.

I have a few seed trays growing seedlings still, but after the Nicotiana disaster I will wait for them to grow bigger.

I am driven by the fact that seed trays are not a good way to use my windowsills.The take up more room than if the plants were in small pots.

I think you can plant seeds in cells and grow them from a pack of 24 or 36.Im used to sowing in seed trays then transplanting them into small pots to grow on.

The rehomed Peace Lilly has started to green its leaves up.Its a funny plant because it cries

occasionally. Tear drops form at the end of the long green graceful leaves.

The Bletilla Striata have grown some more, and now look like they are about to unfurl some leaves. They grow upwards rolled up like a persian carpet.

The Candy pink Fuschias I have bought are okay.One plant died though, because they were all quite ropey.It must be in a gardeners sensitive side to take pity on sickly/ unloved/ unlooked after plants and try to nurse them back to health.

Three Fuschias survive.They will be beautiful when they flower in a month or two..

I will write the list on the next post.As a sign of my passion/madness and to remind me what is actually growing today.

Bloomed today when i was working..

This morning at 6am....

This evening at 9pm...

What a difference a day makes.I will take more pictures soon in daylight to highlight the flowers colours.I love Aquilegia, and this was the first one i have seen flower so im Excited.It means its getting the proper TLC to make sure the plant flowered!!

Jewel Orchid

The Flower buds on the Jewel Orchid stem, like a sheaf of wheat.
Its scientific name is Ludisia Discolour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_jewel_orchid













The Velvety leaves do their best to avoid being photographed.This one is with the flash on, in the front room, about eight foot from a windowsill.It is sat on a pebble tray with water in it, to mimic a humidified atmosphere.

Aquilegia nearly in bloom

Photos from the indoor greenhouse :)

The Asiatic pink lilly's (I only repotted them.The pink pot must have had a few bulbs in it).There are two growing stems, and a third emerging from the soil...

The Aqualegia purple empereor again.Soon to flower I hope.This was from the Nursery at Shelley.Every plant has come from somewhere I have visited..

My new plant from shopping today.A Japanese maple.This will be grown indoors untill I have a house with a garden. My first got chewed by a dog, the second and third got blown away then dried out before dropping every leaf!

I hope this one survives indoors.It has been repotted and watered today.

My indoor garden has taken over three windowsills, one plant stand, a black trolley, and the kitchen top.Its like an indoor greenhouse!

Aqualegia nearly blooming

The Aqualegia Purple Empereor.I hope that i will have a purple flower to photgraph soon!

Frans Favourite plants!

Early Morning and Last pic of Day

Sun rise at 6.30 am

Sun setting at 8.10 pm

I worked a long day, and saw the sun rising and the sun setting.Time for bed now...more photos tomorrow.Will sleep well :)

Growing in a dark place

Outside my Windows this is the only thing growing.An unknown tree has regrowth from a cut branch.It has buckled the gravel they have tarmacced over the root ball.

Unlikely growth is an inhospital enviroment.Yet the tree is growing still, roots reaching into the earth through gravel and tarmac..

Back to work for me now all day.More posts soon.

Three Plants...

This is the Peace lilly from Frans Nanna.I am trying to make it healthy and hopefully flower again.

It has been fed i think with tea from the bottom of cups with rich tea biscuits.

Its now back on a diet of water, and dilute plant flood.

The leaves had yellowed because of the Sunlight from where it was positioned.I hope they green up in the semi light of the flat, away from the Windowills.About eight foot away!

The Bird of Paradise plant, with its brand new leaf in the middle. I have seen them all over the place now. Shops and nurserys seem to be stocking exotic species from before.

The bird of paradise you can even buy the flower as a cut one, plus the plants.Orchids are on sale too, and i bought another one today.

I like my baby bird of paradise plant and it will hopefully grow big, and last for years.From a small plant in a box to a specimin plant in a large ceramic pot, maybe with a bird design on the pot.Aztec style?

Look at what I found today...I only went for some food shopping, but thought I would try to buy some busy lizzie seeds. I did but also acquired this gorgeous Jewel Orchid, and some Mimulus plus busy lizzie seeds.

I will try to photograph it better.The leaves are like black velvet that shines in the light like holograms, with pale veins.

The plant has flower buds and the most delicate pink leaves up the stem.

It is supposed to be hardy, a ground dwelling terrestial orchid from south east asia.

It is grown for its beautiful leaves, whose mad surface defy photography.I will try though.

They have white, scented flowers.More posts about them soon..

I also have my Cactus, Easter Cactus, and Mother in Laws tongue which i consider as house plants. I was eyeing up a spider plant today but resisted the temptation.

The Jungle of my flat is greening up.Hils Charity plant sale is on the fourth of June.I will move the majority of what has grown to that I think.I seriously need a house with a garden :(

Untill then I will keep trying to grow a phenomenal amount of plants, seedlings, and exotics on my three windowsill lol.Hope your gardens are giving you as much pleasure as my indoor garden is.

Pictures from Out n About

More Tree flowers.Love the white flowers with yellow centres.

A fiery looking shrub bush, used as a barrier to a computer retailer.The colours are burnished, and fiery like Autumn colour, but in April.

The Fiery bush in profile along the wall...

Another nameless shrub, this looks quite stark, and needs some Ravens hopping through it.I love the muted colours, and dry feel of it.

Gods fingers...

After the weekend Sunshine it went all grey on my day off, and rained.Good for Frans grass seed which was being eaten I think by stray birds...

I repotted some Gazanias individually, and moved the Clary into small peat pots. I moved some Convulvulus blue ensign a few days ago. Some of the other planted seeds have germinated now.

Nicotiana's are growing on slowly, as are Snapdragons( two varieties), my busy lizzies are equally slow. Some old purple coneflower seedlings have appeared.The black Violas have germinated too.

My flat windosills and the black plant stand are covered in seed trays and seedlings in pots.

I bought six Geranium plants when i went shopping with Fran and they are on the black plant stand.

Also growing on are oriental stargazer lillies, Asiatic pink lillys, three slow Chinese ground Orchids, A bleeding heart Alba (the plant was so dry in the nursery.I took pity on it but the flower buds have been damaged by the wilting heat and bone dry compost). An Aqualegia Purple empereor. Three Tomato plants (Gardeners delight, Red pear, and Tiger),

A Peace lilly rescued from Frans Grandmothers Bungalow, My bird of Paradise plant, the Easter Cactus (not bloomed so a sometime Cactus.) A hydrangea cutting that fell off the big plant when we moved it the other day.Some Crocosmia in pots donated by Fran...

Three windowsills, two are four foot, the kitchen one is maybe five foot across.I must be mad or driven to try growing so many plants in a confined space!

If they all grow on i will have lots of photos to take :)

The photo was taken as I walked to Sainsburies.The sunlight spilling through a gap in the cloud. Gods fingers is what i used to call the light beams falling to earth...

Cherry Blossom

Cherry blossom buds in delicate pink colours, under the shade of flowering blossoms.

I noticed today the whole roadside has a line of pink flowering tree's.

Flowers of spring, and schools.Every school i went to had a pink blossom tree planted outside it..

More posts tomorrow :)

Daisys

Daisies, such gorgeous flowers, growing all over the hospitals grass under the pink cherry blossom tree's and the shrubs.

Sunday morning Sun rising

Wakefield Westgate bathed in the glow of a warm rising sun at half six this morning, lovely blue sky up above!

Five views from Saturday

Some photos today, cant resist taking them even at work.

Foggy start at 6.30am this morning.

Pink cherry blossom kind of tree....

Beautiful yellow/white flowers on a hospital shrub...

Queen annes lace...

Ferny leaves in the hedgerow as i ate a sandwich today, the sun came out after the morning fog.

Back to work tomorrow again for another long day.Time for bed soon,Zzzz.

lilac tree, gooseberry bush at Frans

The Lilac tree with the fields.The council cut a lot of tree's down.It is like the 1950's pic..

The Lilac tree in bud.It has been pruned into an upward fan shape.. old gardenening hands have shaped it i think..

The large gooseberry bushes, with bee's and butterflies yesterday.

Photos from the Past

I wrote that Frans Dad had emailed me, and he sent some photos that show the garden in the 1950's, 1970's, and i of course have photographed it as it is now.

The landscape has altered with houses, and football pitches, the pig farm has gone (goodbye pigs), and a beck has been filled in I guess.

The garden holds the secrets and stories from the past.As we dug we saw the work that had ben done before. The stories flowed about what it had been like in the past.

A garden renovation and tidying up, became a history lesson. The ghosts of the past were still there in old coins, marbles, escaped pigs, scarlet fever, and flowers grown. Its cool Fran bought her family home, with all the attached memories and remembrances. Her family are still around to fill in the memory gaps, and to make the past part of the present.

The post about Garden treasures was about the connectedness of life, of people, of things lost in the soil to be found.

Coins, marbles, lost toys, mason jars, girls handprints in concrete.

Through the miracle of the internet, and a time machine lets see how it looked in various years :)

1957: The end of the garden with the concrete washer post as the maker of where the garden ends, and the field ends.There were still tree'd though....

1972: The concrete washing post is there.I see the Fence is there now, as are the tree's...

Frans Grandad i guess, with mountains of wall flowers and a cactus.He liked to grow massed bedding plants for the front garden borders..

Bless her, Fran and her brother by a Quince tree.The grass was lush back then.This must be in the late sixtys or early seventys.I can see an arbour on the side near to the shed, which also doubled as a carpenters woodworking area.

The old vice is still there today...

2007, from yesterday.The concrete washer post is still there, and the fence from 1972.It is the only thing I think left.

I wander how long the Lilac tree and gooseberry bush have been there.They are the oldest things after the washing post, and the fence.

Through talking, and photos we have travelled through time to see how gardens change with generations, yet the common passion links all the people. Gardening in the blood.

Dandelion wine Recipie

Here is the recipie from a book by Francis Pinnegar called "Wine making at home"

It is close to the traditional recipie I found on the internet, copied from a pamphlet from the 1920's.The people who put it on the internet said we do not stand by this method.I have tried it so it does work:

You need for one gallon of Dandelion wine:

All purpose yeast (says wine yeast starter)

1.5 teaspoons citric acid

2.25 litres/4 pints of dandelion flowers

a lemon

1 yeast nutrient tablet

1/4 teaspoon grape tannin

cooled boiled water

The wine needs a sugary base.The book says:

1.5 kilos/3lb sugar

1.5 teaspoons citric acid

900 ml/1.5 pints water

The method is boil 3litres/5 pints of water. Put the dandelion flowers in a plastic pail.Macerate them with a wooden spoon, and then pour the boiled water onto them.Leave in the pail for 2-3 days only, stirring daily.

Make the Sugar Syrup as above.Allow to cool down.The must (the flower/water mix) needs straining through a fine nylon sieve into a clean pail.Add the sugar syrup, the lemon rind, and juice, then the yeast. Cover and leave for seven days in a warm place to ferment.

After seven days it needs Sieving into a fermentation Jar, top it up to the 4.5litre/1 gallon mark with cool boiled water and fit fermentation lock.

Allow to ferment untill clear then rack (draw the wine off with tubing leaving any dead yeast at the bottom).This needs repeating three months after that, then bottle it two months later.

He says it is drinkable in nine months.Last years Dandelion wine is 7 months old now, clearing in colour, and not bitter.

I measured the pints of flower heads in the glass.

NB The wine is made with the flower petals, not the leaves or stems as they are bitter tasting.

Some recipies suggest a few flower heads with the green bits left on for wine body. Three quarters of mine is just petals!

I have not used any tablets he mentioned.I also used oranges and lemons, to give the citric acid and a nice flavour along with dandelion wine taste.I substituted 100 grams of Raisins for grape tannin.I also have added black tea to the wine.

The original recipie just used normal ingredients.No chemical additives were listed.I used a cider flagon as a fermentation jar, and yeast from the cupboard.

I hope it inspires you who want to try it out, and discover what our grandparents knew about home wine making, traditional country wines. :)

Gooseberry Bee

This was my first Bee pic from this year.I snapped and snapped trying to get them before they took off again.

He is hanging onto the flower :)

Spring wings

The first Butterfly ever photographed on the blog.I didnt take the picture, Frans husband did.The butterfly landed on the fence upside down and just chilled.

They are very flitty, and hard to get them still for a good photo.

After my attempts the Butterfly gave in and let us photograph him.He was tasting the Gooseberry bush flower nectar!

Ladybird

The first ladybird of Spring :)

I love seeing the red beetles with the black spots.I feel a strange happiness, they are like old friends returned from a break.

Aphids beware!

Frans Garden Third day

I went back yesterday and helped Fran finish the jobs we wanted to do.The Hydrangea and Callicarpa were dug up from the bermuda triangle.A rectangle at the bottom right of the back garden where nothing grows on except couch grass.

We removed three trugs (pictured left with the newly dug in Hydrangea) of the devils grass.

It is like a carpet of roots spread under the stone chippings and black plastic.It had come through both layers and was happily growing on top.

The stones are more visible, and the grass has retreated to lick its wounds.

We planted the two Honey Suckles up against the fence with some canes to support them whilst they find their bearings.

I got some Crocosmia bulbs which are now in pots.Every bit of soil Fran dug was chocked full of summer bulbs.

The Callicarpa moved to the front, it is still waking up so it will start regrowing soon.Some bulbs were randomly added to the front garden border.

I have some photos of the garden as it used to look.Thanks to Frans dad, who read the posts and emailed me.

I will have to wait for Fran to come around before she can see her photo of a few years ago.

I got sunburnt on the face yesterday, even though it never felt that hot.Red cheekbones and nose!

I rescued Frans Nana's Peace Lilly yesterday, and hope to nurse it back to health.I am back to work and the usual hospital stuff tomorrow.

I can look at my tanned skin, cuts and grazes, and smile remembering my three garden days.I am sure I will go bakc to help Fran garden, or go plant shopping.

Some Flowers from yesterday

Lovely Pink/red flowers Dicentra's in the Front garden border.I love the silvery tear drops...

Saxifrage flower in the sunlight, with gold and yellow centre. This is growing in an old belfast sink now turned into an Alpine garden.You can see the crushed green glass beneath...

I call these cowslips.Primula Veris, my mum used to see these walking around rural Cirencester in Gloucestershire.

Perfect nodding yellow flowers!

Frans free bulbs.A nursery gave her eight free plants that still smell sweet.I cant remember the name Doh, but you plant the bulbs in September to force them, to flower and scent in time for Xmas.

The flowers are very lilly-ish, but quite strong looking.I will alter the post when i remember what they are called :)

Added on Friday the 13th...They are Hyacinths and they smell loveloy.Im going to get some in September as these free specimins have won me over.For Xmas colour and scents!

Kerria Japonica

Thanks to all the people who told me the mysterious roadside shrub was Kerria Japonica.

I saw even more today, one at a garden centre in its display border, and some small pots for sale!

Its amazing how you suddenly see a flowering shrub everywhere after you notice it for the first time.

Thanks to everyone :)

The Display Kerria Japonica....

The one for sale in the second nursery we visited!

Frans Garden Again

I was back again to help Fran with the back garden.It has an area of grass which we thought would be good to reseed and try to grow some new grass over the bald patches.

The problems were the kids kicking the seed off and the dog digging in the grass looking for stomes to chew...

The solution was to construct a temporary fence to keep the animals/kids off it whilst the grass seed germinates and hopefullyinto beautiful green grass.

We used chicken wire that had been fixed to the back fence to keep the puppy dog from getting out through the picket fence.

It had been stapled on, and than overrun with brambles and couch grass.

My hands are still slashed from the brambles, the devils own plant with its piercing thorns that stick into your flesh on contact and wont let go.

It took an hour to take off the chicken wire from the back fence and cut back the brambles so

they were on the park side.

The next mission with bleeding hands from the brambles/barbed wire was to get some bamboo canes as fence supports, and some grass seed to sow on the prepared grass.

We visited THREE nurserys in the search for some grass seed.It took a few hours as we looked at all the lovely plants that we could see.

The picture on the left was the Third Nursery. I have never seen so many plants.Its like a colourful massed planting scheme.All the plants on tables outside, all the way around, to the vast indoor spaces.

We finally got the grass seed, a patching one with rye grass in it.Its for kids and dogs to run across so it wont be used for playing lawn bowls :)

On our travels we collected Five tomato plants, Two Honeysuckles, A dicentra Spectablis Alba for me, six geraniumplants as i could not find the seeds in Sainsburys yesterday, and a massive bunch of Daffodils for Frans vase.

The grasses bald patches were watered, then stabbed with a fork to break the desert like consistancy up. It will need watering but hopefully the grass will take.Then in 3 weeks or so the temporary fenc can come down.

The photos show our handywork, canes pushed into the ground, and chicken wire tied with string, with deft handiwork, the grass seed have been sown.It took all day but it was beautiful and sunny. My gardeners tan is coming along...

My Fav wildflowers again :)

The infamous Dandelions on the way up to Sainsburys. Growing in waste ground, these ones on Gravel by the Car repair place.

I wander whether or not to print out the recipie for Dandelion wine.I know some people have googled and ended up on my post but thats without a recipie.I have four books now with various recipies and the vague one that I used before.

From this...........

To this over the course of a year...

If anyone wants the Recipie drop me a comment and i will post it in the comments, or a new post :)

Mystery Roadside Shrub with yellow flowers..

A mad looking Shrub by a traffic lights.I cant find it in my RHS encyclopedia with lots of photos of plants in spring, summer, autumn, and winter in flower colours!

The flower is a thing of beauty, like some intricate restaurant serviette neatly folded out.Does anyone know what its called?

Tuesday Post

The bird of Paradise with its new leaf unfolding like a sailing ship.It has also got some vermiculite in its soil to stop its roots getting soggy.

I think once its grown bigger it will need a bigger pot.For the moment it is chilling on the bedroom windowsill.

The Brown leaf edges were like that when i bought it from the shop.

It looks healthy enough to me on this photo.

Primula

The orange flower bud from yesterday, opened today.I dont know why the petals have gone orange like.I will try to save this over the year.

They are much loved by Councils for mass planting.I dont know what happens to them after they are removed

They are perennials so if they can be kept alive through the year they should bloom again.

A closer Picture, trying to capture the delicious colours of the petals.They are also the only colour I have at the moment whilst all the other plants are growing on.

Two Tree's on Westgate

This tree is on Westgate, just under the Walls of the Prison, and near to the train station.It has white cheery blossoms and i like the colours of the flowers...

Five minutes later the Sun broke from cover, and was behind the tree. The grey clouds swirling overhead.

There are two of my fav things, trees and changing light.

Easter Sunday

Primula flowers, love the colours..














Tried to capture a flower bud which is like a small orange rose with its delicate petals.















Primula flower bud..























Asiatic lilly growing on...
















Bletilla pushing out a leaf skywards.

















The crooked Bletilla stem, the leaf has grown amazingly well in a few days.Getting warmed up!



Wishing all garden bloggers a Happy Easter, and good gardening this bank holiday weekend.

Dandelion Wine

This was bottled on Friday.Two wine size bottles, and two small beer bottles.I have asked people to save me their old wine bottles.

It tastes strong and a a mixture of the Dandelion flower with orange/lemon hint.It needs to naturally settle now over the next five months.

Its one thing to have the patience for sowing seeds, and monitor the flowers progress, its different when you are waiting for a year to work out if a wine is drinkable.

Angela will be my guinea pig as she made home made wines before so her feedback can guide future batches!!

It was made with no special equipment, using only things found in the kitchen normally.

This was not without problems, but I wanted an experiment to see if wine can be made using old techniques.When peoples parents and grandparents made it they used normal equipment.

Also still in the cupboard is the demijohn full of one gallon of Plum wine.Angela gave me her excess plums last year.I used them to make more wine!!

I need six wine bottles I think for bottling that up.Then some wine rack to let the wine clear, and start to taste better.

I had two six monthly tastes, and both taste better now than before.The bitterness from the dead yeast has cleared.The impurities float down to the bottom, and when you rack it (transfer it from demijohn to bottle) you remove them.

How did it start? From reading blogs I read a question about the recipie for Dandelion wine. In the spring last year my garden had loads of them all over the lawn.So the madness began lol, as an experiment and new skill to learn.

I made some acrylic painted wine labels with Dandelions on them.I thought they looked arty, but now how to stick them on the bottles?

I will blog what Angela (cheif home made wine tester) says about both wines:)

Buried Treasure

Yesterday I heard lots of stories.Fran was full of stories of her Grandparents, and parents. My fav story involved a piggery. One Cunning pig managed to escape and made a run for freedom. He ran to where the park is now and found his way into Frans grandads garden, and began to eat all his veg and flowers!

Fran recalled a friend who found a gold broach in some soil, shaped like a sea horse. Someone elses garden was built on the site of an old glass factory. As they dug up the soil they kept finding glass marbles.I wandered if we would find any treasures yesterday.

Its amazing the stories behind the land we garden, the people who have worked with the soil. The treasures we unearth, from previous occupants, or things that have been lost. It pleases me to find stuff occasionally.

Gardening is timeless. We can read books from throughout history, and see the passion, the love for growing flowers, plants, and tree's. Making our own garden of Eden.

Fran found a Half Penny dated from 1964. It was well covered in mud. Fourty three years since it was made. They ceased to be legal tender in 1984. It was lost, and waited for us to dig the soil before finding it. Its worth twenty pence I read, but its the serendipity of unearthing it on a sunny day, making the front garden border beautiful.

The talking, the coffee for me, the people looking over the fence. It felt like a sunday, with music playing. People outside their houses, a few people were out gardening. Doing as people have done for years when its sunny and pleasant to be outside. Especially after the cold and wet weather...

This is a clearer image of the buried treasure. The sailing ship on it. Fran is cleaning the coin we found up, and i guess it will be kept somewhere.From a good gardening day:)

Have you ever found buried items in your garden? Did you find remnants in a garden shed from previous owners? Found items that were beneath six foot of weeds and had to be released from them?

Want to know what people have found in their gardens.

Photos from yesterday part two

The Woodmans weather stick.If its pointing up it will be fair day.If its pointing down its a wet day.

I dont know how it works.It stayed pointing up and it was a lovely hot sunny day yesterday.

Frans doggy.She followed us around everywhere yesterday, even over the back fence for the bark chippings, around the sides of the houses, through a green metal fence to get back to Frans house. Three times we filled up with bark, and three times she joined us.

She was interested in chewing sticks and stones..

Dicentra with Red hearts, still want one of these to grow.I love the leaves and the flower buds.The dangling hearts look wanderful too.

Another Dicentra,This one i guess is Alba.White flowered, a perfect companion plant to the red flowered one.

Mystery plant number two.With its pink flowers held over small leaves. Losing plant labels is obviously not just a gardeners trait.Even garden centres lose them.

You begin to call it by its physical charecteristics.ie the pink flowered plant...

Iceland Poppy.I loved the flower buds on these.They remind me of Cavemen.Green velvety pods with fine downy black hair.

The flowers on the label were spectacular orange and yellow poppies like flying saucers.

Photos from yesterday part one

The Pieris we rescued from the back garden.It was surrounded by couch grass which i have never heard of.It was everywhere, choking the plants and getting into every pot around.

A large goosberry bush which Fran said was maybe twenty years old.It fruits prodigiously and is turned into pies, jams, and given away to her friends and family.It was maybe ten foot wide and about three foot back.An old friend left by her grandparents.

One of the mystery plants.It has small light green leaves, and masses of a small oval shaped white flower.It smelt like Jasmine, very sweet but not overpowering.It came from a garden centre but had lost its label.

Help who am I?

Nestled under the front room window Pyrocanthus, was this lonely primula. The only survivor of many plants.The Pyrocanthus has jasmine growing through it and alongside it snaking up a drainpipe.

The Front garden right border with A fir tree from a hanging basket display (its about seven feet tall now), two Dicentras one red heart flowers one white heart flowered.A lavender that is regrowing on.Aqualegias (Fran is the Aqualegia queen, when i sent her a pic of purple empereor she said i've had that before!)

A purple Heuchera, some Sedum, some Daffodils.

I thought it only needed tidying up.The flow of plant colours and textures works.

It was a collection of grown on plants and freebys from family.When you get a bed that works its better to leave it.The soil is almost totally covered.

Frans Garden

I helped Fran (from work) today with her garden.We had a list of garden jobs she wanted me to help her do. From twelve untill Six PM I helped her dig the front border where a privet hedge had formally been.

She went plant shopping yesterday and had some summer flowering bulbs as well.The council had shredded some trees in the parkland behind her house.

The mission was to collect the bark, dig the front border over, plant it, then cover it with bark chippings.

I took thirty five photos throughout the day.Everything hurts now from breaking up the clay soil, adding fresh compost, then forking it over.

We had to avoid a Chinchilla grave which we over dug i think.It is still in the ground somewhere beneath plants.

We planted forget me nots, pink flowers like forget me nots, Photinia Red robin, a pieris rescued from oblivion of the back garden, A Dicentra bleeding heart, an unknown white flower plant that smelt like jasmine, some late flowering Dafodils, some bluebells, Aqualegias, some Astilibe (strange bulbs like square roots.They looked like roots too from the late Privet hedge), and Fifty Peacock Orchids.

The bark chippings were scooped up into frans Trug (funny word), then transported to the front border for a moisture/weed controlling mulch!

The soil once broken up and turned was quite nice.It was dry in places, clay like in others but the ghostly hedge had left a lot of organic matter for us to mix into the soil.

We never did get to the back garden that is another days work.She has a bermuda triangle too at the back right hand corner.Thats another post when i go back to help tidy the back garden up...

The borders look neater now, just need the plants to fill out.They had a good watering, and the bark chippings are excellent for retaining soil moisture.

Its amazing how much two people can achieve when they set their minds to it.

I have asked that she photographs it regular so i can see if the bark chippings improve the plants lives.

Bletilla Updates

I have read a few blogs recently, and one of the comments was from Angela in Northern California.The most photogenic blogger (She shows her face in a hat anyway, and one reading a guidebook that i remember).

http://sacgardening.blogspot.com/
Asides from visiting the San Fransisco plant show she wrote that she loved Bletilla. AKA the chinese ground Orchid.

http://sacgardening.blogspot.com/2007/03/2007-san-francisco-flower-garden-show.html

She had the variety I have with the purple/lilac flowers, and some Bletilla Alba with white flowers, and some yellow flowered ones.
Kindred spirits across the Atlantic, and the entire united states!

The two that are growing are photographed. The bark covered tips are rising upwards seeking the light. Multiple layers have been shed like winter coats on a hot day. Im guessing its a rolled up leaf, cuban cigar style thats emerging from the green undercoat.
This one above has a bad back from being at a funny angle during the winter snooze, when the bulbs were dormant..
I have no experience of growing Orchids, so I will photograph them lots as they hopefully progress to flowering. All i have done is made a free draining soil with 50% vermiculite, and 50% soil. They grow naturally in soil in South east Asia on sandy hillsides. Im not going to try Epiphtic Orchids with the bark soilless medium for the pots!

Angela did your Bletilla Striata flower last year?The purple one.Hope you read this!

This Orchid stem is dead straight and has lovely striated green undercoat. You can just see the outer bark wood coat. Both bulbs have anchored themselves now. The roots will be seeking moisture, and nutrients to kickstart the process of growing.

The last phot shows the sleepy Orchid bulb. Zzzzzz. Every family has someone who will never get out of bed. I think this bulb belongs to the Snoozy family. The roots are working their way down so hopefully they will catch up soon with the two early risers.

A story of two Lilles

As i slept for a few hours the plants were busy growing in the dark ready for a new day to make food from photosynthesis.

I got up at 7am (second early rising day.) I wander if the morning light and birds singing makes me wake up from my slumber :)

Look what had emerged from the soil last night.I had to wait for good light to photograph it though.The quickest Asiatic pink lilly in the world.I love the green stems with red/pink edging.

Also popping out for some exposure to the air is the Oriental Stargazer lilly in the rectangular glass vase.

This one is more red in the stems, reminding me of king edward potato's, must be the growing tips colour and the soil

colour.

Gardening in the blood

I have just planted three more seed trays and moved the windowsill plants around again.I know I have green blood because who else would grow this many plants in a flat with three windowsills?
The indoor greenhouse is full.I am formulating plans for when the seedlings have grown on a bit.I need more shelves with lots of space for small 3" pots...

To measure my madness here is a list of whats growing on, in Snappys flat:

1) Nicotiana evening fragrance
2) Echinacea Lustre hybrid
3) Convolvulus Blue Ensign
4) Thunbergia Salmon Shades
5) Snapdragon Madam Butterfly
6) Viola Midnight Runner
7) Snapdragon Braun Blaquetii

That is seven seed trays, now with cute greenhouse lids.Im hoping the steady temperature and moisture will help germinate the seeds. The Nicotiana have already germinated a few weeks ago.

Ok, you think seven seed trays is slightly crazy.Theres more plants and bulbs:

8)Impatients Carousel Mix, seeds in two pots.
9) Stargazer lilly in rectangular glass vase...just soil so far.
10) Datura Ballerin, seeds in two pots.
11) Lavatera, An experimental seed from Sonia's house
12) Gazanias growing on, twenty four plants.
13) Aqualegia Purple Empereor photographed earlier.
14) Pink Asiatic lilly bulb in soil, in pink pot
15) My orchid bulbs, Bletilla Striata

The madness ends with my house plants, Bird of Paradise, Three mother in laws tongue (one grown up one, and two off shoots), my easter cactus, the red/yellow flowered Primula, and Six cactus.
Over Twenty species of plants in a small one bedroom flat.:)

Once they have grown on and im over ran with pots and plants I will give them away to friends and colleagues. I will also go to the plant stall with Hils raising money for charity.I think she grows many more than me but she has two greenhouses.
I guess if some good comes from my passion then its all good. Once gardening gets into your blood it stays for a long time.

Painting and seeds

This is what i have done this morning. After a late bedtime I woke up at 0630, and sprang out of bed.

I was painting some flowers in pots, on some steps.I spent another four hours finishing that.I will post the picture soon.

The Lavetera seed has been soaked overnight and is now planted in some compost.I hope it grows because they are spectacular plants.I have no idea what colour the flowers are.It will be a suprise if it germinates and fufills its flower destiny!

I have three more seed packets to open, but i need some supplies.A shopping trip is on my to do list soon.

Photographed is the Aqualegia from the nursery, with leaves of burnished gold.I love the colours as the light pours through them.Like chlorophyll stained glass windows.

I am slowly recovering from the seven nights.My body clock is all over the place.

Two Green stain glass windows to furnished in Burnished gold!

Lavatera

Lavatera seed from outside a house.The seed pod has been dissicated in the wind and looks like fine lace.

I have the seed here now on the table, soon to be planted!There is not much growth in my indoor greenhouse.

I answered all the comments you have left upto my night shifts.

I have been painting in the abscence of growth to report on.

Hope all your gardens, seeds, and plants are growing on.More posts tomorrow!

Bought today.

I was in plant heaven today at the garden centre in Shelley. Hundreds of gorgeous plants for spring gardens.I will have to visit in all four seasons.

They do gardening stuff for children, classes on planting baskets and containers.

They have been a family run business since 1872 i think. Seed merchants, now members of the british orginisation for accredited garden centres.

It has a cafe, homeware, garden tools, rabbits, pet supples, and numerous other things related to gardening, veg growing, bulbs, etc.

The carpark was the fullest i have ever seen for a nursery, the views are spectacular. The surrounding countryside had loads of spring daffodils on grass verges by stonewalls, and cows.

I bought an Aqualegia, called Purple Empereor with purple/blue flowers like eagle talons.The leaves are describes as burnished gold.I will photograph them tomorrow!
The other plant is a bulb in a pot of soil. Hardy Asiatic lilly because the colour looked lovely.It was also in a pink pot.
I have showed the labels because the pots are not photogenic yet.I have more seeds to sow tomorrow.I need some shelving for more seed trays to grow by the windows where the light is.
No allotment news yet :(
The orchids look to be developing slowly with green tips being unwrapped like pass the parcel.A bark layer, a lighter layer, a dark green layer, and finally I think some coiled leaves although only the tips are showing.
There were orchids today at the garden centre for £11.They were like the ones in the hospital but different flower patterns.
They are sold already in flower, and had a photocopied sheet.
Trey, from the Golden Gecko nursery I hope you read the last post because i thought of you as i walked around.

Sunlight and tree's

Taken from a North west facing window last night. The light changed through the tree's making them silhouettes, with the noisy crows carking and flying around.

The Sunset is one of my fav photographic things, and combining it with natural scenes appeals to me..

More plant shopping

I went with Sonia to a family owned plant nursery called Armitages garden centre in a village called Shelley, near to Huddersfield.

http://www.armitages.com/

It was a wuthering heights day with stormy grey clouds and a cold bitter wind.

The selection of plants, shrubs, tree's, pots, ornaments, water features, soil, grit, etc was enormous.

Every plant was looked after and looking healthy.Somebody actually cared for the plants on sale.Whereas the big chain stores display them untill they die from neglect.

The scenery surrounding the garden centre was amazing, farmland, with tree's, hedges, and lots of dry stone walls.

You can get a flavour for it here.There were even bags of farm manure!!

Proper country smell.

They had a gorgeous selection of alpine plants too.I tried to resist but had to buy some plants to take back to my flat..

I bought a pink flowered Hardy Asiatic lilly, and a Purple Empereor Aqualegia.

They are in the kitchen windowsill now with 24 gazania plants, three orchids, a primula, the oriental stargazer pot, and two Datura pots.

Geraniums

Corydalis Solida: A perenniel plant

Some keen eye bloggers helped identify this beautiful plant.The flowers are now being lofted in the air above the ferny green leaves.

They said it was a Corydalis Solida, and when i googled it the images matched.:)

http://www.hlasek.com/corydalis_solida_4705.html

There is some information on the plants for a future database erport:

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Corydalis+solida

They live in full sun to shade, they like damp but not soggy smell.The flowers are described as spurred.They have a lovely sweet smell like candy i think.

They can be planted singly or as a groundcover.The garden that they are in is overgrown, with tree's overhead.It is like a woodland area.I wander if they were planted by previous gardeners or are weeds?They are gorgeous though.

Its amazing from USA to Europe they were identified.Thanks for the comments.I love these plants.I wander if i could dig up a few bulbs lol....

End of nightshifts :)

Another day another sunset picture.My last walk to work last night, and the sun was blazing red, pink, and orange.I loved it setting behind this tree.

Love the NHS sign below on some construction fences.

My Fav Wildflower

This is how i know Spring is here.A lone Dandelion sat next to the alleyway wall on the way to work.

The flower petals are amazing complex in shape.I still have the dandelion wine in the dark ageing in a glass bottle.

The Colour of the flower came out in the twighlight without a flash.you can almost feel the silky petals!

Fire in the sky...Sunset last night

Sunday Morning

Six nights down, one to go.Am tired now.One last twelve hours shift to go then I can try to recover from the 84 hours on shift!!
Miss reading about other peoples gardens, and seeing pictures.This week has been work, eat, sleep repeated over and over.
I plan on buying more seeds, hopefully report on some germination, encourage my orchids to grow, and visit a plant nursery next week..
Bed calls, zzzzz.