Wildflowers of the week

Lots of poppies, nice picture roders but should you publisise your opium field?

Seriously though I bet that is a beautiful sight watching the poppies wave together in the wind! Is it a favourite walk?

 

Lovely roders, Mrs.DAG said she would like to make a nice cross-stitch picture of that!

 

Regards to Mrs. Dag..............
How is the NO SMOKING going?

B/M Say nothing!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

No seriously the poppys are just up the road on my way home from work...just had to stop,always have the point and shoot at the ready since Gardeners Corner......Have pleasantly been brainwashed into noticing and enjoying wild flowers ...Thanks to Wildflower and Hornbeam etc.

 

Mrs.DAG has been a little angel so far, not one ciggy! Hasn't bitten my head off either! :D yet....

Sorry

 

Well done Mrs DAG it takes A LOT of will power still crave summer cigars on the patio. :D

 

.... and with all that money she's saving, you can go and buy her a beautiful bouquet of flowers for doing so well!!!!

 

... but back to the thread - your picture of the wild poppies, Roders, is simply stunning... It never ceases to amaze me how the wild poppy always manages to sef-seed on building sites, piles of rubble, in the gutters, etc.... of all the cultivated varietes you can get, the simple wild one is just the most beautiful....

 

Yes indeed! The poppy is a stunner and a survivor and will always flourish on disturbed earth. Seeds can lie dormant for a century or so and then germinate when the ground is disturbed. Famously and tragically at Flanders in the First World War, but also when new motorways are constucted. The farmer has sprayed them out of his fields, but the seeds endure. Then the roadmaker churns up the soil and the poppies bloom again.

 

poppies are great for that, some years I get back an annual I sowed about 6 years ago depending on whether i've turn the bed in the previous year. :D

 

yesterdays poppy!!

 

Lovely combination of flowers

 

wildflower of the week..not as good as hornbeams in julys photo competition..but the best i could do..Great Willowherb..

 

Lots and lots of wild flowers out now and far too many to post here. Here are just two - one from the chalk downs and one from the fens

Yellow-wort is a very attractive member of the gentian family


Marsh Woundwort is beautifully marked and is closely related to Hedge Woundwort. The hairy leaves were used to staunch blood and bind wounds.

 

Himalayan Balsam is the wild flower of this week. What a stunner and sometimes known as the Poor Man's Orchid or Policeman's Helmet.


It's not an orchid, of course, and was introduced into gardens from India in 1839. Since then, it has escaped and spreads along river banks because its large seeds are waterproof and float well. Great fun when the seed pods are ripe, as the slightest touch will cause them to explode with a loud pop, hurling seed for up to 12 yards. Children like to grasp the pods firmly and then the pods explode in their hands and it feels like a squirmy, tickly animal. Some folk don't like it, but its large flowers add glamour to our wild flora and if it spreads to the garden, it is shallow rooted and easy to remove. It requires damp soil.

 

That's a lovely flower, Hornbeam. The exploding pods reminds me of earlier this year when I was trying to eradicate a miniature Oxalis invader from my Bird of Paradise pot and I thought a swarm of bugs flew at me, but it was exploding seed pods from this invader ... and needless to say it's sprouting up all over again !!! My sister has also had this experience with Violets but I haven't had any luck with Violets here, probably consistently too hot! :rolleyes: