That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ...
Love the new water feature VP .. and a bonus plant to set it off too !
ReplyDeleteI had volunteer annuals pop up between patio stones the last two years .. I just let them be .. didn't have the heart to "clean my bricks ?" haha
I Love volunteers. It's one of the joys of gardening. It really looks sweet there.
ReplyDeleteIt flooded our pond in the back garden too... Had to rush out and check there were no fish swimming around in in the lawn! lol ;)
ReplyDeleteWe always call our flood in the garden, which appears after heavy rain, our other water feature. Another job which needs sorting. x
ReplyDeleteJoy and jane marie - hi! I love the north American term 'volunteer', sounds much better than 'weed'! I get plenty of 'volunteer' spuds up at the allotment!
ReplyDeletePaul & Melanie - oh no not again for you guys. That must be about the 3rd time in less than a year?
Louise - I'm not sure what else we can do to sort the problem. We've got drainage installed already. Luckily the stream hasn't done much damage (touch wood) so far as we're on quite a severe slope.