Here we are, with another Nature Table. Temperatures have been stuck in the high 20’s C, with gin-clear skies and not a drop of rain. I haven’t seen the final figures yet, but we’ve had at least 200 more hours of sun this spring than these islands usually get.
This means that flowers are fading very quickly, but our sharp-eyed class members are still snapping some lovely images.
Can you identify these?
Edited to add: This was a tricky group, but we all need a challenge sometimes! And the plants are all worth a place in the garden
1
Edited to add: I know there were some thoughts that this was a rose, but it’s a peony. It’s an Itoh peony, also called an Intersectional peony, because it’s the result of a cross between a tree peony and a herbaceous peony. This is ‘Bartzella’, and a fragrant beauty it is, too. This is its third year in the garden, and the first time it’s flowered, so I’m thrilled.
2 The sun has leached the colour from this photograph – it is a very pale lemon. When it opens, it has some apricot tints.
Edited to add: Again, this has been mistaken for a rose, but it’s another Itoh peony. You can see that the foliage is more like that of a tree peony than a herbaceous peony. This is ‘Canary Brilliants’. It was bought as a root last autumn, and has flowered in its first year – and in a pot, too. The information says that it is remontant, which means that it will flower again. If all the foliage is cut down after flowering, a new flush will grow, complete with new buds. I think I’ll wait to do that until it’s in the ground.
3
Edited to add: This caused some furrowed brows. It’s an Iris (well, an Iris flower and a bud). It’s a Siberian Iris, Iris sibirica, the semi-double ‘Pink Parfait’, and is proving to be very reliable.
4 Found dead this morning (although there are others that are entirely more lively),
Edited to add: This is the lovely, day-flying Cinnabar Moth. It’s caterpillars feed only on Ragwort, and are an unmissable yellow and black, feeding in large colonies.
5
Edited to add: This is the unusual shade-lover Podophyllum versipelle ‘Spotty Dotty’, common name mayapple, but not a name much used here, I think. Isn’t it a wonderful thing?
6 The silvery one at the front. Brownie points for the other two plants.
Edited to add: The silvery plant is pretty new to horticulture, and has been a big hit. It’s Senecio candidans ‘Angel Wings’. It is perennial, but hates to be wet in winter, and won’t take very low temperatures. Still, it’s well worth a place in the garden, even if it needs to be regularly replaced.
There’s a hosta behind it, and sharing a pot with the Senecio is Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’, or black grass (black mondo grass across the Atlantic). Of course, it isn’t a grass at all.
7
Edited to add: The lovely and diminutive Hosta ‘Blue Mouse Ears’. There’s now a large family of ‘Mouse Ears’ hostas, plain or variegated.
8
Edited to add: This is the herb Sweet Woodruff, Galium odoratum.
9
Edited to add: This is the potato vine, Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’, and yes, it’s related to the potato and the tomato, but don’t try to eat it.
Good luck!
Edited to add: A pat on the back to everyone who had a try at this relatively difficult Nature Table.
The Pleasure Gardener 