Back in the Garden

I left home on 1st May and returned on 28th July. Constant rainfall and other commitments meant it was 30th July before I got out into the garden. In just three months it has almost gone wild. The wild flower border seems to have moved from the back garden to the front!


One of the wild flowers that has come up in the normal borders is Knapweed. I have never managed to grow it in the wild flower garden and now it pops up in among the garden flowers. At least it is one of the more welcome ‘weeds’.


Teasel also crop up in some unexpected places when the Goldfinches don’t manage to eat all the seeds. But, like the Knapweed, they are welcome invaders providing food for insects as well as birds.


The Japanese Anemones are reliable and lengthy flowerers.


A Speckled Wood and a Large White were the first butterflies I saw during the brief patch of sunshine.


Field Scabious or Pin-cushion Flower is one of my favourite wild flowers in the garden. I bought some this year and they seem to have done well.


Jo got some red Geraniums for the kitchen window box and they have done really well.


The Grass Garden is buried in Nettles, Willowherbs, Welsh Poppies and Self-heal. Weeding it and cutting back the hedges around it will be one of my first priorities.


There are lots of yellow Welsh Poppies around the garden and some orange Californian Poppies. I love their tissue paper petals.


Mallow petals also have that thin papery appearance.


Most of the lilies are over but this one was only planted this year and has flowered later than the others.


I haven’t had much luck keeping Dahlias from one year rto the next but I hope I succeed with this one which was planted earlier this year.


This is another wild flower I planted - Mullein.


The Queen Elizabeth Rose has done well despite the lack of fertilizer.


The mice dug up most of the Freesia bulbs this Spring but this is one they missed.



This beautiful Calla Lily seems to have managed well despite the three months of neglect. Jo and Richard did some watering of the garden when I first went away but God (or Darwin – or both) took over the job after a while and has kept it up ever since.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary..

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary,
How does your Garden Grow?

Even though I have been away from Pensby since 1st May the garden has continued to grow apace and in particular I have reports of the dreaded Bindweed trying to take over large sections of it. According to Jo all the roses are now out. It will be a few more weeks before I get home but once I do you can expect some regular - and excited - blogging on this Pensby Blog.

25th April 2009

Some recent garden events:-



A couple of Fantails were added to the fishpond.


One of my favourite flowers is the Welsh Poppy. It flowers almost all year round and is beautiful, easy to grow and thrives in most soils and conditions. What more could one ask of a plant.


I like the fact that my hedge of native species has space beneath it for wild flowers. In this case some Cowslips and Cuckoo Pint. Please note that the rusty spade is ornamental – I don’t really treat my garden tools that badly!


This Cuckoo Pint came from Helen and Ian last year. It has three flowers on it. My original Cuckoo Pint – of which there are about six enormous plants have yet again failed to flower. I’ll give them one more year and then take them up.

The Butterfly House

I went to Chester Zoo on Monday and spent Tuesday in bed recovering from the effort – but it was worth it. I took 763 photos so I have a little bit of sorting and editing to do! Since my last visit the zoo has added a Butterfly House and being a butterfly addict I spent a while in there, walking around with a butterfly on my cap. It liked the pale colour and every time it left it, or another, landed there again. Just about everybody passing through managed to tell me about it.


It’s obviously something the butterfly house is used to – no sooner had this young girl arrived than one landed on her cap.


Fortunately they have a mirror by the door so you can check you aren’t taking any out with you.



This is a Blue Morpho (Morpho melenaus). There were a lot of them about.


This is an Owl Butterfly (Caligo idomeneus ) so-called for its large eyespot on the underside of the hind wings.


The Owl Butterfly rests with its wings closed so you have to be quick to get a photo of its upperside as it lands or takes off.


This is a Citrus Swallowtail (Papilio demoleus).


This is a Papilio species - I haven't worked out which one yet.


A White Tree Nymph (Idea Leoconue ).


A Heliconius species.


This is the Great Eggfly ( Hypolimnas bolina ).


This is a Great Orange Tip (Hebomoia glaucippe).


There were not that many different species compared to a normal butterfly house but that may be partly due to it being early in the season and the fact that the house has only recently opened. What they lacked in variety they certainly made up for in numbers.