A feast of flowers! The Autumn-sown flower border in June

The weather is glorious – 'Flaming June!'

"Your poppies are looking good this morning" said Cliff, when he returned from letting out the hens early this morning. And when I looked out of the window I could see the Autumn-sown flower border vibrant with colour . . .

I am experimenting with ideas and techniques for filling the garden with colourful flowers AND have free-ranging hens. "Is she mad?" I hear someone say – don't answer that – I will show you how I created a feast of flowers.

Last September the Supervisor and the Under-gardeners helped me to mark out a new border and to dig up the lawn.

I then sowed Hardy Annual flower seeds, mine were from Higgledy Garden plus some poppy seeds collected from my Mum's garden. I covered the seed beds with wire mesh 'tunnel cloches' to prevent Mr Cheep and his hens from scratching them all up . . . this is the most vulnerable time for the seedlings and hens love to follow and copy anything I do in the garden – where I dig, they dig!

The seeds soon germinated and became healthy looking but tiny plants. This is how they remained all winter, the wire mesh would have also protected them from snow . . . but we had no snow last winter.

As the temperature began to rise and days lengthened, the little plants grew quickly and pushed against the wire mesh, so I carefully removed it and made twiggy woven structures around the patches of young plants. I included little wire mesh fences to prevent the hens from walking through the growing plants, by now they seemed bored by my project so didn't interfere. At this stage it looks a bit of a mess – but not for long  . . .

After the Spring Equinox growth really takes off! the twiggy/wire-mesh structures disappeared under a mash of swaying plants and I waited expectantly for the buds to open.

I love the mix of shapes and colours, like Liberty Tana Lawn that's come to life.

 100 Flowers #084  Opium Poppy - Papaver somniferum

Once grown abundantly in Fen villages for medication against symptons of the ague, the latin name means 'sleep-bringing poppy' and it is the source of many narcotics; but it is legal to grow it in the UK as long as you don't start making drugs from it. This is the poppy so familiar in Art Nouveau designs, the frilly foliage is grey-blue and the buds are elegantly hooked over until a day or two before the flower opens, when they stand up straight. 

100 Flowers #085  Corncockle - Agrostemma githago

Corncockle was once a common wildflower in wheatfields and the seeds got mixed into the harvested grain . . . which was a bit of a problem as all parts of Corncockle are poisonous! So eradicating this toxic weed from crops was necessary, consequently the Corncockle is now very rare in the wild.

It is a very pretty flower, deep pink with spiky green sepals like a green star; just don't eat it!

100 Flowers #086  Cornflower 'Black Ball' - Centaurea cyanus

This is a cultivar - taller and with larger flowers than it's wild blue cousin. I grew this last year as a Spring sown annual, but the Autumn-sown plants are so much bigger and more robust. For those of you who like to sprinkle petals on your food – this one is safe, Cornflower petals make very pretty sprinkles. I think that the deep dark burgundy flowers are fantastic cut flowers that seem to blend well any other colour and it looks particularly wondrous mingled with Ammi.

100 Flowers #087  Common Bishop's Weed - Ammi majus

Ammi is the 'posh Cow Parsley' that is so fashionable with garden designers and florists wanting a 'natural country-look'. It is ethereal and wafty, insects love it and it is the perfect mixer for your flowery cocktail. This is another flower I wouldn't recommend eating - I know some people nibble Cow Parsley but there are so many similar plants that are highly toxic (Hemlock for instance) or a bit dodgy like Ammi, so be safe and no nibbling.

The wonderful thing about Hardy Annuals is that most of them make good cut-flowers, the more you pick the more they flower – win win win! You can pick buckets of flowers! Have fun filling vases with flowers, give some to your friends – flowers make people smile.

Top tip: grab your diary and make a note to sow some seeds in September. It's easy – throw seeds onto dirt and wait. Pop over to Ben's lovely seed shop at Higgledy Garden, he has all the seeds and information you need. (There are lots of other seed suppliers but they aren't as entertaining to follow on Twitter.)

Celia

xx

PS: you can now also follow my garden and studio on Instagram including a video of the poppies.

100 Flowers : catching up with the abundance in May!

I've been taking photos of the flowers in our garden last week but didn't have time to write individual posts  . . . May is a time of abundant growth and the Spring flowers and blossoms are quickly fading to make way to the more colourful flowers of Summer.

So here are flowers #037 to #083 in a slide show, the names are listed below. If you are unable to view the film on your iPad, you can view it here on my Facebook page.

#037 Common Daisy - Bellis perennis
#038 Sweet Pea 'Painted Lady'
#039 Dame's Violet - Hesperis matrionalis
#040 Geum 'Prinses Juliana'
#041 Mexican Fleabane - Erigeron karvinskianus
#042 Geranium x oxonianum (unknown variety)
#043 Ox eye Daisy - Leucanthemum vulgare
#044 Pot Marigold - Calendula officinalis
#045 Bearded Iris - Iris germanica (unknown variety)
#046 Allium (unknown variety)
#047 Bearded Iris - Iris germanica (unknown variety)
#048 Meadow Rue - Thalictrum aquilegiifolium
#049 Oriental Poppy - Papaver orientale (grown from seed)
#050 White Weed - Lepidium draba
#051 Spiderwort - Tradescantia occidentalis (unknown variety)

#052 Common Laburnum - Laburnum anagyroides
#053 Shrub Rose - Rosa moyesii 'Geranium' 
#054 Dusky Cranesbill - Geranium phaeum hybrids (self seeded)
#055 Great Masterwort - Astrantia major  (unknown variety)
#056 Snowball Bush - Viburnum opulus
#057 Fuschia-flowered Gooseberry - Ribes speciosum
#058 Armenium Cranesbill - Geranium psilostemon

#059 Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation'

#060 Paeony (unknown variety)

#061 Granny's Bonnets - Aquilegia hybrids (self seeded)

#062 Mountain Cornflower - Centaurea montana

#063 Sweet Cecily - Myrrhis odorata

#064 Sage - Salvia officinalis

#065 Common Thyme - Thymus vulgaris

#066 Atlantic Poppy - Papaver atlanticum

#067 Pink-flowered Strawberry - Fragaria x Comarum hybrid

#068 Strawberry 'Gariguette'

#069 Crimson-flowered Broad Bean

#070 Herb Robert - Geranium robertianum

#071 Angelica - Angelica archangelica

#072 Wild Starwberry - Fragaria vesca

#073 Cow Parsley - Anthriscus sylvestris

#074 White Comfrey - Symphytum orientale

#075 Germander Speedwell - Veronica chamaedrys

#076 Alexanders - Smyrnium olusatrum

#077 Solomon's Seal - Polygonatum hybridum

#078 Eleagnus 'Quicksilver'

#079 Salsify - Tragopogon porrifolius

#080 Lemon - Citrus x limon

#081 Opium Poppy - Papaver somniferum

#082 Opium Poppy - Papaver somniferum

#083 Pea 'Robinson' and 'Victorian Purple Podded'

That's 47 different flowers without even trying to search for them and missing out the ones which really deserve a proper blogpost of their own.

Celia

xx

100 Flowers : On the wall – Wisteria and Clematis #035 #036

When we moved here 15 years ago I was excited by the idea of gardening in an old walled garden and pictured fruit trees trained along the long West facing wall, replanting the varieties whose lead tags are still nailed to the bricks . . . BUT, yes there was a big 'but', that would have meant removing two mature climbers already in situ. They were unloved, strangled with orange binder twine and with a sterile lawn up to their toes. We made the decision to turn the garden inside out – the vegetables joined the small orchard in the triangular plot outside the walled garden and I set about giving the climbers some TLC and adding a border of flowers and herbs. 

It is in May that we are rewarded for letting them stay . . .

#035 Wisteria sinensis

Chinese Wisteria

It may be an oriental forest climbing plant, but now a Wisteria on the wall is as quintessentially English as tea and scones. Now I have seen the results of my efforts, the ritual of pruning the Wisteria is one of my favourite tasks in late Winter.

Then it's a waiting game, watching for the fat flower buds to form. And watching the weather forecasts for late frosts – a sharp frost around Easter will wipe out the flower buds and there will be no chance of flowers until the next year. Yes, there have been a few years like that.

This year conditions have been perfect (except for the the lack of blue skies and sun when I wanted to take the photographs!) and we have a waterfall of blue/mauve flowers tumbling down the "Suffolk Red" brick wall.

Look closely at the flowers, they are like thousands of tiny Sweet Peas – and they do have a subtle warm scent. Wisterias are a members of the pea family, the seeds are pods of beans, please don't eat them as they are poisonous. The name Wisteria was given to the plant by botanist Thomas Nuttall who said it was in memory of Dr Caspar Wistar, 1761-1818; though there is speculation he was secretly naming it after his friend Charles Jones Wistar of Grumblethorpe in Pennsylvania. 

#036 Clematis montana

Anemone or Mountain Clematis

Clematis literally means 'climbing plant' Clematis montana is a 'vigorous climber' from the mountainous (montana) regions of Asia - from Afghanistan to Taiwan. Our plant is a huge tangle of old stems, twined and layered like a massive bird's nest . . . in fact it is a tenement of bird's nests - Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Robins and Wrens - one year even a Mallard Duck (and she had 13 ducklings) – have all made their homes on our wall. So the tangle stays.

In Spring we notice the seemingly dead stems have signs of life, then as the days lengthen and temperatures rises, suddenly the little dangling buds appear and then one morning when we look out of the bedroom window and the wall is covered with soft pink four-petalled flowers.

Up close you can see each flower on its stiff wiry stem is angled to face the light so they don't touch or hardly overlap; the fluffy central boss of pale yellow stamens in the centres are waiting for visiting bees.


I must update the #100 Flowers Pinterest board, I'm really enjoying following the seasons by recording the flowers in our garden . . . but it's hard to keep up at this time of year, I think the next #100Flowers blog post with have to be a tour of the garden to catch up!

Celia
xx

100 Flowers : Come on the Blues! #032, #033, #034

Spring is racing onward in our corner of Suffolk, warm days and sunshine have turned up the pace and the prelude of white and yellow is now a sea of blue . . .

#032 Mysotis arvensis

Forget-me-not

It's well worth encouraging Forget-me-nots to self seed around the garden )and they will!) the froth of tiny blue flowers makes a wonderful backdrop to other colours especially red and orange.

The tiny flowers are worth a closer look – and you can see why the little flowers were so loved by Victorian jewellery designers who loved sentimental symbolism, engraved into silver or made of blue beads or stones on brooches and lockets.

The scientific name mysotis means 'mouse ear' – referring to the shape of the soft velvety leaves and arvenis means 'of the field' - it loves to self-seed on open soil, like the vegetable patch or flower border. Of course you may need to weed some out, but leave some to flower and set seed for next year and as a snack for the Gold Finches.

Forget-me-nots are members of the Borage family, you can see the similarities in the plant structure . . .

#033 Borago officianalis

Borage

Another enthusiatic self-seeder! I pull up lots of seedlings (the young leaves can be cooked like spinach or added to soups) but I let a lot of Borage plants grow and flower – bees love them!

And the star shaped flowers are a beautiful rich blue colours - you can pull the star shaped petals from the stem and float in a cordial or G&T.

Borage has been used as a medicinal herb for thousands of year, the clue is in the name officinalis means 'of the officina', the store room of a monastery where medicine was kept.

 


Of course the iconic blue flower of England in Spring time is the Bluebell . . .

#034 Hyacinth non-scripta

(and H. hispanica)

Bluebell

The Bluebells in our garden are most likely to be the imported Spanish Bluebell (H. hispanica) rather than the smaller native Bluebells (H. non-scripta) of the local woodlands, actually they are likely to be hybrids between the two (H. x massartiana). Nevertheless they are beautiful and make the area beneath the Walnut tree near the Dragonfly Pond look like a patch of a Bluebell Wood. You can find out how to recognise a native Bluebell here.

If you've never walked in an English Bluebell Wood (or if you have but haven't for a while) you have about a week left before the spectacle begins to fade. We visited our nearest wood last week and the shimmering carpet of blue was breath-taking! Su has written about her local Bluebells on her blog this week, I think two wet years and the early Spring this year have resulted in bigger and taller flowers so find your nearest Bluebell Wood and enjoy them over the May Bank Holiday this weekend.

Celia
xx

100 Flower : #031 Auriculas

It is Easter Sunday, so how apt to celebrate with the Fabergé Egg of garden flowers . . .

#031 Primula Auricula

Auriculas  

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you will have noticed that I've been bitten by the Auricula bug! It all began last Spring (although I have been eyeing them from afar for many years) I bought two plants from a local 'open garden' plant stall. My excitement increased when I found one pot contained two different plants! I obtained more – just cheap seedling Border Auriculas from local nurseries. Then, at a plant fair I bought an Alpine Auricula named 'Sandra'. In the autumn another afflicted gardener gave me two of her plants . . .  you see, Auriculas are pretty easy to grow and the plants can be split to make more plants.

'Larry' a gift from Lisa

I'm eagerly awaiting the flowers to open!

I don't usually get excited about pot-plants or alpines, but Auriculas are small treasures, like heirloom jewels – and like the tulip, they have a long history as 'florist flowers'. There is a fascinating blog-post here about the Huguenot families of Spitalfields in London and their love for these precious flowers.

Traditionally, Auriculas are displayed in an 'Auricula Theatre', this can be an elaborate contruction or just a simple shelf with a roof to keep off the rain (they don't like to get too wet or too hot). The 'Theatre' also allows the plants to be admired . . . like a collection of beautiful painted ceramics.

My Auriculas are displayed in an old wardrobe that has been painted dark slate grey inside and marbled on the doors. Each plant is potted in an old terracotta plant pot . . . the plants can then be arrange and re-arranged as they come into flower. It's part of the fun . . . like playing with toys!

When the flowers have faded the plants need to be kept in a shaded corner of the garden until winter, I then move mine onto a low shelf in our greenhouse until Spring when the flower buds start to appear. So I knew which plant was which, I gave my Auriculas descriptive names . . .

 'Celia's Pinked Tudor Velvet'

'Celia's Damson Compote'

'Celia's Apricot Cream'

 – very close to the wild Auricula, but with a slight pink tint to the reverse of the petals.

Then, yesterday Cliff and I just happened to go out for the day to the coast – we went to Dunwich where we had excellent Fish & Chips at the Flora Tearooms on the beach followed by doing this lovely walk (which I can thoroughly recommend if you are in the area). Well, I couldn't not call in to the famous Woottens of Wenhasten plant nursery, where they were holding their annual Auricula Day (oooops!).

There were lots of Auriculas on show – about 400 different ones! And most were for sale . . . it was a little bit overwhelming.

Of course I bought some – 

just four . . .

'Sirbol' a gold centred Alpine Auricula

'Trafalgar Square' a silver edged Fancy Auricula

And these . . . the anticipation of waiting for the flowers to open, is all part of the fun 

'Cuddles' another gold centred Alpine Auricula

and last but not least, one of the weird and wonderful 'Edges' . . .

'Cornmeal'

I'm delighted with my new Auriculas (did you notice, I chose plants with small off-shoots that will be perfect to eventually split off to make new plants) and they'll be putting on a show in the theatre until late May.

Happy Easter!

Celia

xx

100 Flowers : #030 Tulips

I'm a late convert to Tulips, maybe it was our holiday in Holland last summer that inspired me to plant pots of tulips to enjoy this Spring . . .

#030 Tulipa

Tulip ... various!

I like tulips mixed with other early bedding plants – violas and wallflowers – so they rise through a sea of colour. These were souvenir Tulip bulbs bought at the flower market in central Amsterdam, they are tall 'lily-flowered' and I think they may be called 'Claudia'. 

They have been flowering for ages! and I love how they open right out in the warm sunshine.

Here are some more 'lily-flowered' tulips, a present from Cliff a few years ago, they've been in the same planter all that time and grow up through blue-green grass.

Short stemmed, with beautiful blue-green and burgundy patterned leaves, these are 'Red Riding Hood'. The bulbs were thrown out 'past their sell by date' by a garden centre and we got a huge bag for free just before Christmas! I planted them in pots in the greenhouse and then transplanted them into large planters on our patio, over-planting them with self-seeded Forget-me-not plants. So this display cost absolutely nothing!

In the beautiful sunshine we've had this week, the flowers open wide revealing the black centre and golden stigmas and stamens.

Stray tulips that appear in overgrown corners, red made even brighter by the surrounding lush greens.

A row of orange tulips surrounded by self-seeded Forget-me-nots and Calendula. Among the blooms this year is one with flame patterns - is this the infamous 'Tulip Breaking Virus' that got the Dutch tulip fans so excited in the early 17th century? 

Even the the dying petals have a curious beauty, as if they are made from silk 

In a slightly shadier position these almost black 'Queen of the Night' tulips are yet to bloom

I like the contrast between our mostly natural and slightly wild garden and the artifice of tulips bred for their curious shapes and rich colours over centuries . . . first in Persia and then in Holland. They are among the earliest 'florist flowers', grown to be arranged and enjoyed, as ephemeral works of art.

You may have spotted, behind the Tulips in the above photo, some other 'florist flowers' . . . more of those in the next post.

Celia

xx