............... because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
We've had incredible rain, thunder and lightening storms, high temperatures, sunshine and cloudy muggy weather in the space of four days! Crazy summer weather. The plants however are loving it and doing better than ever. Come and visit the nursery and gardens this summer and see for yourself. Work continues in the stock beds and I am in "A" which means the gigantean task of cleaning and tidying the stock beds is almost done, just grasses to go. I am also doing so much propagation, bulking up batches of plants for next year, gathering seed, doing cuttings, splitting plants and potting up plants from the tunnel that were propagated this time last year and are now ready to come out into the stock beds. Its still busy busy.
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Flower of the Salsify
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Tragopogon porrifolius - “Salsify” Beautiful, stately, purple-rayed flowers, like a showy form of chicory flower, flowers from late spring and for most of the way through the summer. It is cultivated for its ornamental flower, edible roots, and herbal properties and grows wild in many places. Even after the flowers finish, it is still showing off with it's lovely seed heads. Grow in sun and well drained soil. H 90cm, S 30cm. Worth a spot in the garden
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Seedhead
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We are involved in three conservation projects in the Scottish borders at the moment. For the Borders Forest Trust we are growing Juniperus communis from seed and have had great success with these, resulting in nearly 60 plants that will eventually be planted out on hill sides in the borders. Again for the Forest trust we have done another batch of cuttings for the second year running of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, the bearberry. These are not so willing to root, but we are persevering using different types of cuttings. It's all a learning process.
We are also growing on from cuttings plants of black and red currents for the Butterfly Conservation - East Scotland Branch. These had a 99% success rate and are now potted up into 9cm pots. This two year project will see these currents planted out in various locations to provide food for moths.
It's another fascinating dimension to the work we do here at Quercus and great to be able to help in plant and natural habitat conservation.
Meanwhile in the nursery and gardens everything is still looking fab, there are hints of autumn in the borders and dare I say in the trees too.
Echinacea pallida
My favourite Echincea with its thin drooping pink petals falling away from the large central cone. Now quite rare it loves a hot sunny situation and rich soil where it will add interest to the flower border from early summer to July. The flowers are great for cutting, the nectar loved by butterflies and seeds eaten by finches, so well worth growing. H 90cm, S 30cm.
Bracken and I went a walk along the river and through the woods after David left for work this evening. I havent done the walk for weeks, I've too tired at night. There are seasonal changes again, the heather is in flower and the grasses are taking on an autumn tinge. I ended up carrying the useless excuse for a dog half way round because the grass was too long and too wet! I ended up soaked too, but no one to carry me. A nice way to round off a day off in which i actually emptied my 3 email in boxes, did a whole pile of admin and stuff around the house.
A lovely day off with a trip to the Japanese Garden near Dollar, which I've wanted to visit for ages. We enjoyed a walk round, the weather behaved, a lovely take away lunch from the cafe and we saw red squirrels! We ended the day at Betty's and out for dinner with her and Daniel for David and I's anniversary and someones birthday this week. I'll be doing a blog about our visit to the Japanese garden, but here are a couple of photos
Another busy week, when I am so glad to get to my days of and have a break.
Title quote - Warren Buffett
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