Get your garden out

[dw1305]

Hi all,
A sunlit <"Abutilon megapotamicum">, from a misty Corsham this morning. It isn't a showy flower, but it flowers for <"eight months of the year"> and has survived the S. Cotswold winter for the last fifteen years. It is a slow grower, but otherwise trouble-free, and also easy to propagate as a semi-hardwood cutting.

cheers Darrel

 

[mort]

We have lots of those around here as well. I think it's a case of everyone who knows one man gets given one.

I have kentish belle which I think is a bit more showy but not as hardy. It's equally been passed on more times than I can remember and has proven hardy for a few years. I have some megapotamicum cuttings on the go at the moment.

 

[The Miniaturist]

Yucca gloriosa variegata....likes old aquarium water!
We moved it last year as it had got too large, dragged the plant down the drive, then tipped the thing into a huge hole, expecting it to wither & die over winter or be fried in the summer!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I have kentish belle which I think is a bit more showy but not as hardy.

<"Kentish Belle"> is much showier. Abutilon <"Cynthia Pike"> is the other option.

cheers Darrel

 

[mort]

Hi all,

<"Kentish Belle"> is much showier. Abutilon <"Cynthia Pike"> is the other option.

cheers Darrel

I knew I'd heard it somewhere, forgotten where though, at least it shows i'm listening


The savour of our garden late in the year after everything else was frazzled

 

[mort]

 

[foxfish]

I harvested my chillies this morning, defenatily the best outdoor crop for many years.
Many of my garden plants have suffered this year from the heat and lack of rain but the chillies have loved the weather.
I bought the majority from the B&Q sales bench for 50p a pot but I did grow two plants from seed.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
This one is cheating a little bit, because it is the lab. garden. We have a number of Hares (Lepus europaeus) on Campus and they are a lot less wary than normal. This was taken from the window with the <"fish-tanks in it">.

cheers Darrel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The savour of our garden late in the year after everything else was frazzled

The Bee is a <"leaf-cutter bee"> (Megachile sp.), she doesn't have pollen sacks on her legs, but collects the pollen on the underneath of her abdomen.

cheers Darrel

 

[mort]

We get lots of leaf cutter bees in the garden but this was a very large specimen, perhaps twice the size of those we normally see. Some are really diddy little things but I don't know if that means they are different species or different generations.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

We get lots of leaf cutter bees in the garden but this was a very large specimen, perhaps twice the size of those we normally see.

That one may be <"Megachile ligniseca">, but you can't really ID them from a photo.

but I don't know if that means they are different species or different generations.

Bees are really variable in size (you sometimes get tiny Common Carder (<"Bombus pascuorum">) bumblebees for example), but I'd guess that these are different species.

cheers Darrel

 

[sparkyweasel]

Got to love Leafcutter Bees.
This one made a nest in a plant pot in my greenhouse.

 

[sparkyweasel]

This one was not so bright, nested in a bird-feeding coconut. Not a great pic, but you can see a piece of leaf being carried in for lining the nest.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Cheating a little bit again, because it is the campus garden rather than at home, but these are from the sub-tropical fruit gardens of Bath.

One for @foxfish , the <"Chinese Gooseberry">, or "Kiwi fruit", (Actinidia chinensis). These may come ripe in November, it depends a little bit on the weather. I'd estimated there are several hundred fruit.

and a <"flowering Loquat"> (Eriobotrya japonica). I've seen this in fruit in S. Turkey in May, so I'm not holding out much hope for a successful crop. The flowers don't look much, but they <"smell incredibly strong">, a bit like Almonds, but sweeter.

cheers Darrel

 

[foxfish]

Yes the Kiwi fruit was a huge growing crop in Guernsey, for a few years anyway, you can still find them for sale on the hedge rows in late summer.
We used to eat them like a boiled egg by cutting off the top and scooping out the inside with a tea spoon.
Lovely taste if perfectly ripe, with bright green flesh and black pips.

 

[Tim Harrison]

It seems spring has sprung, first snowdrops. Moved house during the autumn and pleasantly surprised to discover the garden littered with green shoots. Perfect antidote to winter blues.

 

[Jaseon]

Taken a few summers back

 

[Jaseon]

And made a Hazel archway last year for jasmine. Im going to get a nice stove up there so me and the wife can have a few bottles of vino in the evenings.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

last year for jasmine

I like Trachelospermum (Star Jasmine). I have a <"variegated one"> at home, and they are the red leaved climber, to the left of the Rose, <"in the planters at work">.

cheers Darrel

 

[hypnogogia]

Hi all,

I like Trachelospermum (Star Jasmine). I have a <"variegated one"> at home, and they are the red leaved climber, to the left of the Rose, <"in the planters at work">.

cheers Darrel

Gorgeous scent as well.