Michaelmas Daisies and Plants from Childhood

Georgia O’Keefee painted some brilliant portraits of red Poppies some times upto 3 feet wide and high, even bigger than the real thing in my garden.The last photo shows how Red and Green work well together on a canvas or in a garden setting. Oriental poppies are perennial and most Poppy species are easy to grow from seed of which 50 varieties are available from Thompson & Morgan

The objective of a Stumpery is to create a garden feature from ferns, logs and old tree roots. The Victorians started a trend to build Rooteries, Ferneries and Stumperies as romantic woodland places to grow exotic ferns and woodland plants. If you have a dark corner or want to collect ferns then you could start your own Stumpery quite easily and add to it as the fancy takes you.

New Trees: Recent Introductions to Cultivation by John Grimshaw, Ross Bayton and illustrated by Hazel Wilks. Amazon

One gardeners Daisy is another gardeners weed. This Ox- Eye daisy is made up from numerous white ray flowers surrounding a bright yellow disk flower or florets the outer white petals are common in many daisies. Bellis perennis is the common daisy growing in meadows and many lawns. Lots of children will be familiar with the Daisy chains made by linking flowers together.

Ornamental Japanese Maples are widely available for planting in your garden. The autumn colouring makes these trees spectacular when planted en mass in a woodland or Japanese garden setting.

Red, White and Blue the patriotic colours of the Hydrangea are augmented by pinks and purples like H. Ayeshia above as a variation on those themes. Flowering from mid-summer these shrubs give a magnificent display with very little effort. Did you see Hydrangea maritima on seaside holidays in large displays of sugary pink and sometimes blue.

It shows how long this blog has been operating. The Rio Olympics 2016 will be the third time we have commented on suitable Olympic  flowers. See Beijing 2008 and London 2012 below. Today is the ‘Anniversary Games’ in London a curtain raiser for the Brazil games. For Brazil we should start with the nut (OK so that is the author) and then the Cacti as he is a prickly sort of guy. Feeding plants and flowers with fertiliser or hormone treatment will not fall foul of the drug testing rules – there are no plant urine samples to test!

Seductive plants from Madeira are best viewed on the island but it is tempting to bring some how as bulbs or plants. I avoid bringing plant material home as it may bring back pest and disease. As a Yorkshireman I don’t want  to loose my money and the plant markets are just tourist ‘come and buy me’ traps.

Think before you allow poppies to proliferate. Poppies rob a lot of goodness from your soil.

Oak trees conjure up images of Robin Hood and mystical Oak forests. Britain has made good use of Oak trees down the centuries. ‘From little acorns great Oak trees grow’

‘The Garden of Reading: An Anthology of Twentieth-century Short Fiction About Gardens and Gardeners’ edited by Michele Slung.

It can be very satisfying to grow more plants for free. There are several ways including layering and cuttings than can help you increase your stock of plants. Then you can give them away, plant them, resell or just use them to protect against losses of your favourites.