Heavenly!

 

Heavenly!

Our garden is a concentration of perfume at present – jasmine, honeysuckle, ceanothus, Sweet William and orchestrating it all the intensely sweet scent of Philadelphus.

Simply heavenly!

A sunny day in early June

 

A sunny day in early June

Aquilegias

These two are ‘Mrs Scott-Elliot’ hybrids.

Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus)

These are ‘Indian carpet’. The petals are edible and also make a relaxing herbal tea.

Campanula

Campanula flowers can be added as decoration but have little flavour.  The leaves are also edible with a very mild taste and can be added to salads.

Pansy

Pansy is another edible flower that can be used in salads or as a garnish to cakes or jellies.

Chives

Both flowers and leaves are edible. The flowers can also be deep-fried or pickled.

The commonest varieties are common (onion) chives and garlic (Chinese) chives, which have white flowers.

Perennial geranium

Flowers and leaves are edible and can be eaten raw in salads, used in teas or as decoration for cakes and desserts.

A poisonous beauty

I took these photographs to capture the butterfly in my ongoing attempt to add to my ability to identify lepidoptera - currently I am confident of correctly naming two! At the same time I thought I would increase my botanical knowledge. So, instead of giving you 'a plant with flowers like yellow daisies' I would like to introduce you to Senecio jacobaea, otherwise known as Common ragwort. It was believed mistakenly that an infusion made from the plant would cure staggers, a disease affecting the brain and spinal cord of horses. Because of its supposed power it was named for Saint James, the patron saint of horses. It was also said to start flowering on 25th July, Saint James' Day.

In fact, its leaves contain an alkaloid poison. The poison also stays in plants that have been dried with hay. In this state it can be eaten by farm stock and will destroy their livers over a period of months.

'Ragwort' refers to the ragged leaves. The Scots call this plant 'stinking Billy' because it smells unpleasant when bruised. 'Billy' was William, Duke of Cumberland, who was victorious at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and vicious in his reprisals against the Jacobites. Sweet Williams (Dianthus barbatus) are also known as 'stinking Billy'.

The butterfly is a Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera) I think but feel free to correct me if you know better. There is also a bee on the ragwort.