The intriguingly named Venus' looking glass,
Legousia speculum-veneris, has just started flowering. This was formerly a frequent weed of cornfields, but is now virtually extinct as a wild plant in this country. However, it makes a pretty, if unspectacular garden plant, almost worth growing just for its name. We planted it last year from plugs of seedlings sown in the greenhouse & it didn't really thrive, so it's very pleasing that it has self-seeded & the plants are looking much more vigorous ~ it evidently resents being transplanted.
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| Venus' looking glass, Legousia speculum-veneris |
The mangetout peas have just started flowering. These are an old variety, 'Golden Sweet'. The yellow pods should follow in a week or two, but we can enjoy the flowers in the meantime.
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| Mangetout pea, 'Golden Sweet' |
A number of other annuals have begun to flower this week, including marigold,
Calendula officinalis. The petals of this make a nice addition to a leafy salad. We sowed two different strains of marigold last year, one dwarf, the other tall, but the seedlings are of varied heights this year.
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| Calendula officinalis with phacelia behind |
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| Self-sown field poppies, Papaver rhoeas, have also started flowering this week |
Unfortunately, we neglected to pinch out the growing tips of the broad beans, so the plants are now infested with blackfly. As the plants are unlikely to produce a crop because of this, we cut them down.
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| Broad bean infested with blackfly |
Also beginning to flower this week are the clary sage plants,
Salvia viridis. This is a very long-flowering plant, well-worth growing as it remains pretty for months. The colourful parts of the plant are not the flowers themselves, which are rather unspectacular (if attractive to bees), but rather the bracts which appear above the true flowers. In cultivated strains, these bracts may be either purple, pink or white & all three colours growing together make a harmonious picture.
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| Salvia viridis, both purple & pink forms self-sown here |
The lettuces are coming on nicely, 'Really Red Deer Tongue' is always a striking plant & makes a nice addition to a salad.
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| Lettuce, 'Really Red Deer Tongue' |
2 comments:
I liked the site and the blog. I would be glad if it said that the Annecy Garden Project was part of Transition Town Cheltenham initiatives - perhaps it does and I missed it??
Dear Pat,
We tell people that we are part of Transition Town Cheltenham in our 'About' section (http://annecygardenscheltenham.blogspot.co.uk/p/about.html)
It would be cumbersome to mention this in every post, but I'm sure you will agree this does not take anything away from the project itself.
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