Bluebells at Rode Hall

Posted on May 7, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Bluebells, Environment, Flowers, Garden, Photography, Plants, Rode hall, Rode heath, Walk3 Comments

Rode Hall is a beautiful place and the gardens are blooming with bluebells. The last day of the bluebell walks is today. 8th May 2019.

There are other plants on display including rhododendron, campion, tulips, and even some narcissi that are still flowering.

The hall is open on Wednesdays and Weekends. They have a farmers market which I think is on the first Saturday of the month? They have a good tea room that offers hot food, cake and drinks. They are having a plant collectors fair on 27th May. (Bank Holiday).

Rode hall is off the A34 North of Stoke-on-Trent at Rode Heath. It is along a road on the left hand side and is signposted.

Pink dawn

Posted on May 4, 2019May 4, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Cold, Dawn, Gardening, Hail, Pink, Plants, Sunrise, Weather, WindLeave a comment

A rosy dawn this morning foretold rough weather later. We have had cold strong winds and hail showers! I feel sorry for the baby tomato and other plants we have outside. They should be hardened off by now but cold weather keeps coming back. We have also not had much rain over the last month. When we do get it we have heavy showers. Cloud bursts and bolts of lightning. Pink dawns ar harbingers of rough weather.

N’er cast a clout till May is out…

Posted on April 23, 2019April 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blossom, Environment, Garden, Hawthorn, Life, May, PlantsLeave a comment

May blossom? It erupts in spring, flowering in masses of tiny flowers. The proverb doesn’t mean that you have to wait till the end of May to wear less clothes but just until the May (hawthorn blossoms) are out.

Oak man

Posted on April 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Dorothy Clive garden, Fun, Garden, Green man, Life, Oak man, Plant sale, Plants, StaffordshireLeave a comment

I’m a bit disappointed with my phones camera. Although this image of an oak green man came out OK three other photos of similar green men didn’t register. I think it’s because I have too many photos saved and as most of them are MB not KB they are too large as files so they take up too much space.

This oak man was for sale at the Dorothy Clive garden near Woore, Staffordshire. It was rammed with people, there was a great plant sale on, but it was crowded with hundreds of people. We struggled to get a seat and had a quick lunch. I usually go there to see the rhododendrons in flower but it’s a couple of weeks before they will be out in the quarry garden. In the meantime they had a massive plant sale with stalls so we came home with about 15 varied and interesting plants. Glad to be home to get a rest.

Wallflowers and dianthus

Posted on April 21, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Environment, Gardening, Life, Plants, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Urban greeningLeave a comment

DSC_1833_optimized (4)

I shared this a few days ago as part of a group of photos but I came back to it because I loved the vibrant colours. It goes with my mood today. Gold wallflowers and pink dianthus I think are the types of flowers.

An artist at Spode planted and looks after this area just outside the spode studios. They always cheer me up when I go in. To see them in the middle of industrial delapidation lifts my spirits.

On the road that passes the site there was a project called greening Stoke where various shop fronts and bits of derelict land were planted up with wild flowers. They are still growing. Good to see green in the urban landscape.

Cherry blossom

Posted on April 18, 2019April 18, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blossom, Cherry blossom, Courgette, Gardening, Plants, Sweet peas, TomatoesLeave a comment

It’s been quite a dry and cold April so far so the cherry blossom in the garden has been a bit late coming out but as the weather is due to warm up over the next few days hopefully it will be ok. We are also clearing some of the ivy off the house. We are being careful but the tendrils had got under the weather boarding round the roof and was starting to pull it away.

Meanwhile there is blossom on a couple of self seeded plum trees. We need to cut back an old willow that is snagging on the roof of a neighbours garage and I’d like a limb cutting off from a laurel bush which is overshadowing the garden. The other straighter limb will stay and leave it as a dense tree because all the lower branches were cut off a few years ago.

The tomato and courgette seedlings are still inside because of the cold nights. I want to get them planted outside soon. Also we have a few sweet pea seedlings and morning glory plants.

I will post photos once plants are in

Stag attack

Posted on April 14, 2019April 14, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Deer, Garden, Garden Centre, Life, Plants, Sculpture, StagLeave a comment

Did he come in from the countryside? Race across the garden centre. Stand at bay in the middle of the mahonias and fatsia plants? Did he knock them like skittles across the patio? Did he roar a challenge to the bamboo ducks sitting on the bridge? A woman walks past and does not hear his challenge. A cat, out of shot, creeps past incase he disturbs the scene. Agapanthus are ready to grow. Perennials are sprouting. This metallic majesty sparkles in the sun. Windswept and tangled in plants he stands up head high, massive antlers shaking in the windy April air.

Sun seeker

Posted on April 11, 2019April 11, 2019 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Animal, Blogging, Cat, Garden, Life, Phototropism, Plants, Science, Seedlings, Seeker, SunLeave a comment

It’s sunny by the sofa and our tom cat never fails to find the sun. As the light moves across the room he will follow it. Eyelids drooping as he naps. Head nodding. Whiskers splayed in the sunlight. Plants display phototropism, bending towards sunlight. Is this an example of ‘catatropism’ (or would that be humans moving towards cats?).

In the case of these seedlings I have to turn them round because they bend each day towards the light. True phototropism. But the cat has also moved again. _20190411_111757

He’s a true sun seeker.

Plastic in my garden

Posted on April 6, 2019April 6, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blossom, Environment, Garden, Green, Life, Plants, Plastic, Spring, TreeLeave a comment

IMG_20190406_165752_062

My partners been out putting seeds in the garden, pottering with plant pots and sitting in a chair in the sun.

Two magpies are trying to pull twigs off a buddlea Bush, they are building a raggadey nest in the top of one of the trees. They managed to break off 3 or 4 twigs while we watched.

It was so nice I decided to take a few photos. The first is the chair my partner was sitting in. He didn’t want his photo taken second is the cherry tree. With blossom buds about to burst. The third is another tree at the side of the garden, with a great big waving piece of white plastic in the top of it! I don’t know how it got there but I think it must have blown up in a storm. It doesn’t look like a plastic bag, maybe some plastic wrapping? Things are getting green. We need to wash plastic flower pots to reuse them, but I caught my partner burning perfectly good ones! Grr….

Helibores

Posted on March 31, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Environment, Flowers, Garden, Helibores, Life, Plants, SpringLeave a comment

IMG_20190331_173954_091

Another plant I love in the spring are Helibores. The flowers range from bright white, pale green, pink and green and deeper pink. Sometimes the flowers are upright and you can get double species, but mainly their flower heads droop down and you need to lift up the flower to see its true beauty. There are sometimes dappled patterns and flecks of darker colours. The centre of the flower is quite prominent, backed by a slightly darker centre.

The leaves are deep green and shiny, sometimes five lobed. The borders are sometimes slightly serrated. I don’t know all the types of Hellibores there are but if you want an unusual plant that flowers early in the year and keeps flowering into April then they are worth getting. They offer some food for early insects. If you like your tulips and daffodils you could also try these. They are easy to keep and I grow mine with pulmonaria which come up a little bit later.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Plants