In a Vase on Monday - Early November

Today's vase is a beautiful black Japanese Vase which my father bought when he visited his friend there over 50 years ago.  It is a raku vase and seeps or rather gently perspires around its bottom rim, which is why it is standing on this lovely oriental inspired trivet which Angela Morley made a few years ago.

A pretty pink daisy shaped ie single chrysanthemum is joined by golden lonicera and dark red Persicaria Red Dragon, as dragons are a favourite Japanese motif and red in Japanese culture is said to represent protection, strength, peace and power and to scare away evil spirits. The Persicaria is a great garden plant here and was a gift from Cathy herself.  Cathy is the host of this weekly get together, and I shall be joining her as usual together with an armful of other flowers contributors to show an arrangement of plants from their gardens. 

The Japanese from early times cultivated and loved Chrysanthemums, and even have a charming legend, which I shall share with my grand-daughter as she is interested in Japanese culture. 

A few weeks ago when the flower at the apex was opening, I could not tell whether Chrysanthemum Hillside Apricot would make the grade as far as my tastes were concerned. How would it look when it opened fully and how would the plant look like in the garden?  Growing a plant a in my own garden and observing it at a number of stages is what I find particularly interesting.

I've already been able to cut and share stems with friends, and have used the side flowers for smaller posies such as this one.  The Pittosporum Garnettii and a few leaves of the evergreen Epimedium join the single flowered pink chrysanthemum. 

My thanks go to my dear gardening friend Brenda for giving me me this plant.  We met on AGS Zooms, and at the Somerset HPS, and enjoy continuing our friendship through emails during which we exchange all manner of tips and not just on things gardening.  

 

Sourdough freestyle

 I had part of a bag of Allinson's blended Einkorn flour left which went part way to making this week's bread baking event. It got further blended with some plain strong flour and also some golden linseeds which were part ground in the 'coffee grinder'.  Sadly no notes were taken at the time, and no repeats of this delicious loaf is possible. The Allinson's flour worked very well both neat and blended, but it is no longer available at my local Morrisons, I feel that either a bag from Shipton Mill or Dove's Farm Einkorn flour blended at home with some strong flour would do just as well. The flavour of Einkorn bread is rich and delicious. 

With the cooler weather I will need to shift the timings.  When it is warm it is possible to do a refresh the night before, and get the whole sourdough process done in one day, but this week, the bread was slower, and didn't go into the oven till 10:15 pm, and hence had to cool under a cloth as it would need a few hours to cool and I was ready for bed.  I love this old linen huckaback cloth, and here they are in the morning 'undressed'.  The larger loaf went into the bread bin, and the two smaller loaves were frozen.

It also makes excellent toast, which we shall have with pate this lunch time.

Six on Saturday 5 November 2022

 Things continue to entertain me in the garden for instance a late hummingbird hawkmoth on the abundant Rosemary flowers, squirrels getting territorial, and birds flitting in and out of plants.  We have had rain and high winds too, and a day of clear warm sunshine. I am joining the gang under Jim's careful eye in six things from our garden we may wish to share this week. 

( Jim might be interested in my experience of growing Leucantha, which because of its large size and late flowering I decided to move last year, but sadly it didn't like it, and now I have other things growing that need space!)

1. Chrysanthemum Hillside Apricot is the second  Chrysanthemum to come into flower.  This year I have two hardy herbaceous border Chrysanthemum.  It is very healthy looking, and has clear open single flowers with petals neatly arranged, looking like a pink marguerite.  There are many buds coming up along the stem. For now, I am unsure of how good a vase flower this will make because of the way the younger buds are arranged down the stem,  we shall see.

I am delighted to have this and the Chrysanthemum Picasso adding late season flowers to the garden.  I have noticed how they turn their head to face the sun, and having observed that will change their placement in the garden.  I can feel that there will one or two new cultivars of herbaceous hardy Chrysanthemums joining our patch next year.  If you grow any and can recommend good forms, why not post them on your Six on Saturday or add a recommendation in the comments section.

I have it growing in three places, and it does make a great garden plant late in the season.

For arranging, I have removed the flowers lower down the stem to arrange in a short posy, leaving the longer stems with a few bloom at the top to use in a taller arrangement. The stems are so plentiful that on both the Chrysanthemum there are plenty to give away whilst keeping a good show in the garden.

2  The first flower on Cyclamen graecum subsp. candicum is looking exquisite, growing up from the gravel where I planted it out a couple of seasons ago.   I am delighting in the leaf patterning, but also in the flower a little different from the coum and others I have grown to date.

Excellent reading on cyclamen can be found for example on John Lansdale's post, which is full of clear and easily read descriptions.

In gardening there are often ups and downs.

3. Ups: Crocus creocreticus just emerging from seed first received from the Alpine Gardening Society in 2020 and sown straight away.  Small things just three small shoots but the elation lasted hours.  I was warned this afternoon to check for slugs which love the young emerging leaves.

4. Downs: going to water a succulent but finding it falling apart.  That horrid little grub stage of the Vine weevils having devoured the roots, were eating right up the stems. It is there right in the middle surrounded by its frass. Each and hopefully everyone was crushed, and the majority of the plant binned.

With very gritty fresh compost and a deep dressing of grit, a cleaned out bowl was replanted with cuttings.  That will teach me  this outside on the ground for their outside period!

Maybe the up was such an up as it came after the down!

5. The daylight hours are shortening, and temperatures are dropping.  Soon the pelargoniums will have to be moved inside. Yesterday they looked lovely in the sunshine. I had trimmed them back a few weeks ago, and they have bounced back are in flower again.

6.  Why does a little snail choose to climb almost to the very top of a Japanese Umbrella Pine Sciadopitys Verticillata?  I chose to bring it down!

I've looked up its name and the easy one is white lipped snail aka Cepea hortensis (RIP). I'll keep my eyes open for other snails now and see how many different ones I can find whilst I am out in the garden.  Hope I don't find too many!

Six on Saturday - 29 October 2022

It is still really warm, with night time temperatures more like the day time temperatures we would expect at this time of the year.  We have also had plenty of rain, but the soil is still manageable and gardening possible.  Over at SOS group headquarters manned by Jim, other gardeners are joining in, with their six.  Here are mine:

1. Helpful members of  Cyclamen Society on Facebook  helped  identified of this one flowering on the edge of the gravel garden.  Part of the test was going out to smell it, and yes there is a honey like scent. Looking back I realise  seed bought at the same time as when I bought  the white Cyclamen cilicium have turned up pink, and were moved to this spot a couple of years ago. They are smaller and daintier than Cyclamen hederifolium, with a leaf more akin to the Cyclamen coum..

Cyclamen cilicium

2. A few months ago, I was delighted to receive a piece of Persicaria amplexicaulis Golden Arrow  from a WI gardening group friend. With some rain, it is starting to made some lovely foliage. It is lighting up this patch now the Cosmos have been removed. I'm not sure that the surrounding plants quite complement it, so it may get moved to another position.

3. When the Alpine Group visited Avon Bulbs last year, we were invited to take home a pot of  Narcissus New Baby, which were destined for scrap, as they were surplus to requirement.  I came across the muddied nursery label which the squirrels must have unearthed.  The label reads: small scented jonquil hybrid one foot high with several small pale blooms on each stem.  As I clear the garden of top growth from the perennials I keep treading on labels from spring bulbs.  I just hope I haven't planted a miss mash one on top of others. Next spring will tell, and that is why I need to practice patience regarding getting new bulbs planted.

4.  Growing houseplant begonias is something quite new to be.  This leafy one bought at the HPS stall, with no name has been perfect on a high window sill with the light shining through.  It grew and grew and was ready for a trim.  The leaves did not go to waste and ended in a bouquet for IAVOM this week, and I'm not sure now the little cuttings will come on.  Nothing ventured. I shall report back whether they were a success or not in a few months time.

The cuttings on a shady window sill and the begonia, repotted and trimmed back is back looking lovely on its windowsill with the low sun shining through its leaves showing up that rich mahogany border.  Does anyone know its name?  You'll probably also tell me that I ought to have waited till next spring, but the plant really needed cutting back, so if the cuttings are a failure, I shall try again.

In the future Jim mentioned a database of Begonias, since I wrote about my little begonia in the past, I have used the edit button to add this here.

5. Early spring I felt in my bones that the days of the Salix Mount Aso were numbered.  It was right in the middle of the bed by the conservatory, and although it was lovely to see its fluffy pink spring time show, it was short lived, and was not a real asset at other times of the year.  Half of me said leave it till the spring when I could enjoy another season.

After quite some effort of digging it out, there is now a big space......

6. It is the end of the beetroot, and what a success it has been.  It was beetroot chutney making day on Thursday, following my favourite recipe but this time using seed from the garden grown dill and fresh ginger.  This makes a bright colourful chutney to go with winter lunches. There wasn't quite a kg of beetroot, so I added a little more apple and red onion.

That's my lot this week.

Northern slope Mendip Field Trip

 It is no secret that we have plenty of 'geology' where I live, which is on the southern flanks of the Mendips.  I am a member of the Wells U3A Geology group, and enjoy the regular lectures and field trips.  Recently we visited Burrington Combe which is on the northern flanks of the Mendips close to Cheddar Gorge. On the northern slope of the Mendips,  the strata of limestones dip more steeply than those on the southern slopes.  You can read all about the Geology on line, 

Here are some of my pictures taken on the visit.

On the other side of the road is Aveline's cave which was home to some very old human remains dating back some 10 thousand years.

 

Further up Burrington Combe we turned to walk along East Twin Brook. which had very little water in it. I choose to walk along the stream bed, as it proved far easier compared to the very muddy path.

Candle Snuff Fungi were in evidence on the sodden dead wood littering the bed. 

Neither I nor fellow members were inclined to go beyond the various swallot hole openings.

East Twin Swallet

I picked up this rock section from the bed of the stream, and only when I had a close look at home found that it contained numerous fish scales, it could be either the the Avon Group/Lower Limestone Shale. 

The slopes of the combe were devoid of most of the vegetation we see today before myxomatosis devasted the rabbit population.  In this old 1931 silent film of a gathering the contrast is easily seen.

  

In the autumn sunshine we could see how the slopes in places had been colonised by invasive species of shrubs such as this Cotoneaster. Along the outcrops of Burrington Combe were groups of goats foraging on the most inaccessible areas.  These free roaming cashmere goats have been here for nearly two decades and form part of the team of the Langford estate that help to maintain a rich biodiversity in the area. 

We have had some excellent lectures from David Rowley who is head of Geology at Wells Cathedral School, and I am hoping that some of his students or the school may just take up my idea of producing a video regarding the Combe, with geology and a good rendition of the Hymn Rock of Ages.  I have searched but YouTube come up with American Choirs with American Scenery, which is all very beautiful but I think the actual place which inspired Rev Toplady to write the popular hymn would be more appropriate. 

Here is a close up of the crinoid rich limestones.

I'll be taking Mr S to explore this area and Burrington Ham again at a later date. Only a few weeks ago, we explored the area from Burrington Combe westwards and across Dolebury Warren and Iron age Fort.