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Liza
gardening consultant
Waterloo, Belgium
Wild flowers!3 Mar '07 10:30 pm
You are SO very lucky , Jack, to have all these "wild" flowers around you, and be able to take photos of them! That is a real blessing! I remember my dad, who used to be a very tall handsome man -- almost 6feet/2meters tall, he was literally lying down in order to take pictures/close-ups of certain tiny wild flowers of the Greek mountains and meadows; but we were on excursion, of course! Never such rare beauties were growing near our home.. And then, we had a special evening gathering , with lights off in the living room, to be able to re-live this colourful thrill on the slides -- no digital cameras those days!! Those tiny wonders were filling the whole of a living-room wall! What a blessing to live where you live, dear Jack!
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Faith S
Perpetually learning gardener
Alabama, USA
Wild Flowers4 Mar '07 3:32 am
I agree with Liza, you are so fortunate to have such beauties growing as wild flowers on your farm. In most places, these same plants are cultivated treasures that must be petted and pampered. Thanks for sharing your bounty with us.
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Anna
Gone to seed
Hamilton, New Zealand
4 Mar '07 8:41 am
Your wildflowers are stunning! I can grow buttercup (nasty stuff!) and that's about as exciting as it gets for me. 
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4 Mar '07 12:22 pm
Your flowers are just beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
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Dixie
garden enthusiast
Waikato-New Zealand
wild flowers4 Mar '07 12:57 pm
I wonder if someone,somewhere,someplace ,is tenderly caring for ragwort - Or if ragwort had a prettier name ,would it be cherished more.The little black woolly caterpillars love it anyway.
Dixie
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Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
Kniphofia linearifolia16 Mar '07 4:17 pm
Time to sneak in a quick post...
These kniphofias were moved about 100m to the Cottage Garden, from a point near the stream just above the dam. The name, according to my books, refers to the neat appearance of the arrangement of the flowers, particularly noticeable in bud. Must agree. But then that particularly UNneat knot at the top where it all comes together, and the speed with which lower flowers go shaggy, is to me even more distinctive! I always smile at Harold Nicholson who said of his wife's (Vita Sackville-West) garden at Sissinghurst: "Not a single coarse or unbeautiful flower except for those beastly pokers!"
I must admit I can see his point. But like the aloes and several other flowers they can light up the veld in a heart-stopping way with their flame colours - usually when it is all subtle neutrals (note I don't say 'dull'!)
Outside the sort of autumn sunrise that first made me join the forum nearly a year ago is happening... must go get ready for the day!
Kniphofias 2.JPG
This was taken only 5 days earlier as the first buds started expanding fully.
272.74 KB / Viewed 75 Time(s)
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Jay Bee
honoured helper
Re: wild flowers17 Mar '07 5:35 am
| dixie wrote: | I wonder if someone,somewhere,someplace ,is tenderly caring for ragwort - Or if ragwort had a prettier name ,would it be cherished more.The little black woolly caterpillars love it anyway.
Dixie |
Do they grow up into black and yellow striped caterpillars? As a child, I used to collect all sorts of caterpillars, feed them until they pupated and keep the chrysalids until they hatched in spring, when they would fly away. Anyway, the ragwort caterpillars turned into my favourite black and red moth. They used to be very common and would rise in clouds from the roadside verges, but I seldom see them now.
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Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
More colourful flowers17 Mar '07 7:29 am
Earlier it was the time of Crocosmia paniculata - red with pleated leaves. Now the shorter and more invasive, but wonderfully enthusiastic orange C. aurea are in flower. Of my earliest farm memories are these bright sparklers growing wild.
At the far end of the garden, self-sown and growing up an ancient pine (rather ambitiously I should think) with Rosa lutea and Wisteria sinensis, is this strange sweetpea-like plant. The flowers are about 12mm in diameter.
Not quite a qualifier as it doesn't occur naturally on the farm as far as I know, but still an endemic plant, is the softest of orange watsonias.
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Dixie
garden enthusiast
Waikato-New Zealand
flowers and moths17 Mar '07 8:21 am
The little black woolly caterpillars stay that way - cute ,and they are the larvae of the Magpie moth -also black ,with what looks like little black footprints on their wings .
Jack -groups of watsonia -(bugle lilies) are a very attractive sight if one has the room to allow them to spread -I like the subtle apricot shade of the one in your photo .They would be nice on your banks.And I adore of course the pea like flowers- with all their shades they would be so pretty .
Dixie.
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Liza
gardening consultant
Waterloo, Belgium
Gorgeous Crocosmias!18 Mar '07 8:26 am
Gorgeous Crocosmias , Jack! And , to think, that here we can find this beauty only in certain nurseries!
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