In the 80’s I assisted an ecology/botany graduate friend of mine to lead a botanical/walking holiday in the Plakias area of Crete in the spring to see and identify the spring flowers. We were not at or on beach level, but walking through the foothills above the beaches (where all the original villages were), and enjoying the beautiful Maquis environment.
Cardamine heptaphylla 'Big White' is neither a disappointment nor a thug. It is large for a cardamine, growing to about 40 cms tall and as much across. The leaves are large with, as the name suggests, seven toothed leaflets. In spring it produces good heads of pure white flowers. ...
A few days ago I spotted a hornet hoverfly which is quite an impressive insect. The hoverfly mimics hornets (but is completely harmless) and likes to visit nectar-rich flowers for nectar. The larvae live in hornet nests. I once watched a female hornet hoverfly walk into a large hornet nest with the hornets completely ignoring her ...
Plants in the Conservation Scheme should be completely hardy and perform well in the garden, but we don't grow plants in isolation and I've been looking out for some interesting planting combinations.
I’ve now got lots of salvias, with most of them given to me by great salvia lovers and collectors themselves.. I will try and do my best to look after most of them just to see whether I can make them flourish once again as they used to at former Rodbaston College.
Erythronium dens-canis is a typical spring ephemeral. The flowers don’t last long and even the attractive, marbled leaves are gone by the end of spring. In spite of this it is a lovely plant and a welcome addition to early spring ...
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