Category: poppies

A Bouquet for June

The stars of June h to be the alliums this year, which is rather odd because roses should be outshining them by now. Everything in our garden though is a good month behind this year after a strange start to the year where weather was concerned. Our roses usually begin to bloom in May and peak in June but they are just beginning their show now.

The front garden is almost over full this year with periods of warmth and wet weather creating ideal conditions for plant growth.

So the borders look lush and extra green. The gravel garden looks fuller than ever and we are pleased to see the return of our “purple flowered wild carrot” which we planted as a very small specimen last year. The first of the photos below shows this umbellifer in front of Euphorbia griffithii and the second a self-seeded achillea, another umbellifer growing through the same euphorbia. This promises to be an interesting colourful patch soon.

The stump garden is looking particularly pleasing just now and close up we can see tiny little sedums growing in the dimples of the old oak wood.

In the last few days we have given the Seaside Garden a tidy up.We painted the fence, removed old woody plants, added a few new ones and put up some cleaned netting which was some recycled fishing net originally used off the north coast of Scotland.

We also needed to revamp our little scree bed – it is odd how if one patch in the garden needs a re-vamp there always seem more. We had to replace all the wooden edging which had rotted and many of the plants had outgrown their spaces. We top-dressed the bed with fresh slate chips, a by-product of the slate mining industry and added a few new alpine plants.

Let us wander around now using a gallery – just follow by clicking on any photo and use the arrows to navigate. Enjoy the journey!

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, grasses, ornamental trees, shrubs, summer, trees

autumn autumn colours climbing plants colours garden design garden photography gardening grasses hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography poppies roses Shropshire trees

A Wander Around our Garden in November

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 23, 2012
6 Comments on A Wander Around our Garden in November

This is the penultimate garden wander for the year and what a colourful one it is. The weather has turned cold with daytime temperatures failing to reach double figures and night time temperatures only just above freezing. Some days though do please the camera, with deep blue skies in between storms.

This rich red oriental poppy never fails to impress even this late in the year.

Several of the plants that feature in the November garden seem to sport odd shaped flowers. The Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo has flowers that hang like pearly cream bells. Cyclamen hederifolium have curious fly away petals while Shystostylus flowers hang on gently curving stems.

Roses seem to be blooming away giving us brightness for most of the year. Many that started blooming in late May are still flowering now and they are producing buds in readiness to flower right through to the end of the year.

At the moment I pass the wonderfully colourful corner of the Shed Bed, where grasses have coloured up intermingled with the dries flower heads of Eryngium and Agastache. It has to be my favourite November patch in the garden.

Having passed my favourite corner I pass our trees as I go down to to the bottom of the garden to feed the chicks. Their bark textures and colours change every day. This birch’s chocolate coloured bark is peeling back to reveal snow white smooth bark below, like a white shirt beneath jacket collars.

It seems to be a special year for cotoneaster berries, with every variety covered thickly in readiness for arrival of the winter migrant thrushes.

There is something very special about the freshness of the flowers of the Fatsia, with their creamy, greeny whitish colours. They always look to me as if they should smell of vanilla and be edible!

There are difficult decisions to be made in the November garden. Which seed heads to cut down and which to leave for their looks and wildlife value is perhaps the most difficult. How could you possible cut this clematis down when it looks this good? We tend now to leave perennials standing unless or until they fall and become soggy. Once they do this they endanger the lives of the plants they may be smothering. To me the idea of “putting the garden to bed for winter” just doesn’t add up. A garden is for 12 months, all of them

Wrapping the greenhouse in its winter jacket of bubble-wrap is the least favourite of all of our gardening tasks. This Novenber we started on a cold day knowing that as we added the thermal layer to the greenhouse we would heat up as well. But the sun came out and we got too hot. We started off wearing fleece jackets over jumpers but by the time we had finished we had shed both these layers and were down to tee-shirts.

First we collected the rolls of wrap from their summer quarters – the woodshed, and piled them up outside

Next we attempted to begin hanging it inside the greenhouse over specially positioned strings and wires. The bubblewrap then attacked Jude, the Undergardener.

Eventually Jude managed to overcome the wrap and get on with the job in hand, lining the sides and then hanging it over strings tied across the roof. Soon the temperature increased.

I hope these plants appreciate it!

Let’s us finish our November wander with a couple of richly coloured beautifully lit views across borders, and a quick look across our borrowed landscape.

Tags autumn, autumn colours, clematis, foliage, garden photography, grasses, November, ornamental trees, poppies, roses

autumn birds garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography poppies roses Shropshire

A Wander Around Our Garden in September

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 27, 2012
2 Comments on A Wander Around Our Garden in September

September is a month I love for the richness of its colours which are intensified by the lower light of early Autumn. But It is a month I dislike as it marks the end of summer and initiates the dropping of temperatures. I enjoy watching the fruits and berries ripening and their changing colour. I am saddened by the silence in the sky as Swallows and House Martins leave us for warmer climes. Leaves begin to show signs of changing their colours too and in September we are given hints of what is to come.

Throughout the September garden we find individual buds and flowers hanging on after the thrusts of the summer lush display. Droplets of moisture sit on the blooms as the first frosts melt away.

These little gems of individual blooms which are flowering out of season add so much colour to the borders, flowering alongside those plants which are traditionally the true flowers of September. Two flowers which we look forward to in early autumn are Lobelia tupa and Salvia uliginosa which display unusual colours and shapes.

The light in September creates a different atmosphere, no longer the direct overhead light of the summer. Now there is increased contrast between light and shadow.

Our grasses begin to come into their own in September. Their seedheads glow and their colours get paler and more silvery.

I shall finish my September wander with a few plant portraits.

The garden is still full of colour, texture and patterns but is missing the life flying above it. The Swallows, House Martins and Hobby have left the daytime sky quieter. At night we miss the cries and calls of the Little Owls even though at times we curse them for keeping us awake.

Tags birds, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, greenhouse gardening, ornamental trees, roses, September, summer migrants

flower show garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials July ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture photography poppies RHS town gardens

Third Visit to the Tatton Park Show

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 12, 2012
4 Comments on Third Visit to the Tatton Park Show

The third and final post about this summer’s RHS Tatton Park Flower Show begins by visiting the Back-to-Back Gardens, the small show gardens with masses of interest and appeals. These gardens are full of ideas for gardeners whatever the size of their gardens with inspiration for planting combinations, furniture and features.

There was a group of small show gardens designed around the theme of “The Orchestra” and these turned out to be our favourites. The garden designers had risen to the challenge and seemed to have really enjoyed creating such imaginative gardens. Each one evoked harmony and rhythm and the rise and fall of a musical piece.

But this garden of rhythmic grass was a true delight to the eye. It was very difficult to fully capture its effect with a camera, but not as difficult as it would be to cut the grass!

In complete contrast to the Orchestra Gardens were the Conceptual Gardens, a set of three designs intended to present ideas, sometimes controversial, and make the viewers think. We do not always appreciate such designs but the trio this year were full of meaning and original design ideas.

We always enjoy a wander around the nursery stands at these shows and Tatton always attracts a good variety. We only bought one little plants this time though, an Aeonium that sports leaves of deepest, shiny purple almost black, called Logan’s Rock.

But this nursery stand all based on pink was empty. The discerning gardener this year definitely dislikes pink!

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, grasses, RHS Tatton Park Flower Show, Tatton Park

garden design garden photography gardening grow your own hardy perennials July ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography poppies roses Shropshire shrubs succulents trees

A Wander around our Garden in July

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 11, 2012
8 Comments on A Wander around our Garden in July

July in the garden so far has carried on where June left off – rain! The grass paths squelch as you wander, trees drip on you and herbaceous plants soak your legs. The plants have loved it relishing in the warmth and dampness. They grow tall and lush too quickly and do so without gaining strength. As a result they get knocked over in windy spells and any heavy showers.

As rain persists each day from dawn till dusk a moment of light and dry gave me an opportunity to take photos for my July wander. After waiting all day I finally took the following pics just before 9:00 in the evening.

One plant that never fails is this wonderful tall grass with striped leaves. It is a good four foot tall and the long leaves are popular with the “Undergardener” to cut for flower arranging.

Our gravel garden, The Chatto Bed, is now full of colour, gentle yellows, pinks and purples. When the sun does come out for its short sessions the gravel bed is buzzing with bees. They are having a hard time this year with all this rain and wind.

The Huskers Red Pentstemon is now at its best – what a beautiful plant it is – coloured foliage, dark stems and delicate contrasting pale flowers. Having grown this from seed sown a few years ago it feels good to see it looking so good.

The Quaking Grass, Briza maxima is also known as Nodding Grass and Sparrow Grass, presumably because it simply can’t stay still in the slightest breeze.

Jude’s Border is a rich combination of purple-leaved shrubs and contrasting perennials.

Our mini-meadows sown in terra-cotta pots have been very successful. Different flowers appear each day. The pink poppy glows in the dullest of weather – a “dayglo” poppy.

By our front door the “Freda Border” continues to provide colour in the perennials and gentle variegated foliage in the shrubs.

Let us now wander into the back garden and see what’s going on. Our apples are filling in nicely now and even getting a little rosiness as they start to ripen, while the Blueberries change from green to blue.

The secret garden is probably the most colourful patch at the moment.

The “Chicken Garden” although less colourful at the moment as the alliums are losing their colour, has an impressive show of perennial foxgloves, favourites of the bees.

Grasses are flowering delicately in all the borders and often after a storm hold onto rain drops. The droplets of moisture act as prisms as light finds them.

In the greenhouse tomatoes are forming on their trusses and further flowers open from their buds. Peppers like glossy green boxes promise sweetness to come.

As we approach the middle of July we can but wonder what the rest of the summer can have in store for us. So far we have had the wettest summer months on record – it is hard to imagine that summer will truly arrive. It has been hard to keep up with maintenance in the garden this summer. There is so much growth that herbaceous plants need frequent deadheading and thinning and shrubs pruned to stop them overpowering the plants beneath. Jude, “The Undergardener” is pruning back the lower branches of the variegated dogwood to let light into the smaller plants below.

As the light began to fade I took a few photos to show it glowing through foxgloves.

Tags apples, foliage, foliage plants, fruit and vegetable growing, fruit., garden photography, gardening, grasses, greenhouse gardening, grown your own, July, peppers, poppies, roses, shrubs

allotments birds community gardening conservation fruit and veg garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening grow your own hardy perennials Land Art meadows natural pest control ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture photography poppies roses Shropshire shrubs spring gardening wildlife

A Wander around the Allotments in June

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 30, 2012
4 Comments on A Wander around the Allotments in June

Here we are at the half way point of the year in the June allotment wanderings. As usual we shall start on our own plot to see what has been going on. Our little wildlife pond is beginning to look more established and the tadpoles are growing well. We hope the frogs stay on our plot and eat up all the slugs. As you can see we provided a little wooden ramp to help them get in and out of the water.

Heartsease self seed around the plot sometimes landing in suitable places arriving in a wide range of colours. This one seeded into the soil behind the green bench.

Our strip of wildflowers, a little piece of meadow, is beginning to flower. This Opium Poppy surprised us with its deep pink coloured petals.

Moon Daisies and Cornflowers.

Just as flowers feature strongly on our own plot so they do on other members’ plots and in the Green Space borders. In the Autumn Garden Achilleas are the stars.

Calendulas feature on many plots as they look so good, and work hard as part of companion planting helping to attract beneficial insects.

Our first “Buddleja Bed” planted to attract wildlife now looks colourful and full of life. After losing some of our Buddlejas in the dry last year when Shropshire experienced months of drought after two extremely cold winters, the name for these borders currently looks a little inappropriate.

Our wildflower bank sloping up towards one of our orchards is now looking more established as we have added plants that members have donated to add interest.

The Edible Hedge is now fruiting providing sustenance to birds and small mammals. Flowers in the borders at the base bring in bees, butterflies and beneficial insects. Beetles enjoy the long grass and we like them to be there as they feed on slugs.

The most colourful garden on site at the moment is the Spring Garden which still displays much interest as we move into the summer months. This garden is maintained by volunteers, Jill and Geoff who spend many an hour planting, dead heading and weeding.

Geoff and Jill’s plot is renown for its weed free neatness and precision planting.

The Summer Garden is not to be outdone though as the roses are coming into flower and beautiful scents greet us as we sit on the nearby picnic benches. The lavenders, geraniums and grasses planted between the roses add further interest and textures.

As June moves towards July our meadows really come into their own. Plot holders love to walk through them and a wide variety of birds, bees, butterflies, grass hoppers and every sort of mini-beast visit.

I shall finish with a shot of the plot we have nominated for this year’s Shrewsbury Town Allotment Competition and one of our grass spiral which currently looks most inviting.

Tags allotments, birds, community gardening, conservation, David Austin, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, fruit., garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, grown your own, insects, meadows, organic gardening, poppies, roses, wildlife

garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening hardy perennials ornamental grasses photography poppies Shropshire wildlife

Happy Birthday to My Blog

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 16, 2012
15 Comments on Happy Birthday to My Blog

Greenbenchramblings is one year old today! Yes, I have been rambling away from my old green bench on my allotment for a year to the day. Each time I celebrate a birthday with a nought in it I give myself a challenge. When I was 30 I decided to get up before first light, taking a not so willing family with me, travel to a nearby area of deciduous woodland and await the dawn chorus. It was pure magic! The song of each bird as it awoke joined in the chorus until the wood reverberated with song celebrating the new day. The atmosphere was electric – an unforgettable experience.

When I reached 40 I decided to buy some new walking boots as a stimulus to get out into the beautiful Shropshire countryside more.

At 50 I began studying a garden design course.

A year ago I reached 60 and decided to start my Greenbenchramblings blog, to record my musings and photos related to our garden, our allotment, gardening and wildlife. So Happy Birthday Blog! I have been delighted with the response to it, enjoyed the comments and feel I have met new friends from almost every continent. I share all my gardening visiting, my lottie gardening, the development and maintenance of the garden at home and the walks in the countryside with Jude, also known as The Undergardener or Mrs Greenbenchrambler.

The surprise of the blogging year was when Willow Cottage Gardeners nominated my blog for a Versatile Blogger Award, hence the rather handsome green logo on the top right of my blogs. As a part of this award I have to write a list of 7 things about myself that readers of my blog might not know and suggest 15 blogs for nomination for the award.

So here goes with the 7 things you might not know about me;

1.Forty years ago I had an altercation with a lorry and the lorry came out best. I was put back together and I am now registered “Bionic”.

2,My favourite gardeners are Beth Chatto, Dan Hinckley, Carol Klein and Monty Don.

3.I have had allotments for over 20 years.

4.I have been a fisherman since I was 4 years old. When I retired my ambition was to catch a 30 pound carp. The biggest so far is 29 pound 15 ounces.

5.I talk to my chickens and they talk back.

6.My favourite garden designers are Dan Pearson, Piet Oudolf, Tom Stuart-Smith and Cleve West.

7.If I could choose anywhere in the world to live it would be in the South Shropshire Hills. I live in the South Shropshire Hills!

My 15 nominated blogs;

1. www.lensandpensbysally.wordpress.com

2. www.aerialediblegardening.wordpress.com

3. www.latebloomerbuds.wordpress.com

4. www.fennelandfern.co.uk/blog

5. www.soulsbyfarm.wordpress.com

6. www.gardeninginthelines.wordpress.com

7. www.mytinyplot.wordpress.com

8. www.gettingfreshblog.wordpress.com

9. www.gardeningcanuck.wordpress.com

10. www.100squaremetres.wordpress.com

11. www.pbmgarden.wordpress.com

12. www.arignagardener.wordpress.com

13. www.grandparentsplus2.wordpress.com

14. www.wanderingwoody.wordpress.com

15. www.indiansummerfarm.wordpress.com

As followers of greenbenchramblings know I carry a camera around with me wherever we go and my favourite subjects are plants, especially plant portraits, allotment gardening, and the creatures who live in our gardens, on our allotment and on the plants. It seems apt to finish this One Year On posting with a few pics of these favourite subjects.

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, grown your own, insects, poppies, wildlife

climbing plants fruit and veg garden design garden photography gardening half-hardy perennials hardy perennials meadows ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography poppies roses Shropshire shrubs succulents trees

Another Wander around our Garden in June

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 13, 2012

We can start the second part of our wander by looking again at the front garden. Buds give us hints of blooms to come in midsummer, Phlomis, Oriental Poppies, Erygiums and Echinops. Promises of yellows, reds and steely blues.

Foliage colour and texture can be as striking as the most colourful of flowers.

Our collection of Clematis are beginning to flower and others are covered in robust buds.

Flower colours have been so important during the first few weeks of this month simply as an antidote to dull days and dark skies. It matters not whether it is a gaudy cerise beauty or a subtle green or white.

Blue on blue.

Another view of our Freda Border.

Our mini-meadows in their pots are developing well. We think we may be onto a winner.

The Shed Bed created on the site of an old shed which we demolished when we moved in, is really pleasing as below the shed we found just rubble, gravel, broken pots and sand. We added wheelbarrows of compost to improve it and now every little flower is a true gem.

A vine grows over one end of the greenhouse acting as a natural shading agent as well as feeding the gardeners. The startlingly red flowering currant has hitched a lift along it so the vine drips with red droplets.

We enjoy these irises as cut flowers but bees take advantage of them before we pick them. This clump is growing through our stepover apples. Double harvesting – cut flowers followed by apples.

The planting around the pool has closed in and made it an intimate area. Nearby the Prairie Garden is bursting with fresh blooms.

In the Secret Garden Aquilegias and Alliums look good alongside the purple foliage of Pentstemon Huskers Red.

These aeonium enjoy the hottest part of the garden, the Rill Garden.

To one side of the rill we grow a snake bark maple, with silver and green striped bark, cream and red seed capsules and in autumn it has amazing rich red foliage. A wonderful specimen tree to finish this garden wander underneath.

garden design garden photography grow your own hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture poppies Shropshire shrubs trees

A Wander around our Garden in June

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 12, 2012
5 Comments on A Wander around our Garden in June

Half way through the year already where these monthly garden wanders are concerned. It should be warm and sunny as befits the Summer season but it has mostly been raining. We get occasional dry, pleasant days but they have been few and far between. Just look at this interesting early evening light colouring the landscape beyond our garden gate. One field is in the spotlight, I wonder why it was chosen?

In the garden I shot this photo looking up at the sky above our big, white-flowered rambling rose.

But, one afternoon as the rain went quiet for a while out I went camera in hand to follow my garden wander. The borders are burgeoning, blooms are getting bigger and brighter by the day and we enjoy every moment in our June garden.

Spires reach for the sky in every border, Foxgloves, Antirhinums and Lupins.

Let us visit the front garden and see how the borders have developed since our May post. There is far less gravel visible now as foliage increases sideways and upwards.

The ferns in the Stump Circle have grown considerably and the grasses in our other circle are now a good 4 feet tall.

The Hot Border is full to the brim with colour, rich colours against vibrant greens.

Jude’s Border is also full of colour from the blooms of shrubs such as this Weigela and Syringa.

The Shade Garden continues to glow with colours against vibrant greens.

Anstrantias love it here in the shade but we do grow them throughout the garden. They flower best in the shade and grow taller. There are so many to choose from starting with whites through all different shades of pink to the deepest reds.

The Freda Garden is at its peak in June, when our orange-flowered Honeysuckle creeps along the fence top, the Pyracantha and Weigela flower together, and the border is full of Oriental Poppies, Foxgloves, Aquilegias and Euphorbias all doing their own thing.

Throughout the garden the promiscuous Aquilegias self seed and create new plants in various colours, shapes and sizes. Now this little white one was a surprise! At just 1 cm across it is the tiniest I have ever seen – a true gem! And to top it all it grew alongside this Euphorbia.

When I had finished my garden wander and taken all the photos to select from, the weather deteriorated, heavy rain and strong wind lashed our garden. The Fennel in the picture below was tall and healthy around 5 feet tall but the weather bent all the stems down. The fresh stems of our rambling and climbing roses which would carry blooms next year were snapped off at the base. I only hope they have time and energy to make up some new growth.

All the borders in the back garden are full of interesting foliage with varied texture and colour as a foil for the plethora of flowering perennials.

The most beautiful plant must be our miniature chestnut (Aesculus) which is now 3 feet tall, a third of its final height, covered in blooms, spires of salmon.

Alliums are stars throughout the back garden. They have only been in a few years and are so happy they are spreading like wildfire. They really need thinning out!

I shall finish this garden wander with a few shots of some of the borders, as a taster for my next blog, “Another Wander Around our Garden in June”. There is simply too much to show, too much I want to share.

Tags aesculus, alliums, aquilegias, digitalis, euphorbias, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, grasses, ornamental trees, poppies, shrubs, syringa, weigela

garden photography gardening hardy perennials photography poppies

Meconopsis in Yellow and Blue

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 26, 2012
1 Comment on Meconopsis in Yellow and Blue

Blue meconopsis (Meconopsis grandis) are a challenge to grow and many gardeners are tempted to give it a go once they have seen them growing healthily. Their delicate almost see-through petals look too thin to survive the slightest whiff of wind or a drop of rain landing on them. Within their blue purity are slight hints and veins of red seen only when the light from the sun falls on them. In contrast to their blue petals golden centres and stigma grace the centre of each bloom.

To grow successfully the gardener must provide the exact conditions this poppy demands. Unfortunately our garden doesn’t have the right conditions at the moment, but we are working on it, so I took these pics at the RHS Malvern Spring Gardening Show.

Just as beautiful but very easy to grow are the yellow Welsh Poppies, Meconopsis cambrica. They self seed throughout our garden and we enjoy them appearing just where they choose to do so in May each year. Their yellow petals also display hints and veins of red when the sunlight falls on them. They too are almost transparent and look too delicate to survive everything the British weather subjects them to.

When they self seed they select their partners in the borders with care looking good wherever they land up. I wandered around our garden one sunny May day to see where they had chosen to appear this year. Although it is the most prolific self-seeder in our garden there is no way it can be called a weed, for if a weed is a plant in the wrong place, the Welsh Poppy always lands in the right place.

Where the blue poppy enjoys shade, its yellow Welsh relative opens out its flowers spreading the petals wide when the sun comes out but as evening falls they close back up to hide from the darkness. These delicately petalled poppies come in all shades of yellow from the palest lemon to almost orange, with one of the prettiest being the yellow with a slim fringe of orange.

While in the garden shooting pics for this post I couldn’t resist the temptation to include this exquisite double orange flowered beauty, which although a poppy is not a Meconopsis, but a papaver. Papaver rupifragum which I grew from seed eight years ago and they continue to appear each year.

And while photographing these I spied through the corner of my eye the first plant of our native red poppy to be flowering. It looks equally good in bud, flower or seedpod. This poppy is known botanically as Papaver rhoeas, but seems to collect common names including Field Poppy, Corn Poppy and Flanders Poppy.

The wonderful Welsh Poppy greets us each morning as we enter the garden through the stable door. What a cheerful way for the garden to say welcome us!