Flower Power

[Maz]

I really don't know much about them but thought poppies were just the wild ones that grew on the battlefields and you see in hedgerows and that's where opium came from. Or maybe I'm thinking of the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy fell asleep and couldn't wake up in a poppy field! I'm aware there are some cultivated ones (at least I am now after seeing Californian poppies on here!)

 

[elusive]

The common poppy or Flanders poppy you’re thinking of is another species Papaver Rhoeas, same family different species! There are quite a few different ones. California poppies are another species & family, Eschscholzia californica, Welsh poppies too, Mecanopsis Cambrica, here ends the horticultural lesson! Don’t want to go all technical.

 

[Maz]

A very interesting horticultural lesson! Thank you.

 

[Member ID2]

Maz, what is that app called to identify plants?

 

[Maz]

Picture This. That's on iphone but it's probably on android as well. It's very good! I've had great fun with it. You can save all the snaps with descriptions in your "garden" folder.

 

[Maz]

For example when we walked somewhere locally I saw some interesting wildflowers and snapped them and it said they were Wild Parsnip!

 

[Member ID2]

I didn't even know that you can get wild parsnip. Sounds like a great app. I'll check that out. Thanks.

 

[Maz]

Neither did I - it was a nice surprise. It even tells you what kind of mould is on leaves

 

[Maz]

So on my walk that time (last summer) it identified:

Sweet cicely
Red campion (which I already knew but wanted to check)
Tar spot fungi (on a leaf - the tree leaves were covered in it)
Cow parsnip
Black alder
Rosebay willowherb
Wild angelica
Rough hawkbit
Lesser knapweed
Meadow pea
Herb Robert (small blue flower)
Devil's bit scabious
Feverfew
Krauss's clubmoss
Delicate fern moss
Common comfrey

And quite a few others. Interestingly, ferns were either male or female ferns as well.

 

[Zara]

What a fantastic app! Eek to the rash and poisioning through the skin, how awful, no wonder you feel cautious now. I sometimes get rashes when gardening but nothing like this. I’ll keep an eye out for any plants wt grey stems for sure.

 

[elusive]

The app does sound good.
Not sure I’ve seen wild parsnip but I guess it would be a bit like wild carrot maybe.
All our cultivated plants had to come from somewhere!

 

[Member ID2]

Had to laugh at the 'Devil's bit scabious' plant!

 

[Member ID2]

Sadly, i found a dead young sparrow on the drive but happens every year. This one was too young to fly and couldn't have fallen out of the nest which is round the back of the house. I buried it under the rose bush.
A parent bird or rival bird must have removed it from the nest.

One year i found five of them on the patio. Apparently, sometimes a jealous bird who had wanted the nest removes all the young.
Nature can be cruel and often only the strong or lucky ones survive into adulthood.

Another year i found a young sparrow on the patio that couldn't fly very far because of an injured wing. I didn't expect it to survive in the miniature bin cage i put it in but it did. I found a wildlife rescue who took it in.

 

[elusive]

That’s sad that you found the little sparrow, it does happen for various reasons sadly, glad you were able to get that one to the rescue the other year though.

Devil’s bit scabious is a very strange name, apparently something to do with a legend that the devil bit it’s roots off or something weird!
It’s a beautiful plant though in spite of the name, I have loads, the bees love it & the goldfinches love the seeds.

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[Coco61]

This morning the main patch of Californian poppies is still putting on a lovely colourful display and attracting bee activity.

The longer slim leaves poking up on the right are the hopefully healthy remains of my largest and original Fairy Fishing Rod plant. I have several but they are all grown from the seeds of this original one. The winter weather caused a lot of damage to them all, but as the usual flowering time is July, I have hope that some flower wands will emerge even if not as many as usual.

 

[Coco61]

On the opposite side, largely in the shade, the first poppy flower appeared this morning. I was surprised to see the colouring as they are the same seeds as the other side. But I am not complaining!

 

[Coco61]

Inspecting Maestro’s plant yesterday evening, I saw it was covered in small brown insects. H identified them as scale insects and said they attack the weaker vulnerable plants. As well as removing as many as possible by hand carefully, we the sprayed it with a soapy solution but will have to buy a commercial killer.
I then looked at the 2 cuttings. One was and one was not infected. So they have been treated too and placed some distance apart to stop any movement between them.
Even more fingers crossed now.

 

[Member ID2]

elusive, thank you for the info and video. I know that plant but had no idea of its peculiar name.

Coco, those flowers are beautiful and luckily your H reckognised the pests early on so fingers and toes crossed.

 

[elusive]

The poppies look really lovely Coco, it will be interesting to see if you get more yellow ones in the second patch or if the othres are orange, both colours are so nice I’m sure it doesn’t matter really.

So sorry to hear about Maestro’s plant, that’s such a shame after all your efforts to keep it going.
Could you protect the cuttings? I always put my cuttings in plastic bags or put a transparent pot on top to keep up the humidity but it also protects them from any little pests.

 

[Member ID2]

All three yuccas are going to flower this year. The two smaller ones are offsprings of the larger one. I think they are yuccas.