As I was saying ….

Thunbergia fragrans
Thunbergia fragrans

Part of the late, late show, Thunbergia fragrans from Crug Farm Plants. The headline refers to the fact it looks like the trumpet is ‘chatting’  especially when viewed at a larger size. Apparently it was collected at 2150m in Northern India and for the last two years this potted specimen has gone into the just above frost free conservatory as it’s said not to be reliably hardy in the UK, big dilemma there’s not going to be permanent room over winter for it in the conservatory this year.

So far it’s only ever flowered on one twining stem, the flowers running in pairs either side of the stem. It grows very vigorously through spring and early summer so maybe the bits I have to hack back then to contain it are the flowers I’m losing. I can’t detect any fragrance, perhaps it needs more warmth to give of itself?

Aster White Climax
Red Admiral Butterflies on Aster White Climax

The Red Admiral butterflies in particular are enjoying the Aster White Climax in this ‘unseasonably’ warm weather. Peacock Butterflies are trying to take up winter quarters in the house, inevitably some will succeed to reappear come March / April. Also spotted a Small Copper Butterfly out and about on the aster as well. White Climax is a bit of a thug growing to over 2M tall and now flopping in great swathes with the rain but certainly an insect magnet.

 

Iris unguicularis has started flowering, unfortunately the lovely crystalline petals are pushed in by the rain.

We cleared the stream of foliage and Yellow Flag this weekend which has it running lower and faster now, will this affect the habits of the Signal Crayfish whose burrows in the banks are now more obvious?

We stopped feeding the small birds in mid summer and have now put out the feeders again – absolutely nothing not a tit or a bullfinch to be seen.

Iris foetidissima
Iris foetidissima

Pretty but not to be eaten Iris foetidissima seeds, apparently they ‘purge’ the body somewhat. Sources often refer to the dull purple and yellow flowers and one of its common names, Stinking Iris, doesn’t help. Dull is unfair, the mauve and yellow finely petalled flowers are appreciated by me murmuring in summer from the dry shady corners it puts itself in. The strong upright foliage is a good shade of green and then the seeds go ‘pow’, what’s not to appreciate? Geoffrey Grigson in The Englishman’s Flora is also a little kinder, apparently in some counties it’s known as Roast Beef as the crushed leaves smell of beef – OK, just done a bit of field research, the crushed leaves just smell ‘leafy’  to me not particularly distinctive in the way that say Meadow Sweet and Salad Burnet foliage are when crushed. I do remember pressing Walnut leaves once, they had a very distinctive spicy peppery smell.

We’ve been told to expect the remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo to pass through tonight and early Tuesday morning so I expect the garden will be a complete flopped mess by tomorrow evening. Apparently they’ve got much better at predictive forecasting since The Great Storm of 15 – 16 October 1987 as we’ve still got lots of leaves on the trees as we had then! Reading Wikipedia it suggests that Meteo France also ‘got it wrong’ initially too and the severity was much more than expected.

“Blow the wind southerly, southerly, southerly,
Blow the wind south o’er the bonny blue sea;
Blow the wind southerly, southerly, southerly,
Blow bonnie breeze,  softly  (orig: my lover) to me.”