Amaryllis

Posted on January 18, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Amaryllis, Beauty, Blogging, Bulb, Flowers, Life, Plant, Red petals, WateringLeave a comment

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My Amaryllis plants are coming into leaf again. They die back after flowering and being in leaf over the summer and autumn. I generally leave them to dry off for a couple of months, then start watering them again about now. The leaves emerge and then the flower spike from the large amaryllis bulb. They prefer to be tightly fitting in their pots. One of mine is about ten years old and has grown another bulb next to it. I love the large flowers, they are always brightly coloured. As you water the plants and the leaves and watch the flower spikes grow, you can almost see them expanding by the minute. If you got one at Christmas don’t throw it away when it dies back, keep it and water it next December or January, you should be lucky and get new flowers x

Winter Solstice

Posted on December 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Longest night, Plant, Poem, Poetry, Solstice, Summer solstice, Winter Solstice2 Comments

Today, 22.12.2019, is the Winter Solstice.

Which is why I have posted a picture of a marrow or cucumber plant trying to grow on my windowledge.

What? Why? Because the solstice is when the longest night in the Northern hemisphere happens. And the plant? Because its an annual plant as far as I know. But its from a random seed my hubby put in an indoor plant’s pot a few months ago. It’s even flowered a few times. What does it prove? That we must have our kitchen lights on a lot, that we obviously keep our heating too warm.

Solstice, an ancient cerimony happens,

Druids celebrate the return of the sun.

Long nights start shortening again.

The night begins to dwindle.

Sun rejoices in its mastery.

The world spins and tips round the sun.

Canted at an angle,

South lands have their longest day.

Slowly, over months, they swap.

Till first day and night equalise.

Then Summer sun revolves into view.

Till once again Autumn equinox flies past,

and Winter comes around again.

Bees and holly

Posted on November 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Bee, Colours, Design, Holly, Insect, Life, Mini paintings, Plant, scrylic on canvas, WipLeave a comment

I’m doing a few more pictures now. The yellow Bee on a yellow flower needs refining, I might make the centre of the flower a bit more orange or gold. The Holly was a bit of an experiment. The background is quite abstract. I might paint a banner across it saying Holly and Ivy, and add some Ivy scrambling up through the Holly plant. Or I might just brighten the Holly berries. Not sure…. More to follow.

What are these plants?

Posted on October 9, 2019October 9, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bodnant Gardens, Colour, Flowers, Green, North Wales, Plant, Red, Spikey, WalesLeave a comment

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I know the plants at the back but what are they at the front? Spikey little rosettes with little red flowers. Like little hens hiding in grass! I know a lot of things but not this and didn’t see a label to explain what they are. Seen at Bodnant Gardens in North Wales last Thursday.

Hover flies

Posted on September 23, 2019September 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Daliah, Environment, Flower, Garden, Hover fly, Insect, PlantLeave a comment

Daliah with hover flies. Another form of pollinator. They are so similar looking to bees with yellow and black stripes although they are quite a bit smaller. They really do hover almost like humming birds.

I like these daliahs, I like the simplicity and bright colours and because they are not double flowers the insects can get at the pollen easily.

A bush in the sink

Posted on September 22, 2019September 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Destructive, Longport Station, Plant, The Waiting Room gallery, Vandalism, VandalsLeave a comment

Why are people so destructive?

The waiting room gallery looks after a part of Longport Station and is trying to restore part of it. They have also planted shrubs and plants to improve the site. But they caught someone pulling up plants. Stealing them! This shrub was rescued and put in the sink to stop it drying out. It’s going to be replanted. But I can’t get over how mean people are. We also saw some broken windows. Can’t people leave things alone?!

Random poem

Posted on September 15, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Fresh, Gardening, Gold, Life, Papaver, Plant, Poem, Poetry, Poppy, Sunny, Welsh poppy, YellowLeave a comment

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About a random photo…

Yellow gold,

Spun sunshine

Fresh greens

Like limes

Flowers like crumpled paper.

Lemon yellow

Papaver Hibernica?

Welsh poppy

Red drained to orange and yellow.

High in windblown meadows,

Summer in your petals

Giving your celtic roots

Room to roam.

Pears

Posted on September 10, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blossom, Flowers, Food, Garden, Gardening, Growing, Pear tree, Pears, Plant, PollenationLeave a comment

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Never seen so many pears on our pear tree! This year there are over fifty. Sometimes the flowers don’t get pollinated, get caught by a late frost. Or it’s to hot and dry in the summer for them to grow. Sometimes we get too much rain and they swell up too quickly and split. Last year a lot got blown off in June. The tree leans over so we propped it up this year to stop it getting twisted by the wind. Perhaps that’s why we have a bigger crop. Anyway fingers crossed for a bumper harvest. X

Garden today

Posted on August 24, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cat, Flowers, Garden, Life, Pears, Plant, Ripening, Spider, Tomatoes6 Comments

It’s all berries, flowers, and spider webs.

The temperature is rising again and the fruit is ripening. The spiders in the garden are busy catching pests, and flowers continue to emerge.

Watering plants is important, especially in hanging baskets, I’m afraid mine have started to wilt.

My hubby has counted about fifty small pears on the pear tree, which is growing at an angle because it’s top heavy. We have used a piece of timber to prop it up. We also have quite a few green tomatoes, basically because they are in too much shade so are not ripening quickly.

Life continues, cats mooch round the garden trying to pounce on the odd wood pigeon. I keep our cats in but can’t shoo the neighbouring ones away easily.

One tiny, curly, cucumber

Posted on August 6, 2019August 6, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged A small offering, Cucumber, Cucumber plant, Food, Gardening, Life, Plant, Taste4 Comments

We planted lots of cucumber and squash plants this year. But this was all I managed to grow.

It’s about 7 or 8 centimetres long and curled round with a thin stalk end and a bulbous end where the initial flower grew.

What to do? It’s come loose from the stem so it’s now in the fridge. I’m going to peel off the rough bits and chop it up finely. I might add it to some spicy tomato chutney I’ve got in. Then I will add that as an accompaniment to some cheese sandwiches on fresh brown bread. I hope that is a suitable use of my little friend.

PS… It was very tasty!

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Plant