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| Lords and ladies - arum italicum |
I thought that maybe they were calla lilies, so decided to leave them until they flowered. We didn't want to dig up flowers thinking they were weeds.
A more pleasant surprise was to find that the weeping willow trees were flowering. They had long yellow fluffy caterpillar-like catkins all over them. I haven't seen willow flowers like this before. The only ones that I have seen are the furry, silver catkins of pussy willows.
These coral-orange coloured flowers have grown over the fence from our neighbour's garden and are really pretty. The shrub has been flowering for over a month now. I think that it may be an ornamental quince, but I'm not sure.
I love the new maroon-coloured leaves that have opened up on the Japanese maple. I am not used to new leaves being anything other than bright green, so was surprised when these ones unfurled from their tight little buds.
Then one morning dad called me to have a look at the unusual creamy-yellow flowers that had appeared. On seeing them I knew immediately that they were lords and ladies, also known as cuckoo pint, arum italicum. This is a poisonous weed that we don't want in our garden. We have a lot of work ahead of us to get rid of it.
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| Willow tree catkins |
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| Ornamental quince flowers? |
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| Bugleweed - ajuga reptans |
The bugleweed has produced dozens of beautiful dark blue flower spikes with unusual square stalks.
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| Japanese maple leaves - acer palmatum |
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Another big surprise for me was to find that, what I thought was a dead, leafless olive tree, was not in-fact dead, nor was it an olive tree.
Over the past few weeks its new leaves appeared. I didn't look closely at them, I just thought that they were silvery-grey-green olive tree leaves. But when I decided to photograph the tree, to show you the olive tree that had come back to life, I noticed that the leaves were furry.
Most definitely not an olive tree!
I have no idea of which type of tree this is, nor if it will produce flowers and fruit. Do you have any ideas about what this tree is?
What has been happening in your garden this month?
See you again soon.
Hugs, Rose x
Lords and Ladies produces very pretty berries, bur, as you say, poisonous. I'm wondering if your not-olive tree is a Swiss Willow - Salix Helvetica - but I think it's too tall to be that.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for your suggestion of Swiss Willow. I had a look on the Shootgardening.com website to look further into this and found that the leaf shape of my not-olive tree is longer and narrower than the Swiss Willow, and the not-olive tree didn't produce any catkins, which is a shame. (I didn't realise quite how many different willows there are out there). One other thing that I discovered about my tree today is that it may have been grafted onto rootstock. There are suckers at its base with tender roundish green leaves that look like apricot leaves...quite different to the not-olive ones and they are smooth, not furry. You may be able to just see this in the photo? The mystery grows deeper. Hugs, Rose x
ReplyDeleteHello Rose,
ReplyDeleteEvery time I read your blog with the word "spring" that surprise me because here we are in the full autumn with lot of rain, rain rain.... In the summer, we were so longing for a little rain because everything was parched and burned. We're served now!
I cannot help you with a name of the not-olive tree. Maybe you can use a mobile phone app to find the name ? or find a book about trees at the library ?
It seems that your new garden has some nice plant surprises in store for you.
Have a nice week !
Hélène
Dear Helene, we have had a few hot days this Spring with the temperature reaching up to 26 C in the house. Today it is 23 C with rain. It looks like we are going to have a very hot Summer this year! This always seems to be the way when we wish for the weather to be the opposite of what we have...we get more than we asked for!
DeleteThe name of the not-olive tree still eludes me. I will look for library books on trees online, thanks. Our library is very good for that, we can search online and then order the books that we want to read. I also thought of taking my tree photos and leaf samples to the local garden centre, when I go there next time, to see if they have any ideas.
I hope you have a nice week too with not so much rain :o) Hugs, Rose x
Hi Rose. I love the coral-orange flowers hanging over the fence. They are gorgeous! My garden as mostly faded now which makes me a little sad. I will miss having fresh flowers and herbs to cut and bring inside this winter. I could honestly live someplace where it is warm all year long and there's always something in bloom.
ReplyDeleteWe are getting excited to celebrate Thanksgiving here next week. I actually made a trial run on the pumpkin pie today and it turned out wonderfully. I'll post the recipe to my blog soon. We are also beginning to think about Christmas which will be here before we know it. I've begun watching Christmas movies already so I'm definitely getting excited for it! Hope you are having a great week and enjoy some early spring weather for me please.
Hi Julia, thank you. In my last garden there weren't many flowers in Summer. Spring and Autumn were the best times as we had more rain then. We weren't able to water the flowers as we relied on rainwater for all our needs and collected it in a water tank from our roof. Though we did water our vegetable patch. We are still reliant on water tanks here at our new house, but the tanks are larger, and we have two of them. So maybe we will have flowers this Summer!
DeleteYour pumpkin pie sounds delicious, I have never eaten pumpkin pie. Enjoy your Thanksgiving and preparations for it, and your preparations for Christmas! Christmas movies now sound like a lot of fun. I must see what is on offer on Netflix. Hugs, Rose x
You have some lovely Spring plants in your new garden. It seems strange to say 'Spring' when we are coming in to our Winter very soon here. It makes your blog a lovely place to visit. I hope the Arum doesn't cause to many problems for you. I still have some clearing up in the garden but I noticed my Hebe in the front garden has decided to flower and is covered in sweet purple blooms. There is always something to see in the garden to surprise isn't there.
ReplyDeleteHi Beverley, thank you, I am very happy that you like visiting my blog :o) We are enjoying Spring and its surprises very much. Dad has chopped down most of the arum. We are hoping that hacking at it, whenever the leaves show, will gradually get rid of it. Your Hebe sounds like a delightful surprise, is this the first time that it has flowered? Hugs, Rose x
DeleteI love all the discoveries you're making...what fun it must be! You've probably already heard this, but I have an app that helps me identify unknown trees, flowers, etc. So far it's pretty good...it's a freebie called PlantNet I took a screenshot of your leaves and it thinks it's a willow-leaf pear - Maybe, maybe not! And it might only be a US plant identifier...not sure. Just wanted to pass that on, anxious to see what grows!
ReplyDeleteHi Mary, thank you, it is a lot of fun and it looks like you have identified the not-olive tree correctly! I must have a look at the PlantNet app myself. I googled willow-leafed pear, and it came up with photos of trees and leaves that look identical to our tree :o) It says that they have white flowers in early Summer and produce small inedible pears. Now we have to wait until Summer to see if it will flower. It isn't too far away! Hugs, Rose x
DeleteSo green and so lovely in your garden! November here is so grey and dull. No sun for weeks!
ReplyDeleteHave a happy week and take care :)
Titti
Hi Titti, thank you :) It has been raining this past week, but we need the rain here to keep everything so green. I don't think I would like it to be grey and dull with no sun for such a long time!
DeleteWhen do you expect the snow arrive to brighten your days? Hugs, Rose x