Judy Cassells
@judy_cassells
Coastal observer, coastal rower. All things flora & fauna. Mostly trying to keep up - in a good way!
Black Lives Matter. #Justice4Windrush
ID:1431974986793816073
29-08-2021 13:40:45
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My own garden is still in recovery so I took myself off to Fota House & Gardens to find solace in some unusual plants. I love the creamy flower clusters of Drimys winteri but even more so, the acid yellow beauty, Vestia foetida. I've only seen it here in Fota. Is it familiar #GardensHour ?
A cluster of cowslips showing in timely fashion for #WildflowerHour 's #CowslipChallenge , together with primroses & hybrid, all self-sown. On the lemony theme, Kidney Vetch is flowering at the roadside with no apparent sign of wear & tear & the celandines are still going strong.
My drenched & storm-blasted garden is going to take time to recover - one of the disadvantages of living at the very edge of the ocean - so in the meantime #GardensHour , here's a beautifully-grown Clivia miniata, at its showy best in Ballymaloe Farm Shop, Shanagarry, East Cork.
I spotted this patch of Common Dog-violet on a stone wall in Finure. Despite the strong wind, it had some insect visitors. There was no trace of the cliff-top violets that were flowering last week. Storm Kathleen has taken her toll! #VioletChallenge for #WildflowerHour .
Rosa banksiae anyone?
I photographed this stunning rose in the city of Pau, SW France a decade ago & HAD to have one. But I planted it against a wall that is battered by storms at the very time flower buds are forming .
I feel like a proper April fool! #GardensHour Pau, Capitale Humaine.
Too rough to swim, too choppy to row & horizontal rain to boot #WildflowerHour , so I went for the dramatic shot of #WhiteFlowers . Cochlearia danica on the cliff edge, west of the Sandys strand in Guileen, E. Cork. See #dinkymoira for small white brassicas!
Got my greenhouse cleaned inside & out #GardensHour ! Now to put the staging back and transfer some of my plants into the space from a neighbour's polytunnel.
Greenhouse staging is a good place to look out for spiders & all sorts of insects (there was a lovely plume moth here last year). I can't identify this large spider though (4.5 cm), even with the help of some borrowed Field Studies Council charts! Give me a clue #WildWebsWednesday !
A venerable plant of Crambe maritima. Those distinctive, crinkly leaves sprouting from gnarly stems are the only #SignsOfSpring you need, #WildflowerHour - if you live by the sea.
Nothing to see here - until you part those sagittate leaves & spot the unusual flower of the mouse plant, Arisarum proboscideum. Look at those tails! I know what you're thinking - why grow a plant with hidden flowers? Maybe just for fun. Here's a pot of mice for #GardensHour .
No mistaking the rosettes of Buck's-horn Plantain. It grows here in crevices on vertical or horizontal rock faces, short turf or bare soil by the sea. Anyone tried the leaves in a winter salad? Plus Ribwort Plantain - & both handy for the #RosetteChallenge of #WildflowerHour !
It's time to control the briars in my garden. I've been very careful - there are so many areas to slip on, fall through or tumble down. Imagine my shock when I tugged at some hop stems & dislodged a large stone that fell on my foot. 🥴
I hadn't factored THAT in, #GardensHour !
Not much flowering in my exposed front garden yet, #GardensHour , except this white form of Japanese quince. It stands out well against the dark wall but is the devil to weed under, being so spiny!
Everything seemed golden today, picked out by the sunshine - so I just went with that. Nice to see Alexanders smothered in insects again - warranting at least 2 photos. Add to these Winter Heliotrope & Three-cornered Leek and that's your lot round our way, #WildflowerHour !
Look at this waterfall of a succulent in an East Cork garden centre. What a beauty. Does anyone following #GardensHour tonight know what this is? It's not an Epiphyllum. xAporopyllum perhaps 🤔 I couldn't ask - they were busy serving lunch!
I've been noticing the colour changes in ivy berries as they mature. Top pic from early January, lower ten days later. . . but what I'd really like to know is who's been eating the Cotoneaster berries? My money is on the🐀. . . #GardensHour .
It was so cold on the cliffs #WildflowerHour , that I kept to the hedgerows in pursuit of some familiar umbellifers: Alexanders in greenish-yellow, the creamy umbels of Hogweed which has never stopped flowering & Wild Carrot, in the pink here but very variable as always.
#GardensHour - look what popped up in the greenhouse last summer & was still in flower on Jan 6th - Eccremocarpus scaber, Chilean vine. Snow is expected in Co. Cork overnight so we'll see what happens. Once the soil warms up in there, I will sow a random mix of older seeds.
