Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: TC on May 05, 2007, 08:59:22 PM
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I often think that we forget our own native plants in the search for something more exotic and foreign. With the good weather in the last few weeks which allows us to get out and about, I have had a look round my own local woods and was pleasantly surprised at the profusion of flowers. The spectacle of wild Bluebells and Garlic flowers in their tens of thousands is very impressive. If you remember the pictures of Snowdrops I showed at Fullarton woods, these have now been replaced by Bluebells. In the grounds of the Scottish Agricultural College at Auchencruive in Ayr, the spectacle was even more impressive - wall to wall Bluebells - to be replaced by huge drifts of Garlic flowers on the riverside walk.
A surprise I got was when I looked closely at a Horse Chestnut flower, previously I had thought that they were just white and had never looked any closer. I got a surprise. I am sure that if the had been found in the Himalayas and brought to the U.K. , people would have been raving about them !
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Hi TC. Saw lots of all three on my to and from Milngavie (via Strathblane) today. Forgot my camera, but you more than made up for my forgetfulness. :)
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If Mark were here instead of living it up in Prague, I'm sure he'd be getting a second dose of white fever. What species is the wild garlic please? Surely not A. triquetrum?
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I think that the botanical name is allium ursinum. It is very effective against Vampires - I have never seen one round here.
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Quit correct Tom, aka 'Ramsons' or 'Wild Garlic'.
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or 'Ransoms' both appear if you do a google search :D
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Sometimes without the final 's' Carol.
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I think that the botanical name is allium ursinum. It is very effective against Vampires - I have never seen one round here.
I can only WARNING everbody to plant All. ursinum to plant in the garden -it is a really bad weed -and I need a lot of time to figth it -until now I'm not the winner !!!
Hans
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.......and really smelly too. Not for nothing is it called Wild Garlic. :'(
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The only real good thing are rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) if they live in this woods and they have eaten a lot of this Allium - they are really good to eat !!!
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I love wild garlic on bread or in salad - Mjammm!
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I'm really tempted to plant some. We have a terrible problem with vampires here ;D
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TC, thank you for the beautiful pictures. Blue bells are quite rare around here.
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I was down by the River Dullan today and found what looked like a yellow Water Avens. I have only seen reddish ones before. Is this Geum rivale or something different?
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Could be Geum urbanum (Herb Bennet), or a hybrid between it and G. rivale?
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We took a chance on the weather and headed off to Logan Gardens and then to the Mull of Galloway.
The sunny weather at Logan gave way to a near gale on the Mull - it is nearly always blowing a gale here. After a good look at the seabird colony, we looked for some plants to photograph. There were some nice groups of sea pinks and campions but they were at the cliff edge so I let it pass. However there was a nice group of Scilla Verna growing on the short grass. They have the sense not to grow above 5cms./2" or they would get their heads blown off !
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Beautiful fresh, sunny day so I took myself off to Dunure to see if the Orchids had arrived. A few were out with the bulk to flower in the next 10 days. I discovered that I was getting a bit old to act the mountain goat on the sea cliffs. Why is it that the best flowers always grow in the most inaccessible places !
orchis mascula
dactylorhiza fuchsii
silene maritima
matricaria maritima
armeria maritima
The names on the Orchid pictures should be reversed
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Shouldn't your orchids be t'other way which Tom?
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Yes !!!! My charming assistant was looking up the definitive guide " Wild Orchids of Scotland" for the Latin names and I was not paying attention as usual so I typed in a name without checking.
It's nice to see that someone is paying attention. Please feel free to proof read any postings I make - I'm sure there will be more errors to come. Wait until I get started on the Rhododendrons.
This is my bete noir just now. The lack of a circumflex on the first e is intentional.
After my cliff climbing expedition this morning, something more gentle in the afternoon. We walked round the Burn's Monument Garden and then had a coffee in the grounds next to the Auld Brig o' Doon, of Tam o' Shanter fame. Maggi is convinced that I am on a retainer for the Scottish Tourist Board -wish I was. One gratuitous picture attached.
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Just keep on posting the pictures Tom, it's the next best thing to being there in person.
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An outing on April 4th resulted in the following find:
Gagea lutea (yellow star-of-Bethlehem) likes damp, base rich soil. The plant was growing in Morayshire in open deciduous woodland beside the river Spey. Flowering early before the nettles and bracken take over, it is not a common plant in Scotland. It is shy to flower, and clumps of leaves can be confused with bluebell leaves. Gagea leaves have 3 parallel ribs on the reverse, and the tip is pinched into a roll.
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A couple of days out with friends yielded the following wild flowers:
May 14. Very surprised to find twinflower out so early, albeit we were in a woodland in what we affectionately call the “Northern Banana Belt” of the Moray coast! In the same area, but on coastal heath/grassland we found an early Corallorhiza trifida (coralroot orchid) and the first Dactylorhiza purpurella (Northern marsh orchid) flowering. No pics of these.
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In the same woodland as the twinflower were the first few flowers of Trientalis europaea (chickweed wintergreen).
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In an Aberdeenshire woodland we found Paris quadrifolia.
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The very common but none-the-less attractive flower of Vaccinium myrtillus (blaeberry to those of us in Scotland) The flower is often mistaken for immature fruit.
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May 15th Straddling the Moray/Aberdeenshire border at an altitude of 670m. we found Arctostaphylos alpinus with fresh new growth, but unfortunately no sign of flower buds yet. This is the alpine bearberry which turns a rich red colour in the autumn and remains throughout the winter. A pic. of this at the same location was posted last autumn.
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Thanks for these Brian. Wonderful! 8) Paris in the spring. Ye cannae beat it. :)
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I love all these wildflowers from Scotland, so many extolled in verse and song. It's easy to take what we have for granted and be thrilled about what is elsewhere but the wildflowers of any country are part of its national treasure surely.
I have about 100 young bulbs of Scilla verna so it's pleasing to see what to expect. I think I'll plant them at the edge of a grassy bit and hopefully they'll naturalize. They have a Scottish connection - grown Otago Alpine Garden Group seed, donated by John Hawgood, collected in the Orkney Islands.
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Brian, your seed of Sorbus reducta has germinated this week, all at once. I plan to replace my suckering form with yours, and plant the suckers in an area where they can make ground cover. They've had great autumn colour recently so I don't want to abandon them totally, just where they are at present. so, many thanks again.
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As the Orchids seem to be out in profusion, we headed inland to a good site where we have seen them in abundance.
The lesser butterfly orchids are now coming into flower.
Strangely, the best local site for the marsh orchid is a large rough field next to Prestwick Airport. There are hundreds growing among rough grass and sedge. As this site is scheduled for industrial development we will have to get the Scottish Wildlife Trust to mount a rescue operation and translocate them, when news of the proposed development starts..