Time for Tuesday Treats again!
Last week’s Tuesday Treats has been edited to give you the answers, and they’re here:
https://thepleasuregardener.blog/2020/06/16/tuesday-treats-12/
See what you can make of this week’s Nature Table – all the pictures except one were taken on Monday afternoon, so they are all flowering right now. And apart from one, they are all from my garden. Excuse the weeds….
1 Edited to add: This is one of the Bishop Dahlias – Bishop of Oxford, the single’ish flowers much loved by bees and other pollinators.
2 This flowerhead is almost 12 inches across.
Edited to add: Allium cristophii AGM, a beautiful and long-lasting explosion of silvery-lilac stars.
3 Edited to add: Campanula glomerata ‘Caroline’. This campanula, the clustered bellflower (or Twelve Apostles, as we used to call them when I was a kid) is normally a deep purplish blue with yes, about 12 flowers per cluster. ‘Caroline is a newer cultivar with soft lilac-pink flowers.
4 Edited to add: Clematis ‘Arabella’. This was raised in the UK in 1994 by Barry Fretwell, and is a non-climbing clematis, in the Integrifolia group. Here, it’s scrambling through other plants.
5 Edited to add: This is another clematis, Clematis ‘Hendryetta’. It was introduced from Holland in 2003, and is another non-climbing cultivar in the Integrifolia group. It’s a seedling from the lovely ‘Alionushka’.
6 Edited to add: This is a martagon lily. It’s Lilium martagon ‘Claude Shride’, with these gorgeous shiny flowers.
7 This is bidding fair to be this year’s Public Enemy number 1. Can you hear the gritted teeth? It just keeps on coming back!
Edited to add: Lysimachia punctata, or yellow loosestrife. The RHS calls it ‘a determined spreader’. I concur. It has pink rhizomes that could give lessons to bindweed, and if you’re tardy in deadheading, it will seed freely. It’s said to be named after Lysimachus, the Macedonian king of Thrace, while ‘punctata’ refers to dots of colour in the flower.
8 Can you also identify the plant in the background?
Edited to add: I think it’s a marsh orchid, or one of their hybrids. The marsh orchids (Southern, Northern, Early), together with other Dactylorhiza cousins such as the Common Spotted Orchids, are promiscuous, and hybridize freely. So do their children and their children’s children. Even orchid experts can’t reliably tell them apart. So, it’s one of those. It appeared in my lawn, and is now scattering seed around. It seems to prefer to seed into old, neglected pots, so every one has to be carefully checked before the trip to the compost heap.
The background plant is not Corydalis, but it’s a cousin. It’s a native wildflower, Common Fumitory, Fumaria officinalis. This plant grew from a seedling in 3 weeks. A week later, it’s even larger, with many more flowers. It’s a very welcome annual.
9 Edited to add: This is not an oriental poppy. It is that very distinctive species, the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. The blue-grey foliage is always the give away, and so are the large, smooth seedheads. In rich soils, they are large, architectural plants. They’re annuals, but very much more striking if they can be grown as biennials, with autumn or late summer sowing. And no, you can’t get opium from these ornamental sorts.
10 Edited to add: Penstemon ‘Hidcote Pink’ AGM, a lovely perennial penstemon.
11 Edited to add: I bought this as Thalictrum speciosissimum, but apparently it’s now Thalictrum flavum ssp glaucum. It gets to about 5 ft, with large heads of these clear yellow fluffy flowers, and aquilegia-like blue-grey foliage.
12 This is a real mystery shrub. One of our class members has asked me to identify it, and I have no idea. Anyone recognise it?
Edited to add: I think the jury is still out until the plant flowers!
So, there we are, a good dozen for you to get your teeth into.
Good luck!
Edited to add: Well done everyone who had a try. Have a chocolate digestive and a cup of tea! And very well done indeed to anyone who identified some of these. Have another biscuit!
The Pleasure Gardener 