Tag: hypericum

May flowers

On By afrenchgardenIn flowers, Gardening9 Comments

May is a time for poppies in the garden. We let the poppies self seed and then give stray ones a helping hand to find more acceptable positions but you have to be quick as they do not transplant well after seedling size. This year our big blowsy pink poppies have reverted to much more normal red poppies. I did not know that they would revert or perhaps they have crossed with something else. I will have to source some new seeds.

Some of the flowers are insignificant for us, but not for the bees. Our Gleditsia “Sunburst” planted in 2016 is finally producing enough flowers to be interesting to the bees.

The Melia azerdarach has a more rapid growth and although it can become a very large tree the flowers have the benefits of being perfumed and beautiful as well as being attractive to the bees.

In May we peer up into the Kaki tree to watch for the Kaki flowers. This year they are very plentiful and are being well polinated by the bees. The waxy petals are already starting to fall of to reveal the beginings of the fruit, but they will not be mature until the end of the year.

We have lots of Nepeta and it is abundant in May attracting lots of life and our first Hummingbird Hawk Moths.

The blue geraniums multi task as ground cover all summer and food for the bees starting in May.

The Ceanothos which we have had trouble to grow seems to have finally decided that it will live. It attracts a very tiny little bee which I find very appealing.

The little bee is also partial to the Lychnis coronaria, just out in the garden.

So many flowers burst open in May and the bees are spoiled for choice just now. One of the favourites is the Hypericum. The Hypericum has bright yellow pollen and the honey bees are bringing it into the hives with their loads of bright yellow pollen glowing on their legs.

There are so many flowers in the garden just now but even as I appreciate the beautiful sports of the self seeding poppies I wonder if anyone has a good recommendation for seeds of a large annual pink poppy.

First frost

On By afrenchgardenIn Uncategorized20 Comments

This morning we awoke to the first frost of the winter. Until now it has not really been cold but this year France has had 32 continuous days of rain. You have to go back to 1988 between the 12 January and 12 February to find a similar number of continuous days of rain and even then considerably less rain fell. Considering that France started the year from 21 January to 21 February with no rain then you can understand it has been a difficult year for gardeners.

We are well behind with the gardening work but at least the uncut sedums look pretty when frosted.

My Hydrangea brought from the Savill gardens moved this year to a better place, has not only survived but managed to look attractive right up to the frost.

I was so pleased that my Salvia leucantha survived its first year in the soil. I suppose the frost will finish it off but I hope it will be happy to be cut down and covered with a fleece.

I have no such fears for my blue Salvia that grows like a weed and pushes up shoots of two and a half metres in a season. It does provide good colour at this time of year.

The Mahonia “Charity” is also providing colour but no bumbles bees were willing to brave the cold to visit it this morning.

We noticed flowers on our flowering cherry “Accolade” a few days ago. The flowers look as pretty as they usually due when they flower in March – their normal flowering time.

I think the rain and the relatively mild weather has encouraged a lot of the plants, like this Hypericum, to flower.

The saffron greens have been frosted. They did get lots of rain after flowering but not much sun to enrich the bulbs for next year.

The cotoneasters and …

the flowering apples have given a good crop for the birds this winter, despite the dry summer.

The garden survived the drought better than I expected but perhaps a lot of our plants were well established. The Eriobotrya tree is full of flowers.

What did surprise me this morning was the perfume emanating from the flowers even frosted and at a low temperatures. Such a lovely tree. We rarely get the fruit here as the fruit matures at the coldest time of our year.

The rain has filled up the little river at the bottom of our garden. Luckily we are above the level of the surrounding fields that provide plenty of soakaway. The neighbouring city of Saintes was flooded in places but the Charente often breaks its banks and the people who live beside it are amazingly stoic bout the regular flooding.

A Week of Flowers, Day 4

On By afrenchgardenIn Gardening6 Comments
Manuka flowers, 5.5.21

We bought some Manuka bushes as a present for our honey bees and to see if we might get some interesting flavours in the honey. Well, so far it has worked in the reverse. We love the pink flowers but the honey bees have so far ignored them. At least some of the solitary wild bees appreciate them.

Hypericum, 9.6.21

My Hypericum has been grown from seed given to me by a friend who did not know the variety. It is probably “Hidcote” which is a very popular variety. The seeds were amazingly fruitful and the seedlings extremely sturdy, so I have a large reservoir of Hypericum plants I can pop into needy places in the garden. They reward you with prolific yellow flowers in the summer and require little care and attention.

Of Millepertuis and tadpoles

On By afrenchgardenIn Nature12 Comments

Hypericum perforatum owes its name to little transparent pockets in the leaves. These appear as holes if you look at a leaf against the light.

These flowers grow around where we live and they are just coming into flower just now and the will last until about mid August. In past times it was considered a magic plant with the ability to chase the devil away.

For the past couple of years I have collected the flowers to make a solarised oil. The flower heads are much smaller than the cultivated varieties. You can see the size of the flower compared to my hand and also the red staining of my index finger and thumb that I use to pull off the flower heads.

I stuff the flower heads into a glass jar and top up with sunflower oil and leave it in the sun. I have read you should not expose it to moonlight but I’ll leave that consideration to you.

Gradually the colour changes and after 22 days all the oil looked red.

All that has to be done is to decant the oil into a smaller container. I could not believe that it worked the first time I tried – it did seem like magic!

I love the gentle, soothing perfume, it makes a massage oil and also I use it to make body bars with our bees wax. The liquid is phototoxic and should never be applied to the skin that is going to be exposed to the sun. It would not surprise me if it could cause allergies and irritations in sensitive people.

Luckily, I have had no negative reactions to it but I would not recommend it generally. I do find the light perfume soothing and it is a pleasant memory of summer during the winter time.

I have got quite a lot of Hypericum bushes in the garden that are blooming at the moment. I am not sure of the variety as I grew them from seed given to me by a friend.

I have one bush of Hypericum inodorum whose flowers have longer stamens. The bees seem happy with both sorts. Notice the orange pollen on this bee. The bumblebees also collect quantities of this pollen. The flowers are not as attractive to the pollinators as Cotoneaster which is also blooming just now. However, the Hypericum flowers for a much longer time.

We discovered the toad spawn on the 17 May 21 and so exactly one month later our tadpoles are starting to look like little toads with tails.

It was only after I had taken the photograph that I noticed that the eyes had developed.

I have seen one or two with legs but this was the only one I could photograph.

The garden in the longest days

On By afrenchgardenIn flowers, Garden23 Comments

The hours of sunlight at the moment are at their annual peak.  It made me wonder what are my favourite plants in the garden at this time.  Obviously I can spend a long time watching the action on the lavender when it is sunny.

Our Fuchsia has become immense and performs a sterling service covering a difficult part of the front garden.

It has provided several babies that are well on their way to perform the same service in the back garden.

They are always full of bumble bees and so keep the garden from being too quiet.

The everlasting sweet pea plants seed themselves into the same area.  I love these as I have never been able to grow the more conventional sweet peas that do so well in the U.K.

The Larkspur comes up in shades of blue, white, pink and pale lilac wherever it has found a free patch of ground and I cannot imagine summer without them..

My Hydrangia this June is putting on a surprisingly good show having been well supplied with rain, for a change.

I do have some plants that do not attract bees.   The Pierre de Ronsard was one of the first flowers to be planted.

It was my husband’s choice for outside the front door.  This year it has been beautiful.  Once again, the plentiful rain must agree with it.

I have planted a number of Hypericum and the bright yellow flowers are lighting up a number of spaces that were dull.  These have improved the summer garden.

However, I think the stars of the summer garden are the Malvaceae, like the Lavatera above.

Hollyhocks are emblematic of the Charente Maritime and I try to have as many as I can squeeze in the garden.

This picture was taken just after 7 o’clock in the evening and already the Tetralonia malva bees were settling down for the night inside the Hollyhock.

I often find them still abed up to 9 o’clock in the morning, so I must have plenty of Hollyhocks to provide them with shelter and me with the fun of finding them.