Tag Archives: self-seeding flowers

Day 113

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Two poppies today. That is four so far this year. We also have some self-seeded honesty growing by the front door. There are two plants on one side (both white) and one plant on the other. That one is purple streaked with white – I suspect some cross breeding has taken place and the purple one we had last year has been diluted. This happened a few years ago with alyssum. We have plenty of white (who doesn’t?) and I planted some blue. The blue didn’t thrive and only lasted a year, but in the next year a lot of our plants had white flowers with blue edges.  Unfortunately they had all disappeared by the next year.

I may have said this before, but it bears repeating – I like self-seeding flowers.  Cheap, easy and capable of generating a lot of interest.

We are gradually running out of marigolds, so I may have to plant a few extra, but the valerian is still going strong and we have so many teasels I am going to have to do some thinning out. The trouble with spiky plants is that you can’t just let them grow where they want.

That is really all there was to today – got up, went to work, saw a few customers, packed a few parcels, went home, ate and watched TV. It was veggie burgers again. Bought in again because it’s a cheap and easy thing to do and because our shopping arrives on Friday night so the cobs are still nice and fresh to put the burgers in. They were a bit too spicy this week so, once again, I am talking about making my own.

I may have said that before . . .

A Few Flowers

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Red Valerian

Red Valerian

In response to a request, here is a picture of the red valerian in the front garden. If you look closely you should be able to pick out the two different reds, though I have difficulty getting a good shot of them. To the naked eye they are very different but the camera tends to average them out. It also comes in white. When we go to Matlock we pass an expanse of the white variety growing from the side of a railway embankment.

The link is to a blog I just found whilst looking for information on red valerian, she explains it far better than I can. The blog address is https://bugwomanlondon.com/ and from what I can see it is full of interesting stuff about plants and weeds.

Figs are doing nicely too – you grow them by cutting sticks from other figs and sticking them in a pot. Easy. My sort of gardening.

The rosemary behind the valerian has only recently stopped flowering. We had to buy the rosemary, but three pots have produced a forest.  We really should take cuttings and cut all the woody stuff out, but you know me – a lazy non-interventionist gardener. They are both great additions to any garden – low water needs, difficult to kill (I never say impossible ;-)) floral and, useful. Red valerian feeds butterflies and hummingbird hawkmoths. Rosemary tastes good and the smell is supposed to drive mice away. We have certainly had no winter mouse intrusions while w have had that monster plant outside. This seems to be the only link I have to hummingbird hawkmoths in my own blog, you have to go down to the end for a poor quality picture of one. I’m sure I wrote more than one post with photos…

The other plant is Nottingham catchfly, a local plant and one I have never managed a good photo of yet. Other people seem to have the same problem.

Nottingham Catchfly