Plant of the week - Miniature rose

A bit of catching up to do with my 'plant of the week' posts - the photos were taken but the posts never made it to being published!

Plant of the week for 17th October is this tiny miniature rose. I can't remember the name of the rose, but it was bought for me by my good friend Sonia. As it's a miniature rose, I planted it at the bottom of the rose arch so that the red flowers would be visible as its base as you walk through the arch. Unfortunately the herbaceous perennials around it overtook it and crowded it out and it was lost.

Miniature rose

It finally got it chance in mid-October after all the other plants had died down, a proliferation of tiny buds appeared - these were the only flowers in my garden this week. Sadly the buds didn't open fully - maybe it was too cold or just too late in the season.

Plant of the week - Chinese Lanterns (Physalis alkekengi)

Just in time for hallowe'en and brightening up the view into the garden with pumpkin-like orange seed pods are this weeks choice - chinese lanterns.

Chinese lanterns - Physalis alkekengi

This was my second attempts at growing these plants from seed - the first year I tried, every plant was instantly devoured by slugs and snails as soon as they were planted out. This year I transplanted the young plants into a pot, protected with copper tape, which has worked well to protect them from hungry gastropods.

I'd also read that physalis can spread rapidly throughout the garden if unchecked, so better to contain them in a pot. That's worked well as they are on the patio and in full view from inside the house.

I got my seeds from Thompson and Morgan and they were easy to germinate in the greenhouse - the plants in the photo are now two years old - so not long to wait to see the rewards. Despite their almost poisonously bright colouring, you can eat the fruit from some physalis species -  they are hidden inside the 'lanterns' - I remember them as being bitter but juicy when I tried, and subsequently discovered that P. alkekengi is not grown for its tasty fruit!

Chinese lanterns - Physalis alkekengi

Fortunately their ornamental value outweighs the inedible nature of this species. And no, I didn't adjust the colour on these photos!

Garden Snapshot - September 2013

Late again - here's the garden snapshot I took in late September at midday. Looking back at the previous month's snapshots its interesting to see the changing intensity of the light, and the longer shadows cast by the plants.

Garden snapshot - September 2013

Not much is flowering anymore in this part of the garden - a few remaining crocosmia, a couple of fuschia, you can make out the orange fruits of the physalis in a pot on the right hand side. There's also a small shrub in the middle that gets a rosy tint to its leaves - haven't been able to identify that one so far. Anyone have any ideas?

Plant of the Week - Clematis 'unknown variety'

It's fantastic that there are still flowers in my garden into early october, it keeps the bees visiting! This clematis was in the garden before I was here and is growing through the hedge by the patio along with a rogue honeysuckle, which is also still flowering. It hides away for most of the year and its foliage and flowers only appear from inside the hedge come early autumn, like a last-minute dinner making a grand entrance.

I have no idea what type of clematis this is if anyone can identify it for me I'd be most grateful.

Clematis - 'unknown'

I love it because its late flowers offer a brilliant opportunity to get some close-ups of the insects that are visiting the flowers. They seem less bothered by my camera lens nosing in on them while they gather pollen and nectar at this time of year. I can sense their instinct that time is running out and their feeding time of year is drawing to a close. Today I saw hoverflies, bumblebees, wasps and several honey bees like the one below.

Clematis flower with honey bee

I'm planning to take several cuttings of this plant so that I can grow one over the fence on the opposite side, which is bare at the moment (my Clematis 'Oberon') seems to have died. The leaves are thick and a beautiful green with a lovely soft serrated edge. The freshness of this plant really stands out in the garden at this time of year.

Clematis 'unknown' - flowers and foliage

First apple of the year

The family apple tree has done really well this year. The tree is about five years old - I planted it three years ago but last year it only produced three apples -all golden delicious.

This is the first Worcester Pearmain we've had from the tree and it was delicious! The flesh is flushed with red inside and it was sweet without being floury and with no sharpness to the flavour. It looks beautiful in the autumn sunshine. 

Plant of the week - Oenothera (Evening Primrose)

There's still a lot going on in my garden at the end of September, but my choice for this week took me by surprise. The evening primrose has had a second wind and exploded in a flurry of large yellow flowers - it had already flowered in late summer, producing blooms at a fairly modest rate, but it looks like this is it's 'swan song'.

Evening Primrose - Oenethera

What's also unusual is that its flowers are open during the day, rather than opening during the late evening as it did during the summer (hence it's name). This means it's being visited by bees rather than moths as you can see on the right hand side of the shot above. It feels like this one was desperate to stock up for the winter months - visiting every flower several times to make sure none were overlooked.

It was hanging around long enough for me to capture some great shots of it, body and legs dripping in pollen, gorging itself inside one of the flowers.

Evening primrose & Buff-tailed bumblebee (queen)

Evening primrose & Buff-tailed bumblebee (queen)

I pinched some seeds that were growing wild by the road at the end of the street. That was last year, and I already have mature plants. I suspect these will be self-seeding and start to pop up everywhere but I really don't mind!

Garden Snapshot - August 2013

Better late than never - August and September were a busy months so I have been playing catch up with my blogs.

Here's the garden snapshot I took in mid-August.

Garden snapshot - August 19th 2013

August is a surprisingly poor month for colour in my garden. The roses have mostly finished, fuschias are on their way out - only the crocosmia and last of the hollyhocks provide a splash of colour. I'll aim to rectify that for next year somehow.