Blooming June

Ye Master

One of the great unsung tasks performed by the Master is the way he acts, sans honararium, as Hortus Praetorius of Ye Antient Privee Garden at Castle Caldwell. In June this comes into bloom in some atonement for its sullen winter countenance.



Or as Robbie Burns said:

"But pleasures are like poppies spread:
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed;"



Solanum Crispin "Glasnevin"

This Chilean potato vine is just the thing to give a sunny wall an exotic look. It has wiry stems, which need tying up to wires or trellis for support, clad in small semi-evergreen leaves which remain on the plant in all but bad winters. The potato-like flowers, each with lilac petals around a pointed yellow centre, appear continuously from mid-summer to mid-autumn. The Glasnevin is named after the cultivar grown in the Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin, Dublin, Ireland.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/botanic-gardens-glasnevin-dublin_31.html


Wild English Rose

This variety combines spring flowering old garden roses, with modern floribundas and hybrid teas. The result of all this careful breeding is a group, which has become known as "English Roses". These roses have very large blooms, many being doubles and also fragrant as well.


Foxglove



Foxgloves are biennial or perennial plants and are native to the Mediterranean region.They are also a source of digitalis prescribed by doctors to strengthen the heart and regulate its beat. Extremely poisonous!


Red Hot Poker

Red Hot Poker is native to Madagascar and Africa. It is also called Kniphofia, Torch lily, and Poker plant.Red Hot Poker is known for their bright, rocket-shaped flowers. The plants produce spikes of hanging, red-to-orange flowers which have flowering spikes of pale yellow, ivory, apricot, orange and red.



O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

Robbie Burns, A Red, Red Rose
1794

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/01/burns-night-tale-new-twist.html


Aurum Lily

Narcissus 'Aurum' - Originally from China. Narcisse [from Greek Narkissos, mythological youth who fell in love with his own reflection and changed into a flower]




Catmint

Nepeta Cataria, a wild English plant belonging to the large family Labiatæ, of which the Mints and Deadnettles are also members, is generally distributed throughout the central and the southern counties of England, in hedgerows, borders of fields, and on dry banks and waste ground. The flower blooms from July to September.

The plant has an aromatic, characteristic odour, which bears a certain resemblance to that of both Mint and Pennyroyal (Pennyroyal: also known as Pudding Grass). It is owing to this scent that it has a strange fascination for cats, who will destroy any plant of it that may be bruised.

There is an old saying about this plant:

If you set it, the cats will eat it.
If you sow it, the cats don’t know it.

This commonly grown plant exudes the chemical Nepetalactone, a very effective insect repellent but one which induces almost compulsive addictive behaviour in some adult cats, although kittens seem almost unmoved by it. Ringo, the Castle Cat, will first stand up and stick his head in it and then nibble it. For the finale he will then climb on top of the pot and snooze on it!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/02/castle-cat.html


Clematis

Clematis (from Ancient Greek klematis, a climbing plant, probably periwinkle) is a genus of mostly vigorous climbing lianas, with attractive flowers.


Hosta

Hosta (syn.: Funkia) is a genus of about 23–40 species of lily-like plants native to northeast Asia. They were once classified in the family Liliaceae but are now included in the family Agavaceae by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. In Japan their leaves are used in salads!


Lupins

Lupins embellish the early-summer border with striking, rocket-like spikes. Their captivating colours, both vibrant and muted, owe much to the devotion of one man, George Russell (1857-1951), a gardener from Yorkshire who dedicated the latter half of his life to conjuring up bigger, brighter and more beautiful blooms, creating a dynasty of lupins that is still admired and sought after today.




Ye Mistress

Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose,
And Jamshyd's Sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows;
But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows.

Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam

How fair is a garden amid the trials and passions of existence. ~Benjamin Disraeli

They say gardening is the new sex. I preferred the old stuff. - Alan Titchmarsh

It needs 2 tons of concrete, 1 ton of steel and 3 phase power. - Dermot Gavin

I used to have green fingers, then I discovered hankies. - Ye Master


Mr Squirrel dining alfresco