August in the Gardens
Aug. 15th, 2021 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustOn Thursday we visited the Botanic Gardens for the first time since lockdown: exactly then, our last visit was in March 2020, just before everything shut down. We were expecting to renew our membership cards, so it was a pleasant surprise that they had been extended, to make up for the gardens' closure.
The gardens were in summer holiday mood: there were some bright plantings, especially near the greenhouses (which are not yet open), but the real abundance was in the wild - or semi-wild, areas. Here's a field scabious, from the flora of the Magnesian limestone:
and the 'invasive species' enclosure was overflowing, even the brambles (prominently labelled) drowning under a tide of rosebay willowherb. But you'd never know that the approach to the Japanese cherry circle is a carpet of golden daffodils in spring, and the flowering cherries showed no sign of fruiting. Perhaps they don't?
Elsewhere there was plenty to see. In other seasons the bank leading down to the woodland blooms with snowdrops or bluebells, but now it's the turn of these purple spikes:
The 'Fungate' sculpture caught the sun, making a golden gateway to show the way out of the woods:
We sat down to rest under a bamboo curtain:
The monkey puzzle was dying, and has been stripped of its branches: it's now a puzzle indeed, a high bare trunk. But there's a new sculpture - or perhaps four new sculptures, one on each post of the bridge:
four seed pods, each containing all the things that might grow from it (sorry about the dazzle, I struggled with the light here). I haven't found any information about these, so think they must be self-seeded - but surely I recognise the work of Graeme Hopper, who also made the Fungate (don't blame me, that's what it's called) and other pieces around the garden. If you look closely, you may be able to see a single water lily in bloom on the pond beyond.
The gardens were in summer holiday mood: there were some bright plantings, especially near the greenhouses (which are not yet open), but the real abundance was in the wild - or semi-wild, areas. Here's a field scabious, from the flora of the Magnesian limestone:
and the 'invasive species' enclosure was overflowing, even the brambles (prominently labelled) drowning under a tide of rosebay willowherb. But you'd never know that the approach to the Japanese cherry circle is a carpet of golden daffodils in spring, and the flowering cherries showed no sign of fruiting. Perhaps they don't?
Elsewhere there was plenty to see. In other seasons the bank leading down to the woodland blooms with snowdrops or bluebells, but now it's the turn of these purple spikes:
The 'Fungate' sculpture caught the sun, making a golden gateway to show the way out of the woods:
We sat down to rest under a bamboo curtain:
The monkey puzzle was dying, and has been stripped of its branches: it's now a puzzle indeed, a high bare trunk. But there's a new sculpture - or perhaps four new sculptures, one on each post of the bridge:
four seed pods, each containing all the things that might grow from it (sorry about the dazzle, I struggled with the light here). I haven't found any information about these, so think they must be self-seeded - but surely I recognise the work of Graeme Hopper, who also made the Fungate (don't blame me, that's what it's called) and other pieces around the garden. If you look closely, you may be able to see a single water lily in bloom on the pond beyond.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-15 03:44 pm (UTC)Know also both as fireweed and London pride.
I have to admit to a fondness for it.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-16 09:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-15 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-16 09:15 am (UTC)(By the way, did you see my previous post, about the women wrestlers? Not nagging, but it made me think of you ...)
no subject
Date: 2021-08-16 11:15 am (UTC)