Making the best of it

Nine o'clock in the morning and the sun was shining. There were gardening jobs to be done but the temptation to visit Foxhill Farm was too great. I aimed for the area around Newnham Windmill, now almost a default destination for me. The road up to the windmill is winding and quite narrow but has been rendered narrower still by the drifts of encroaching snow on what is, for Northamptonshire, fairly high ground.

Snow was still lying at the roadside near Newnham windmill.

9 March, 2018

The flock of sheep which normally trots over to greet me as I scaled the fence was absent. They have doubtless been taken to the lambing sheds below. But there was a greeting of a kind as a chaffinch burst into song from a nearby tree. Ravens were croaking overhead and a green woodpecker cackled its insane laugh as it flitted from tree to tree. An anomalous cormorant flew over heading south vaguely in the direction of Fawsley Hall and its lakes. But for all this activity the countryside appeared otherwise lifeless.  Just at this time a huge blanket of cloud chose to move in and that was the last of the sunshine for the morning. Suddenly everything seemed chilly and damp - as indeed it was.

My first target was a Scots Pine and without optimism I swept my net through its needle-like foliage. A ladybird with unmarked elytra (wing cases) was taken but the distinct markings on the pronotum showed it to be a Larch Ladybird, Aphidecta obliterata - not a new record for the site. The same sweep also netted a picture-winged fly, Tephritis vespertina. This is a common insect associated with Cat's Ear, Hypochaeris radicata, an abundant yellow-flowered plant everywhere. But it was new for the site. 

A larch ladybird was beaten from Scots Pine. 9 March, 2018

I began my usual zig-zag descent of the slope below the windmill. Old records shown that these slopes were once called Beggars Bank; for all I know they still are. The underlying rock at this point probably consists of a Jurassic stratum known as the Marlstone Rock Formation but I cannot confirm that as local geological maps aren't detailed enough to show this amount of information. Furthermore as the last ice age period, the Wolstonian, receded it left behind a landscape covered in glacial material, effectively masking most of the underlying rock. Over much of Northamptonshire this took the form of boulder clay, often sticky and impervious, but Foxhill Farm and much of western Northants has been spared this and the glacial deposits are more tractable and even somewhat sandy. Although the Marlstone Rock Formation is limy - and therefore alkaline -  the glacial deposits are on the acid side. However, I digress...

As I approached the bottom of Beggars Bank I turned and looked back. About six little patches of woodland similar to the one shown cling to the slope; collectively they will give me an enormous amount to work on.


Looking east up Beggars Bank, near Newnham.

9 March, 2018

With another centipede, a fly and a trio of beetles in my haul the total for the site limps up to 59 species. I got home just before rain came.

Tony White: diaea@yahoo.co.uk

 

 

Fritillaries help to fight frustration

March, according to the old proverb, comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Well, we've seen the lion bit, now for a bit more of the lamb...please! To be honest, although many spring flowers make their appearance in March we don't expect balmy weather, but the occasional warm, sunny day would be nice.
Speaking of spring flowers, my Fritillaria meleagris flowers haven't put in an appearance yet but I am pleased that their congener, F. michailovskyi, is currently looking very attractive.

Fritillaria michailovskyi is currently flowering well in our front garden.

Stefen Hill, Daventry. 8 March, 2018

I tried growing it when we lived in Byfield  but it didn't do well. It sulked and pined for its home in the mountains of northern Turkey. Fritillaries are among my favourite flowers and I ought to grow more and several rock garden species are not difficult provided they are given a really sunny spot with well-drained soil. There are around 130 species found from Britain (Fritillaria meleagris) across to Japan, plus some interesting North American species. In their lovely book The Flora of the Silk Road, (Ref 1) Christopher and Basak Gardner list 31 species they found as they followed this ancient trail. This is one of my most treasured books.
All fritillaries are open to attack by the lily beetle, Lilioceris lilii but this pest, being bright brick-red, is easy to spot and, as I dislike sprays, I simply pick off any seen.



The flowers have a more open bell than many fritillaries.

My 'Michael's Fritillaries' should continue to thrive IF they get a good summer baking, but they do not end their season gracefully: I find that the stems straggle in an untidy manner. So be it.

Reference

Gardner, C and Gardner, B. (2014) The Flora of the Silk Road  I.B.Tauris, London



Tony White. diaea@yahoo.co.uk


 

Getting back on track

😺😺😺The thaw is well under way and as the snow disappears plants, sometimes rather bedraggled, reappear.
One of the first to take advantage of winter relinquishing its grip has been the Spring Starflower, Tristagma uniflorum.


Tristagma uniflorum in our front garden, Stefen Hill, Daventry.

5 March, 2018

Many gardeners and nurseries still refer to it as Iphaeon uniflorum. It is, to be honest, a bit of a nuisance in our front garden and I have dug out and discarded several clumps. This native of Argentina has a grass-like appearance and apparently does rather well when naturalised in lawns, but even out of flower its presence would quickly become noticed as it gives off a distinct smell of onions when walked upon. In fact it belongs to the Allioideae subfamily of the Amaryllis Family, a subfamily which does indeed include onions. The flowers bear six petal-like tepals of a pale pinkish blue and, if the onion smell can be avoided, are pleasantly scented.


The flower bears six tepals but here only five are obvious, one being

folded under.

The early irises and crocuses have finished flowering and over the next few weeks will be re-building their bulbs and corms respectively before disappearing for a few months.
Meanwhile my Gaultheria mucronata, sometimes referred to as Pernettya mucronata, remains smothered in pink berries. It surely isn't that the fruit is unpalatable, for this native of Chile is often planted to provide bird food, but despite the hunger almost certainly suffered in the cold spell, the local blackbirds were not inclined to feed on them. The cold weather brought a reed bunting, a couple of fieldfares and a goldcrest into our garden but even in the summer we fail to coax birds into our garden.

Honestly, there's no pleasing some people!

Our Gaultheria mucronata still bears its berries. 6 March, 2018

A pity about the Gaultheria as there will be no fruit next year. I only have the female plant and, like holly, a male will need to be near by for pollination.

 



Cactus calamity!

The thaw is gathering pace and some patches are already clear of snow but there has been what Jimmy Durante called a capostrophe!
One of our two cacti, apparently so healthy yesterday, is clearly on its way out.




On the face of it, a healthy pair of cacti.

Now, now! No rude, ribald or otherwise unseemly comments please. Let us bow our heads in sad remembrance of a fine member element of that coterie of plants which formed our front garden. I strongly suspect that the next few days will show that its partner has also deceased.

Twenty four hours later and the awful truth is revealed.

4 March, 2018

It will join its ancestors in the land beyond, doubtless arriving with the words:

 

Melita, Domi Adsum*

Rough translation: Honey, I'm home!

* An amusing yet oddly touching epitaph to which my attention was recently drawn. I had to find some way of squeezing it into a blog! Other possibilities were: Vale, Lacerte (See Ya later Alligator!) and Me Transmitte Sursum, Caledoni (Beam Me Up, Scotty) but I'm not one to plagiarise - much.

Walking off the Christmas calories

At this time of the year a long country walk may be very pleasant but, if the aim is to see interesting flowers and fruit, an urban walk can be more rewarding - and less muddy!

Today, the weather being dry and mild, I set off walking from home, further familiarising myself with those parts of the local area which I rarely visit. My target was an area called Grovelandsa, together with the land immediately beyond.

Barely a hundred yards from home a clump of Pot Marigolds, Calendula officinalis, had braved the winter weather (such as it was) to put on a bright display. Easy to grow, flowering for months on end and attractive to insects, what's not to like? They really ought to feature in our own garden.


Pot Marigolds in Christchurch Drive, Daventry. 28 December, 2018

An old fence had been attacked by Coral Spot, Necria cinnibarina. This is so common that it rarely gets a mention but it is rather important in being one of the first species to begin the job of decaying old wood, thus returning its nutrients to the soil.

Common and largely ignored. Coral Spot.

Daventry, 28 December, 2018

An old stump was displaying a rather different fungus which I believe to be Velvet Shank, Flammulina velutipes. 

Velvet Shank? Near Grovelands, Daventry.

28 December, 2018

At this point, with three days to go, I am making a New Year's Resolution: I must not allow myself to be sidetracked by fungi.

A couple of minutes later I found myself at the aforementioned Grovelands. It is a residential area of neatly maintained gardens which are, for the most part rather dull. But I live in hope.


A hedgerow of a berberis species was displaying flowers. From a distance their rich egg-yolk coloured flowers and the neat holly-like leaves suggested Berberis darwinii, a suspicion confirmed by a closer examination.

This lovely shrub hails from the southern parts of Chile and Argentina, and was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's A.G.M. back in 1930.

Although several species of Berberis live in South America its generic name is a Latinised form of the Arabic name for these shrubs. (Note that although it was named after Charles Darwin, his name, being the specific epithet, is not given a capital D.)

It is in this area that I have found Spurge Laurel, Daphne laureola, on previous walks. I was hoping that any specimens might just be in flower given that this has been a very mild winter. I had no luck but I did find this lovely Eucalyptus gunnii, its bark peeling away in strips to show the beautiful bark below.




Eucalyptus gunnii - or one of its hybrids. Staverton Road, Daventry.
28 December, 2018

Although I have stated that this specimen is E. gunnii I have to put in a caveat: eucalypts (as they are known) have a strong tendency to hybridise so we cannot be 100% sure what we are looking at.

Western Polypody in a lime tree, Staverton Road, Daventry.

28 December, 2018

The trees proved to be worth more than a cursory examination, for on the mossy trunk of a nearby lime tree a specimen of Western Polypody was growing as an epiphyte. This fern, Polypodium interjectum, is the most likely of our three polypody species to be found in an urban habitat. The plant was growing at a height which made a photograph difficult but I've done my best.

On waste ground a little further on Hedgerow Crane's-bill, Geranium pyrenaicum was present. Is it native to the U.K. (and does it matter)? It has been around in Britain for 350 years and in Northants since at least 1874  so it is well established, but I only ever find it on waste or disturbed ground.

Hedgerow Crane's-bill, The Severn, Daventry.

28 January, 2018

It is a pretty thing so may well have been introduced as an ornamental plant but we will probably never know.

Apart from that, about the only thing in flower was a Wrinkled Viburnum, Viburnum rhytidophyllum. Its flowers were nothing to write home about but any flowers at this time of the year are to be welcomed.

With the flowers not at their best, Viburnum rhytidophyllum was in a

municipal border in The Grange area of Daventry. 28 December, 2018

More interesting than the off-white blossom is the foliage. An alternative name for this shrub is the Leatherleaf Viburnum, and the rugose, semi-glossy leaves of this Chinese introduction are certainly distinctive. Its specific name comes from the Greek, rhytis meaning a wrinkle, thus rhytidophyllum means 'wrinkled leaf'.

I regard the leaves of this shrub as rather handsome.

So, although nothing spectacular was noted I returned from my three-mile walk feeling fresher than when I had started out, with a few cobwebs blown away.

A chink of light

We again awoke to freezing conditions, but a subtle change was under way. The first hint of (relatively) warmer conditions was fog shrouding the landscape abetted by the wind or, I should say, lack of it. Snow still blanketed the ground but, very slowly, the temperature began to creep up. A sudden rise would have been welcomed by wildlife, exposing food sources; it would have had potentially serious consequences for humans as flooding would have become a real danger. In fact the rise was only in the region of two or three degrees, just enough to take us above freezing point, for a slow thaw to begin and for each icicle to bear a dew drop on its nose.
The conflict between fieldfares and blackbirds was resumed and seems set to continue until former can return to open countryside.
The bitingly strong easterly winds have created snow drifts in many places but here in the relatively sheltered back garden our various pots have been given saucy white hats some six inches high.

Our pots each wear a snowy hat. 3 March, 2018

Beneath this bizarre, almost Rastafarian headgear tulips are snug and, tempting though it is to knock away the snow I'll leave things for nature to take its course.

The alpines in their troughs are perfectly safe in the back garden but the cacti in the front, sitting incongruously in snow, may be a write-off. I cling to the hope that, as they have a rather woolly coating, they hail from a mountain region in, perhaps, Bolivia or Argentina. Although I have tried to give them well-drained conditions it may be the wet soil that finally does for them.

Doomed? These cacti face an uncertain future in our front garden.

Stefen Hill, Daventry. 3 March, 2018

Plans on hold

Oh dear! I had such grand plans for March: there would be mild days when insects would be on the wing, perhaps visiting blackthorn blossom; there would be sowings of broad beans, lettuce and peas to be made on the allotment; garden flowers such as aubretia (yes, I know - it should be Aubrieta) would be receiving visits from bees and butterflies...but all is now on hold, postponed until the soil has warmed up.
We have had Fieldfares, Turdus pilaris, in the garden, vigorously driving off, temporarily, the resident blackbirds. My books suggest that the two species are about the same in size but the fieldfares certainly seem bulkier and are more pugnacious. The blackbirds seem to accept a subordinate position. I have put out more food for them but they are reluctant to enter our rather small garden. They feel vulnerable but eventually hunger will overcome their fear.
A buzzard drifts overhead. I suspect that a major part of their food is in the form of road kills but with so little traffic about there will be slim pickings. Small birds are very vulnerable in these conditions and many will perish; buzzards, together with the red kites increasingly being seen in this area, may have to make do with these pathetic corpses - if foxes don't beat them to it.
Having had my grumble, we seem in truth to have got off rather lightly - so far. In the strong winds there has been a little drifting here and there but nothing troublesome although I hear that there have been six foot high drifts in parts of Northamptonshire. Cars creep cautiously along nearby Christchurch Drive although our road, Trinity Close, is tackled only by foolhardy or desperate drivers. Some have two or three attempts before succeeding. With Northamptonshire County Council more or less bust I suspect only the most vital routes will see a gritter.

There were mini-drifts beside our garage. Stefen Hill, Daventry.

2 March, 2018

By providing low-growing perennials with a blanket the snow may have been beneficial but yesterday was officially the first day of spring so its not much of a consolation. A few spectacular photographs would also have been rather nice but I was too wimpish to wrap up and go traipsing over fields on the off chance.

Rock garden plants wait under their blanket of snow in our front garden.

2 March, 2018

Chris and I just batten down the hatches, watch the falling snow and sit it out.