Gardening
Salvia Dreaming
Hi There!
Autumn is Salvia time in my garden and I must say they are looking good. Here’s a few of the many
Cheers!
Another Bowl of Roses
Flavour of the Month
Hi there!
Yes, you guessed it. It’s Roses but don’t panic because some hot weather has really forced them on and frizzled the blooms which obviously shortens the season. Sad I know but that’s what happens here. Hope you enjoy these pictures!
Cheers!
Still more Roses. I know, its getting out of hand.
A bowl of Roses
More Roses
Hi there!
Yet again I’m here to bombard you with more photos of roses. Well that’s what the heading says, so what were you expecting, daisies? Sad old day today, the wind has been howling all day. Whoosh, there goes’ all the petals. At least the breeze will smell wonderful.
Cheers!
Roses
Hi There!
Welcome to my favourite time of year. Yet again spring is well and truly underway and the reminder today of a warm low to mid 3o degree day, just reminding us that summer is just around the corner. If we could just bypass summer and go straight to Autumn that would be very useful. Then I would have my two favourite seasons back to back. Any way here are some photos to enjoy. Cheers!
Sigh….
Hi There!
Whenever I see this plant, mostly when it’s in flower I just sigh or even a MMMmmmm or AAHHhhhhh and amazingly it’s not a rose. But! it is somehow connected to them, all will be revealed later. In case you’re wondering, I’m talking about Malus ioensis plena. Also known as the Betchel crab Apple, this beautiful tree only grows to about 6m tall by about 3-4 wide. This means it can be planted in lots of smaller gardens making it possibly one of the most common crab apples or even of all smaller tree’s. Common you say! Well yes its very common but in gardening terms common actually means something that has been tried and tested and survived and performed and continued to perform over and over. I know if you say common it sounds dull but hey, have a look here.
Seriously, how beautiful is that!
It’s seriously just a sea of blossoms. Now how is it connected to roses? Well simply put it belongs to the Rosaceae family. How? Read on. The majority of species in Rosaceae have leaves with serrated margins and a pair of stipules where the leaf joins the stem. Branch spines and prickles are common on trees and shrubs in the rose family. There are plenty of more similarities that put crab apples into Rosaceae. Simply put if you look at a human family group the offspring of the parents will have distinguishing marks and looks that make them look like their parents to some degree, and if you have cousins, their features will match yours in some way(mostly).
So we know roses have lots of thorns, this crab apple has sharp spine like tips to its branches. Get the connection? Anyway, enough of that stuff, more photo’s I think.
Even the buds are gorgeous!
I think the photos say more than all my ramblings….
Cheers!
A few more things
Hi There!
Todays stroll revealed a few more things of interest, take this for example, Anemone sylvestris from central and western Europe which looks quite delicate but is found in dry deciduous woodlands and also meadows. So it may have some hardiness to it, I have yet to test this in my garden. I could imagine a whole lot of these flowering under some tree’s somewhere.
Here’s something interesting as well. Linaria aeruginea which hails from Spain and Portugal. This plant is a small perennial, say 15-30 cm both ways with interesting coloured snapdragon like flowers, I think its name means rust coloured. The flowers certainly have splashes of rust colouring on them!
Here is Aquilegia saximontana which comes from North America and is endemic to the Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rocky Mountain Columbine. It grows to only about 15-20 cm and has dainty lavender and white flowers with hooked spurs protruding behind the flowers.
Here’s a side view
I think these would look good massed planted, actually any Columbine would look good massed planted.










