Posted in Gardening, My garden, Uncategorized, tagged flowers, Gardening, Spring on May 28, 2018| 4 Comments »
Heuchera ‘Marmalade’
When we lost a huge ash tree in a storm last autumn (see here) it meant we also had to remove a a few big shrubs in order to clear away the tree’s remains. This left some open spaces so we took the opportunity in spring to plant a few new perennials to fill the gaps.
I have been taking snaps of these – and a few older flowers, over the last month or so, and here they are… (more…)
Posted in Gardening, Uncategorized, tagged flowers, Gardening on August 17, 2017| 6 Comments »
My popcorn hydrangea ‘Ayesha’ is starting to show a range of flower shapes
It’s six years now since I first posted about my popcorn hydrangea ‘Ayesha’, but this summer, with all the rain, it has grown huge and vigorous. It has also started to diversify! Usually the flowers remind me of lilac but now the sepals are starting to appear flat as in many other hydrangeas.
I thought the proper word for it was “recidivism”, which I thought also applied to variegated leaves turning back to plain green, but now I can find no reference to this word botanically, only in the sense of a prisoner returning to a life of crime or a medical condition relapsing. (more…)
Posted in Cardiff, Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Bute, Cardiff, flowers, Nature, Trees on May 5, 2017| 11 Comments »
A very pink red campion (Silene dioica)
When I go to visit “my” 100 elm trees in Pontcanna Fields here in Cardiff, I am always tempted to walk on, cross Blackweir Bridge over the River Taff and keep going until I reach Bute Park and eventually the city centre.
I was last in this wild area in January and blogged about it here. Last week I visited again and the spring wildflowers were wonderful. I also think I found the purple maple tree I failed to locate back in the winter. (more…)
Posted in Gwent, Nature, Street plants, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged flowers, Gwent, Nature on July 3, 2016| 22 Comments »
Yarrow or milfoil (Achillea millefolium) in the office car park, June 2016
For a few months now I have been working three days a week in an unprepossessing low-rise office on a small industrial estate in Newport, South East Wales, about 10 miles down the road from Cardiff.
I don’t go out much, as the weather has been wet and there isn’t a lot to see apart from corner shops, but the other day I found myself wandering around the car park in the sunshine, while on my mobile phone to someone. And I suddenly realised that the scruffy edges of the car park are full of wonderful wild flowers. (more…)
Posted in Gardening, tagged Bute, flowers, Gardening on June 23, 2016| 11 Comments »
Peony in Bute Park, Cardiff, June 2016
These days I have trouble noticing anything but trees when I walk in Cardiff’s many parks. But I made a special effort to think about the flowers when passing through the herbaceous borders in Bute Park a couple of weeks ago. I followed the borders quite closely last summer (see my flower posts here), but now it’s a little bit “been there, done that”.
This time I snapped pictures of big ball-like flowers, skipping everything else. Although sadly my subjects – peonies and poppies – are dying off now it’s midsummer. (more…)
Posted in Cardiff, Gardening, Uncategorized, tagged Bute, Cardiff, flowers, Gardening on August 16, 2015| 10 Comments »
My favourite flower from the latest trip to the Bute Park borders – I’ll tell you what it is later…
Just as I have been following a tree every month in Bute Park, Cardiff, I have also been “following” the herbaceous borders there since they came to life in spring. My latest visit was on August 6. This is a view of the borders taken while standing near my Paulownia tree, but zoomed in quite a bit…
Bute Park herbaceous borders in August
Posted in Cardiff, Gardening, tagged Bute, Cardiff, flowers, Gardening on July 12, 2015| 11 Comments »
Pink peony in the herbaceous borders of Bute Park, Cardiff, in July 2015
Every month or so I am visiting the herbaceous borders in Bute Park, Cardiff, to see what’s in bloom and learn to identify a few more plants. This visit was on July 2, just after I had been to check up on the Paulownia tree I am following. It was early, so I stopped for breakfast at the park’s Summerhouse Cafe before walking through the borders to work.
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Posted in Street plants, Uncategorized, tagged flowers, Gardening on June 13, 2015| 16 Comments »
Pink valerian (Centranthus ruber) growing on a street wall in Cardiff last week
There is red valerian in flower everywhere in Cardiff at the moment, growing from walls and flat roofs where it wasn’t planted. I always notice this stout plant, as it was one of the first I could put a name to. It grew on the lean-to shed outside the back door of the cottage where I lived as a child. I don’t remember (more…)
Posted in Cardiff, Gardening, Uncategorized, tagged Bute, Cardiff, flowers, Gardening on May 31, 2015| 9 Comments »
A busy bee in the herbaceous borders of Bute Park, Cardiff, on May 21
I am now being swamped by the flowers bursting out of the herbaceous borders of Bute Park in Cardiff, so I’d better give another update before they get totally out of control. When I reported on April and early May it was all tulips and a few other splashes of colour, but now (more…)
Posted in Cardiff, Garden visits, Gardening, Nature, tagged Bute, Cardiff, flowers, Gardening on May 20, 2015| 9 Comments »
Red flowers in the Bute Park herbaceous border on May 7 – beautiful but I can’t quite identify them – any ideas? …thanks to Elaine Rickett for suggesting it’s Geum
When I go to Cardiff’s Bute Park to visit the tree I am “following”, I usually walk back along the herbaceous borders. I always admire them, as it is such a traditional British idea, having permanent plantings of perennials that are mostly at their best in the warmer months, dying back to bare soil in winter when we all stay indoors. Here are some pictures of the borders coming back to life in spring. Sorry I haven’t taken a general view yet – maybe next time!
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The Squirrelbasket 