Monday...with Ornamental Artichokes

I was in the local park on Saturday for a friend’s birthday and walking along by the tennis courts we noticed the amazing display of Ornamental Artichokes.

Some of them were turning to seed and only a few were still in flower, but they were still pretty impressive.

So on Sunday I decided to cycle through the park to have another look...

When I got there I saw that a load of them at the end had been pulled up and thrown around, and been made a complete mess of, so I thought I’d take myself a few of the heads and possibly try to grow some in my own garden next year...

The wild meadow which was planted in the park a while ago is also still impressive, even though a lot of it is now turning to seed...

( the meadow is a good philip when you have to cycle a long way uphill to get home... ) 

...and just in case the Ornamental Artichokes don’t happen in my garden, at least I can add them to my plant documenting!

Thursday...flower naming

On Tuesday, during our hedgerow car meanderings, I also collected a selection of wild flowers...

When I was about 10 years old there was a summer holiday project to collect, label and stick into a book a selection of wild flowers. 

I looked forward to getting on with the project all Summer and then, rather typically, I suddenly realised that I only had about 4 days to get it done before going back to school!

I went round to a friend’s house and we collected flowers together...( she told me there were loads down a little path called ‘The Tinker Tank’...I don’t know why I’ve always remembered that ).

I loved it, and then felt rather foolish that I hadn’t worked on the project over the whole Summer, as I could have collected LOADS...and maybe even ones that no-one else had collected (...that’s always important to a 10 year old girl).

...but some of those flowers which I collected and named really stuck in my memory...wild campion, vetch, scarlet pimpernel...

I think I’ve always wanted to catch up on, or rather extend that school project, and now with various books of late grandparents and an iphone handy, I seem to be getting on with it...and I find photos of the plants a much more satisfying record, than pressed flowers ever were to me...

So here are some of my Summer wild flowers so far:

Himalayan Balsam...

Wild Teasel...

Hawkweed Ox Tongue...

Upright Vetch...

Swine’s Succory...

( this was really tricky to find on the web, although it seems to be a relation of Lapsana... )

Common Ragwort...

I’m always cautious of this plant, as one year our whole family had to pull up an entire field of the stuff ( from the roots ) as it’s poisonous to horses and cattle...

Hardhead... 

Wild Rape Seed...

( ...and the photographer’s companion! )

Sunday...( with Echium reflections )

I’ve been working on some table projects today, but basically there’s been no gardening as it’s been so wet and windy in Brighton...

...although I did manage an early morning bike ride as the wind was thankfully behind my back up the long hill home, ( even though I was already completely soaked by then! )

AND I managed to salvage some ruddy coloured hydrangea and blue agapanthus heads which had made their way into the cycle path!

So, instead, I thought I’d reflect, on the rise of my Giant Echium over the past few months...

These leaves sprung into a giant purple spike during May which then attracted thousands of bees constantly for at least 2 months...

I was out there at 05:30 one morning and the bees were already going mad for it...

When I realised it was an extraordinary happening this year ( I’ve grown them before but they’ve never been as magnificent as this )...I started to take visual notes, using my son as a marker...

...and actually he seems to have grown as rapidly as the Echium!

             

The small purple flowers have now virtually disappeared from the spike...

( but I’ll be selling seeds at my Christmas Open House in November as there were so many people who wanted some during the May Festival ).

Smaller seedlings are also dotted about the garden, girding themselves for next year...

...hoping for a snail free existence!

The light is very strange and the wind is crazy today, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that tonight isn’t the night the Giant Echium succumbs to gravity!

Monday... with lots of Dahlias

After a really great trip away in Cornwall, I was also pleased to get back home to my garden here in Brighton...

Everything seems to have grown massively so the next few days will involve a lot of cutting back.

When I was in Cornwall this time, I popped in to Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens again to buy some more succulents and have a cup of tea.

Dahlias were everywhere, and I love dahlias, much to the chagrin of my mother...

When I turned 30 she asked me what I’d like for my birthday and I said 30 different dahlias...she refused, saying that they were too vulgar!! 

When I was in hospital giving birth to my son, I took a picture of a dahlia, stuck it to the wall and stared at it over many long, difficult hours...and when I was 8 years old we had to paint them at school; I’d never seen them before and was captivated.

So dahlias have always been on the edges of my life, but only this year have I managed to produce more than one flower of my own!

I hadn’t anticipated that completely amazing dahlias would be on every table in the cafe...

...and when I bought a bunch, the woman told me that they were from the National Dahlia Collection just down the road!

I was so excited as I’d never realised that it was so close.

When we got there it was deserted, but I definitely managed to indulge my dahlia love...

There were a few signs of human life, but to be honest it was great to have the place to myself and not feel inhibited with my dahlia frenzy...

When we got back I arranged my bunch, but as we were leaving the next day, I had to take them with me, even though I was stopping off in Warwickshire overnight...

So the dahlias travelled 6 hours in the car, were briefly revived in one of my sister-in-law’s vases overnight, and then had another 3 hours in the car before they landed on The Table in Brighton.

A little worse for wear but still alive, I put them into a vase, picked one of my own from the garden, arranged the not so lucky heads of a couple that had wilted beyond repair...and made a cup of tea!