power plant

 Verbascum thapsus ; the name alone sounds imposing. And the plant is indeed a giant. When you see the rosette shaped seedlings with their hairy leaves, you can imagine something great will come of them… Great Mullein or Common Mullein is a majestic plant, and its common name in German pays tribute to that fact: ‘King’s Candle’ (Königskerze) . This specimen is an excellent example…. This biennial native plant grows to up to 2 metres and stands perfectly upright, even in exposed situations. And they often do choose open and exposed spots to grow, standing above all the surrounding vegetation. The pretty yellow flowers are small, and only a few at the tip of the long flowering stalk open at a time. The seeds are dispersed by the wind and need light to germinate. Verbascum thapsus can be used as a herbal remedy. For example, the leaves and flowers are anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and astringent, relieving pain, swelling and healing wounds. Good to know. We have three in our...

While the Queen Anne’s Lace is still flowering so nicely I decided I would like to use it in a vase. So today, this is what I ended up with… … A little bit of meadow in a fancy decorative watering can. The centre of this particular Queen Anne’s Lace has the distinctive dark spot at the centre.  A lovely pink Achillea (‘Apfelblüte’/Apple Blossom) I planted in the Words and Herbs Bed this spring seemed like a fitting addition. Achillea has also been flowering in the meadow for some time, so I picked a few sprigs of that. There is some Self-Heal and Red Clover in there too, as well as a few stems of grasses. Then I snipped some pieces of Knapweed ‘Centaurea jacea’. I had to ask the bees politely for a bit! We probably won’t cut the meadow again this year until late winter 2025, but the model tractor (yes, I actually have a prop this week!) is a nod to the mowing that will eventually take place! I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her In a Vase on Monday meme...

Bees in the Borage in the Words and Herbs Bed IMG_3221

I am sharing a weed this week that is arguably not really a weed but a valuable wild flower. I will let you decide! Jacobaea vulgaris (Ragwort) Anyone who has kept horses or cattle will know that Common Ragwort , Jacobaea vulgaris (or Senecio jacobaea ), is feared and must be removed from meadows and hay as it is highly poisonous to grazers. With that in mind, we have already removed some from our meadow this year when it started going to seed. Neighbours one field away have horses and we would hate it to spread to their pasture.   However, it is also a very valuable native wild flower for pollinators, with a high pollen content for a long period of time. One plant will continue producing flowers from July to September and their dazzlingly bright golden yellow attracts insects from far and wide.   — As you can see in these photos, Common Ragwort plants are quite tall, around 1 metre or more, rising above the tall grasses in the meadow. — There are 13 petals o...

On Sunday afternoon (after a delicious gooseberry crumble with the last of this year’s crop ), I decided to pick some flowers for my Monday vase. I am usually a little earlier in the day picking flowers, but walking around the garden on a hot afternoon made me realize just how many bees are visiting at the moment. With the exception of the yellow Rudbeckia and the Stipa seedhead, all of these flowers were smothered in bees! The Althaea cannabina has exceeded itself this year and is well over two metres tall. It was buzzing with life too. I decided to use some in my vase. In the initial photos I took the flowers were still open indoors, but when I took more photos this morning they had closed. I like the airiness of them, and their delicate pink. The Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ is also a bee magnet. Verbena bonariensis draws both bees and butterflies and constantly branches out producing more flowers all summer. The Rudbeckia has finally got established… it usually doesn’t g...

Althaea cannabina

Once again I am sharing a weed or wild flower from my garden this Wednesday. If you wish to join me, please do! There are so many small yellow flowers in our meadow in spring and early summer and I must admit it is hard to tell them apart. Fortunately, I have an excellent plantfinder app which has enabled me to identify today’s weed/wild flower: Crepis capillaris , Smooth Hawksbeard . This small yellow flower is usually low-growing, almost trailing, but will also occasionally grow upright to 30 or 40 cm tall in our meadow. The flower only measures about 1.5 cm across and the plant has a stem that reminds me of dandelions… if broken there is a milky substance in it. It started flowering at the end of May I think, and will keep on flowering all summer. It clearly likes sandy soil, sunshine, and plenty of rain – we have more of it this year I am sure, as we have had frequent rain all spring and summer so far. The fluffy seedheads also remind me of dandelions, of which we had plen...

I am happy to be joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden again today, with a vase on a Monday. Do visit her site to see her creation this week, along with all the others linking in with their own vases, jars, pots etc. It is hot here – well it IS July! So I cut my flowers early and plonked them in a vase before dashing around the garden with some secateurs to tame a few things before the sun got too brutal. When I took the first photo of my vase later, I immediately saw it needed a bit of rearranging… it looks like an octopus and a squid in a vase, don’t you think?! So I cut a couple of stems a bit shorter… I still think the Echinacea pallida looks as though it is embracing the other flowers with its long pink tentacles, I mean petals! And this Echinacea purpurea has curled its ‘arms’ downwards making it look like a sea creature. In fact, the centres of all these Echinacea do remind me of sea anemones… — — The one above is a new one in a series called ‘Mooodz’… it pro...