http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/Grow flowers, Grow happinessen-UKMokoFeed10http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/http://data5.blog.de/design/preview/e8/609c85388ef7a5b6aac8e0f2436387_160x200.jpghttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/21/ants-and-lizards-7428427/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-11-21:/2009/11/21/ants-and-lizards-7428427/Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:58:23 +0100 <p><a title="DSC00474" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc00474/4126619"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/619/4126619_39901a5bff_m.jpg" alt="DSC00474"></a><a title="DSC00477" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc00477/4126620"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/620/4126620_dfc96c1478_m.jpg" alt="DSC00477"></a></p> <p>After the first big rains of the year in Soyo the flying ants would come out in huge numbers - the air used to be full of them for an afternoon and here is what happened the next morning - there were sheets of them hanging from the office walls. They are a fair size too. looking at the pictures again you can see that the ants are in dotted masses. I think that at the cwenter of each dot is a female - a potential queen for a future colony, and there are males all around fighting to mate with her.<br><a title="DSC00479" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc00479/4126621"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/621/4126621_91cb4e0ca5_m.jpg" alt="DSC00479"></a></p> <p>Let me finish off the wildlife photos from Angola with a couple of the lizards that hung around the yard basking in the sun on the hot concrete some afternoons (well only really on Sat and Sunday as the yard would be busy during the week).</p> <p>And I think that that is the lot - the sum of 2 years in Soyo. I wish that I had been into photographing flowers more then so I had ore to show you but after this it is back to Tipperty and the cold North East of Scotland.<br><a title="lizard 1" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/lizard_1/4130082"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/082/4130082_977a105cb9_m.jpg" alt="lizard 1"></a><a title="lizard 2" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/lizard_2/4130083"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/083/4130083_0621be8e1c_m.jpg" alt="lizard 2"></a><a title="lizard 3" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/lizard_3/4130084"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/084/4130084_30e51d48e2_m.jpg" alt="lizard 3"></a></p> <p> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/21/ants-and-lizards-7428427/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>antssoyolizardsangolahttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/21/ants-and-lizards-7428427/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/20/ants-and-bees-and-flies-and-moths-7420283/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-11-20:/2009/11/20/ants-and-bees-and-flies-and-moths-7420283/Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:08:23 +0100 <p><a title="DSC01590" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc01590/4126629"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/629/4126629_2f0055781a_m.jpg" alt="DSC01590"></a></p> <p>Now what does this insect look like to you - to me it looks like a huge great bluebottle - same blue shiney wings and big eyes.  It is at least 3 centimetres long possibly 4 centimetres. Again one of the insect I found early in the morning when arriving at work (the lights on the office attracted them).<br>But when i looked again I became fairly coinvinced that this was a case of mimicry and that this is actually a moth pretending to look like a fly. <br>First off is the size - it's huge for a fly - secondly I'm fairly certian that it has 4 wings not two (flies are the order Diptera Di- two, ptera - wings.) I have heard of this sort of mimicry before (but can't tell you if it is Batesian mimicry where a harmless species mimics a poisonous species, or Mullerian mimicry where two poisonous species look like each other, because this insect was still alive and I was not about to poke around the wings of a 4 cm long fly/moth which might bite me at any time.)the local workers were unimpressed and frankly bemused by my excitement at seeing this insect and my taking of munerous photos, just like I guess the average aberdonian might be bemused by my excitement at seeing black-backed sea gull or a buzzard (both huge birds not typically found in Grimsby in the 70s. But i guess even the most jaded of Aberdonians might understand if I became excited at seeing a Golden Eagle or an Alien Big Cat or a capercaillie around these parts (none of which I have seen but all of which i live in hope of seeing).<br>I still get excited everytime I see a pheasant by the side of the road... or a wild dear... hey my heart still has a small flutter even i even see a kestrel. it'a amazing how little I have become jaded by so many things.  Such is life for a big-kid such as me.<br><a title="DSC01592" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc01592/4126631"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/631/4126631_8bff2988c6_m.jpg" alt="DSC01592"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/20/ants-and-bees-and-flies-and-moths-7420283/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>insectsangolasoyohttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/20/ants-and-bees-and-flies-and-moths-7420283/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/19/more-praying-manis-photos-7420101/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-11-19:/2009/11/19/more-praying-manis-photos-7420101/Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:22:17 +0100 <p><a title="beauty" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/beauty/4126617"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/617/4126617_ddaa021ef4_m.jpg" alt="beauty"></a></p> <p>I found another picture of yesterday's praying mantis - this shjows the roundel (the circular bullseye) on the wing covers and shows the tripiness of the legs much clearer. Here is a quick video I made (on a camera not a video  so quality not brilliant) showing the jerky movement. Not sure why it would move like that -- it's not as if it would make it less noticeable!</p> <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up1i8gR5xUo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up1i8gR5xUo</a></p> <p>And then there is yet a third praying mantis that I snapped while out there - not too clear because of the crppy background - though it does demonstrate the effectiveness of their camoflague I guess- what is it with me and mantisesessess. I'm sure they would hiss like a snake if they could talk....</p> <p><a title="DSC00079" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc00079/4126634"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/634/4126634_eac804f777_m.jpg" alt="DSC00079"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/19/more-praying-manis-photos-7420101/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>praying-mantissoyoangolahttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/19/more-praying-manis-photos-7420101/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/17/praying-mantis-7402102/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-11-17:/2009/11/17/praying-mantis-7402102/Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:49:51 +0100 <p><a title="local 3" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/local_3/4118518"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/518/4118518_d9352a947b_m.jpg" alt="local 3"></a><a title="skype" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/skype/4118519"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/519/4118519_2a5183f9d4_m.jpg" alt="skype"></a></p> <p>The photo above is one of my favourite ones and possibly the best picture I have ever taken. I was just so lucky that the autofocus hit the highlight in the eye almost exactly right. This deadly wee thing was about the size of my thumb and jerkedup the post towards me one morning in Soyo. The stripes on the legs are clearly camoflague so that it can sit poised on grass or leaves ready to strike. The wing covers hand dark green roundells on them - as if this were a crack aircraft for Mother Nature's airforce.<br>In contrast the praying mantis below is much longer and thinner and all green with a pink tinge to the thorax. I remember it as much bugger but I guess six inches is enough for anyone (or so I keep telling my wife).  You can see that the matis is looking up - I was holding my finger above it. As i moved my finger around the mantis' gaze followed my finger - it was like a puppy or a kitten or a baby watching a shiney object and just following the dancing ball - amazing - but then they do have those big eyes with tight psedo-pupils - they are very good visually. They always seem more intelligent than other insect but i am sure that this is anthropomorphism - humans always seem to admire predators much more than prey - lions and tigers and bears (oh my) are classic cuddly toys. It is only big herbivores that seem to capture humans imaginations where sheer size becomes important (elephants, hippos and rhinos) whereas your standard grazer wandering across the plains or through the forest in huge numbers like gazelles, wildebeests, cattle are not really lionized very often (note the word).  Why lions should be cuddly I don't know - where was I ?<br>Praying mantids Love them. <br>They were always one of those insects i wanted to see in the wild - they were one of the most exotic ones in the insect books I looked at as a kid. Praying mantids, swallowtail butterflies, stick insects, ichnumen flies, hornets, rhinoceros beetles, stag beetles - again the big and the weird - that I hoped to see some day. Supposedly praying mantids are occasionally found in Southern England but it took over 20 year before i saw my first - in Fiji - and managed to take a dozen pictures (expensive in the pre-digital days).Once i see one on the roses in Aberdeen then I'll know that global warming is too far gone and time to stop worrying.</p> <p><a title="DSC01476" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc01476/4118558"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/558/4118558_7cb1b0d2d1_m.jpg" alt="DSC01476"></a><a title="DSC01475" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc01475/4118557"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/557/4118557_264f0d3963_m.jpg" alt="DSC01475"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/17/praying-mantis-7402102/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>soyoinsectspraying-mantishttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/17/praying-mantis-7402102/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/16/birds-and-bugs-7389378/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-11-16:/2009/11/16/birds-and-bugs-7389378/Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:21:11 +0100 <p><a title="DSC00111" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc00111/4115384"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/384/4115384_6db858d998_m.jpg" alt="DSC00111"></a></p> <p>I wass stationed for just over 2 years in Soyo in Angola which is 6 degrees south of the equator. It is roughly six months of rain and six months of dry - very dry. When it rains the whole place comes to life - birds fly in from all over and so do the bugs. As you can see from the photos the grass sprouts, pools form and everyhthing looks rosie - the birds in the pictures are wooly-necked storks and various egrets - beautiful white herons - they look very delicate but are pretty robust - you see them up to their knees in rubbish in Luanda.<br>And the bugs are big - very big, massive. This bug is a water scorpion (which is the insect we were given for a practical exam in the finals when i did my Biology degree in York) It is one of the biggetst insects I have ever seen and certainly the biggest I've seen in the wild. piercing mouthparts, big claws on the front, and a snorkel sticking up from the back.  Fortunately it was dead when I had it on my hand <br><a title="DSC01503" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc01503/4115410"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/410/4115410_20954078ed_m.jpg" alt="DSC01503"></a><a title="DSC01493" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc01493/4115412"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/412/4115412_19e2730ba9_m.jpg" alt="DSC01493"></a></p> <p>So why these piccies on a gardening site - well there are trees there , and grass and one thing always troubled me about most of the trees alongside the road in Angola - they are all painted white up to around 1 metre high or higher. I thought that it might be an anti-pest thing, or decoration but it turns out to be an safety thing - it so you can see the trees at night - simple really. And it troubled me for ages. What an idiot I am.<br><a title="DSC00110" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc00110/4115418"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/418/4115418_738f4b908f_m.jpg" alt="DSC00110"></a><a title="DSC00109" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc00109/4115417"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/417/4115417_08c24030d9_m.jpg" alt="DSC00109"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/16/birds-and-bugs-7389378/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>bugssoyobirdsangolahttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/16/birds-and-bugs-7389378/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/15/find-the-animal-7380645/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-11-15:/2009/11/15/find-the-animal-7380645/Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:16:20 +0100 <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc01560/4112459" title="DSC01560"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/459/4112459_07ac794887_m.jpg" alt="DSC01560"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/angola_soyo_018/4112410" title="Angola Soyo 018"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/410/4112410_0e6cb7e3d6_m.jpg" alt="Angola Soyo 018"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/angola_soyo_017/4112409" title="Angola Soyo 017"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/409/4112409_49a47f492b_m.jpg" alt="Angola Soyo 017"></a><br> The crabs and the water hyacinths yesterday were photographed on the river side of patron beach (the first place that the Portugese landed in Angola). I took the first picture there too - see if you can spot the animal in the picture before you scroll down to the bottom pictures.<br> The beach is a spit of land that stretches out into the Congo river - not too far out as the flow of the Congo is huge (the second biggest outflow of a river - the biggest is the Amazon). I was told that the river was up to 600 metres deep at the mouth -0 it certainly wasn't very wide at the mouth - it didn't seem much bigger than the Humber river (I'm from Grimsby on the banks of the humber) and i could clearly see the other side of the river from Soyo - Angola - the DRC - the Democratic Republic of the Congo... I love writing that - the Congo - to think that I have seen the congo and even dipped my toes in it - it sounds so much more exotic than it was in reality. I just love the sound of the name - the Congo - it's a real Heart of Darkness /exotic feel to it. When i was in Fiji for 5 years and used to write letters home - on paper, with a pen - real letters - remember them? - anyway when i was there i would always end my address with Fiji, The South Pacific. Now that sounded so exotic too - I loved writing that - the South Pacific....<br> Anyhow the Congo - I must say some more aboout the river and the water hyacinths when I get the time - and Patron beach - well the spit is covered with dry scrub mainly consisting of vines, rough grass and palms. Now i'm not too good on palms - I can recognise Royal palms, Coconut palms (fromn tFiji naturally - never saw coconut palms in Angola (or libya) which suprised me) and now Date palms (from libya) but that is kind of my limits at the moment. I thought that i could recognise fan palms (as in the photo below but it turns out that there are at least 12 genera of palms called fan palms never mind the number of species! Some fan palms are hardy even up to Scotland (on the milder West coast bathed in the gulf stream no doubt - not across our side of the country)<br> back to Patron Beach - scrubs of palms, vines and grasses.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/angola_soyo_019/4112412" title="Angola Soyo 019"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/412/4112412_8d55544140_m.jpg" alt="Angola Soyo 019"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/angola_soyo_021/4112413" title="Angola Soyo 021"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/413/4112413_14af515b13_m.jpg" alt="Angola Soyo 021"></a></p> <p>Anyhow i snapped the picture at the start of this entry - just turned the camera upside down and photographed from underneath a 20 foot high palm tree.<br> it was only much later that I spotted the animal hidden among the leaves.<br> Did you spot it?<br> Perhaps if we turn the picture upside down<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/where_is_wally/4112462" title="where is wally"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/462/4112462_e2bb0a7b1f_m.jpg" alt="where is wally"></a></p> <p>No? What about if i make it a little closer - show more details?</p> <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/where_is_wally_detail/4112461" title="where is wally detail"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/461/4112461_9a4f74f078_m.jpg" alt="where is wally detail"></a></p> <p>still nothing - what about a big big clue?</p> <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/clue/4112456" title="clue"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/456/4112456_6e75ed73a5_m.jpg" alt="clue"></a></p> <p>got it?<br> big bats hidden up there hanging around waiting for the night. I'm fairly sure that they aren't flying foxes like you see flying around during the day in Fiji but they are definitely fruit bats and a fair size at that to show up in a distance photo. The other weird thing is that they seem to have two sets of eyes - well either that or a set of eyes and a set of stumpy horns... weird or what. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/15/find-the-animal-7380645/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>angolasoyopalmshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/15/find-the-animal-7380645/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/14/water-hyacinths-7374072/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-11-14:/2009/11/14/water-hyacinths-7374072/Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:12:34 +0100 <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/the_tufty_club/4108951" title="the tufty club"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/951/4108951_09f422826e_m.jpg" alt="the tufty club"></a><br> After yesterday's depressing picture of the whale i thought that i ought to prove that not every animal that i photograph is dead.<br> here is a crab from the patron Beach at the very mouth of the Congo river - I managedd to find my pictures from Angola so i thought I'd share some of the more natural ones.<br> These crabs hang arounf the roots of the watr hyacinths that float down the Congo from the great rain forest 9and also from the local waterways. here is one doing just that - hiding among the roots that is.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/water_hyacincthjpg/4108956" title="water hyacincthJPG"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/956/4108956_81a643568b_m.jpg" alt="water hyacincthJPG"></a><br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc01554/4108954" title="DSC01554"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/954/4108954_aded0a895f_m.jpg" alt="DSC01554"></a><br> Water hyacinths are quite fascinating plants - they look too big and bulky to be able to float - I meant the one with the crab is at least a foot in height from the water level - and there isn't that much of the plant below the surface (see below).<br> Until i checked my sources. It's all down to the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_hyacinths) I hadn't realised that they are native only to the Amazon basin - I mean i knew that they were very invaisive to the lakes in East Africa (and in the water ways in Fiji too) but i thought that they were more widely native than they are - they aren't native to the Congo basin For example where these photos are from.<br> they can double their population in 14 days! now that is impressive.<br> I have seen them for sale in the UK for ponds (naturally) but I wouldn't think that they would survive the winter - although losts of areas in S America are as cold or colder than the UK (think of the Andes or tiera delFuego) and the Amazon is sourced in the andes so there may be UK hardy plants out there.<br> Here is some advice from <a href="http://www.perfect-pond-detective.com/faqs29.htm">http://www.perfect-pond-detective.com/faqs29.htm</a> o someone in Halesowen in the UK<br> "Some people I have had news from had even left them out of doors with the pots sunk deep into the ground. This was in Canada and it gets cold up there and although the foliage went black and mushy, the plants recovered in spring. Straw over the top may have added a little more protection. Only try this if you have a lot of plants to spare! "<br> Recommendation is to keep over winter in a frost free greenhouse or to bury deep and then cover with straw (like with half hardy fuchsias). if the plants can double in number every two weeks then you only need to keep one or two alive and you'll be okay for the next year. I might try some next year in the black bins we use as heat sinks in the green house - I wonder if the flowers make good cut flowers?<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc01558/4108955" title="DSC01558"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/955/4108955_f120f24dc5_m.jpg" alt="DSC01558"></a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/14/water-hyacinths-7374072/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>water-hyacinthsangolahttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/14/water-hyacinths-7374072/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/12/balmedie-whale-7359265/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-11-12:/2009/11/12/balmedie-whale-7359265/Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:03:52 +0100 <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/xdsc08321/4102222" title="xDSC08321"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/222/4102222_bffb3d77f9_m.jpg" alt="xDSC08321"></a><br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08324/4102219" title="DSC08324"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/219/4102219_4b243f28c2_m.jpg" alt="DSC08324"></a><br> Quick apoologies for the lack of posts for the past few weeks. - I was only at home for one week and since I've got back every evening has seemed to be busy with every day full as the annual plan comes into view. Boring work stuff that is totally unrelated to flowers and plants - as is this post.<br> One of the... highlights?... could you call it a highlight - well something I had wanted to see, in a way though ... anyhow - a sperm whale beached on Balmedie Beach about 5 miles south of us and 5 M north of Aberdeen. The authorities rteckon that it was dead or very close to death when it beached and was certainly gone by the time anyone in authority arrived.<br> I battled through a huge cold wind and pouring rain to gawk at it as did many others - as I knew that his mioght be my only chance ever to see a real sperm whale.<br> The body was the size of a school bus and stank to high heaven by the time I saw it 2 days after death. Despite the roaring gale blasting off the sea across the beach it was still possible to smeel the carcase from 100m down the beach. How the smell could possibly reach that far I don't know. But it did.<br> Even an hour after leaving I could still smell/taste the dead whale in my throat and my wife said that she could smell it on my clothes (which had been sand blasted at the time).<br> There were a couple of things about the whale which I knew intellectually (had read/seen) but which I didn't truly appreciate until I saw the body. The head is at least 1/3 of the body length but the thing that really amazed was the narrowness and thiness of the lower jaw. I guess i had always seen pictures/videop of the whales from the side where the mass of the lower jaw is hidden and you imagine that it more like a side portrait of a person but, as you can see from below - the bottom jaw is maybe six inches to a foot across at most while the head is a good two to three metres thick. it is as if a toothpick was laid along the underside of a potato -very strange.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08327/4102220" title="DSC08327"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/220/4102220_484bbd33a1_m.jpg" alt="DSC08327"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08328/4102221" title="DSC08328"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/221/4102221_be09458c00_m.jpg" alt="DSC08328"></a></p> <p>So is it weird to push through driving rain to look at a dead body. it knid of has the same fascination as exotic road kill - I have only ever seen badgers as road kill - two or three times around Aberdeenshire - and the size of them was amazing. I guess that for many of us roadkill is as close as we get to most big wildlife nowadays but at least it is a real experience as opposed to watching something on the TV where the picture may be prettier and the surroundings are more comfortable but TV can never replace an actual experience (even if it is of a dead animal) same as watching gardening shows will never replace smelling a real flower.<br> I could go on for a while wittering on about real vs reported and dead vs live but I won't. I'll just apologise once again for the lack of posts and assure you that I will be posting a bit more frequently in the runup to the end of the year. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/12/balmedie-whale-7359265/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>beachbalmedieroad-killwhalesperm-whalehttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/12/balmedie-whale-7359265/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/05/back-in-tipperty-the-lipstick-vine-7309604/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-11-05:/2009/11/05/back-in-tipperty-the-lipstick-vine-7309604/Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:37:59 +0100 <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08348/4077431" title="DSC08348"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/431/4077431_200afa31ba_m.jpg" alt="DSC08348"></a></p> <p>Well I've been back almost a week and it has been a miserable few days weather-wise, rain, rain... and then it rained some more. Until yesterday which was clear which meant that we had our first strong frost of the year - oh joy - winter is kicking in. Fortunately I ghad managed to move most of the fuchsias into the greenhouse so they might avoid freezing and last out the coming winte.<br> Brrrrrrr - I'm shivering already - and that is in the house after haviong the heating on all evening. How our new "Lipstick Vine" will survive I don't know. minimu temperature is supposed to be 13C well there's no way it will survive the winter in our house then. Not only is it a cold house (the walls are solid) but my wife has the abnnotying habit of leaving the top windows open during the day while she is out.<br> It does mean that the air is fresher but it also means that the house cools down during the day so that all that heat in the morning is totally wasted and then if yoyu don't get the windows closed early enough - before it gets dark (around 4pm in winter) then the hous freezes in the eveniong before the heating comes on.<br> But try telling my wife that (or my mother) and it's ignored - because she doesn't pay the damn heating bill that's why.</p> <p>Well I can't see our new vine surviving even up until December so that's £7.98 wasted at B&Q - we bought it because the leaves were so unusual - they look like christmas bunting- those loop streamer things - fascinating.</p> <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08349/4077432" title="DSC08349"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/432/4077432_49edc89d59_m.jpg" alt="DSC08349"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08353/4077434" title="DSC08353"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/434/4077434_7a7670510f_m.jpg" alt="DSC08353"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08352/4077433" title="DSC08352"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/433/4077433_952fa8e57f_m.jpg" alt="DSC08352"></a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/05/back-in-tipperty-the-lipstick-vine-7309604/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tippertyhouse-planthttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/11/05/back-in-tipperty-the-lipstick-vine-7309604/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/29/what-will-be-in-flower-when-i-get-home-7269134/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-29:/2009/10/29/what-will-be-in-flower-when-i-get-home-7269134/Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:04:46 +0100 <p>Whaty do i expect to see when I get home tomorrow - well nothing really as it will be dark - the clocks have changed and I think that it is getting dark around 5:30, 6:00 pm in Aberdeen at the moment - definitely long before i get home. </p> <p>however, based on last year, what do I expect to see before daughter Judy and her mob of rowers descend on us on Saturday (assuming I can force myself outside in the cold - it was 30C here in Tripoli today and i've never been a cold-weather flower... I'm definitely a tropical bloom albeit a hairy-leaved, small upside-down flowered tropical bloom).<br> Fuchsias - last year there were fuchsias blooming uuntil the middle of november and this year they should be in the greenhouse so wiith even better hardiness.<br> Pansies and violas - they are the big professional grower plants around this time of year and we have a few dotted around especially in the tubs.<br> Primulas and polyanthus - they were around this time last year - in fact polyanthus seem to be all year round flowers.<br> The end of the roses and the carnations - (before the frosts really start to kick in).<br> Possibly the verbascums might still be flowering and there may be a petunia or two around the place, or chrysanths - though I doubt that my wife will have taken them into the greenhouse - it is a huge tub for the chrysanths - and I hope she has left them out as they are supposed to be hardy and I'd like to give them a try in the stalag - the dwarf asters might be flowering insoide the stalag if the rabbits havent tunnelled in yet<br> I definitely expect a few great heather displays.<br> The dusty millers should be settled in and forming an edge to the path in the front - it will interesting to see if they survive the winter.</p> <p>Anyhow I'm going to do a post with no poictures just for a change. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/29/what-will-be-in-flower-when-i-get-home-7269134/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tippertyhttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/29/what-will-be-in-flower-when-i-get-home-7269134/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/28/fungal-fruiting-bodies-7264406/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-28:/2009/10/28/fungal-fruiting-bodies-7264406/Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:34:06 +0100 <p><a title="DSC07594" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07594/4052193"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/193/4052193_a665a8bdce_m.jpg" alt="DSC07594"></a><br>Something I have never truely studied is fungus - mushrooms and toadstools - but they are quite facinating and make great pictures. I'm thinking abouut them as I am due to return to Tipperty in a couple of days and don't know what will be in the garden. Also it has been very wet for the last six weeks and they are experiencing a warm spell at the moment (16C in October after the clocks have changed - very strange weather) so there may be a late flush of fungi in the garden and especially under the trees. <br>Okay maybe they aren't plants (though they are in common everyday speech) and they are flowers or fruit (though they are called fruiting bodies) and it's a good few years since I learnt anything about them but they are still interesting. I can well remember Jiurie's and mine excitement at seeing our first fly agaric by the side of the road out towards braemar. <br>Fly Agarics are the classic toadstools of fairy pictures - red with white spots. <br>I also remember picking and cooking puff balls from the fields in Seaton - exciting to see there shaggy caps for the first time and then to cook them in their own ink - not very tasty but still exciting.<br>None of these (from haughton country park in Alford in September) are that spectacular and look dull if you don't take the time to linger. If you do you start to apprciate the subtle colours, the strange structures and the texture like bread, meat  or pancakes of some of the common fungi.<br>This is something i will need to go into in future years - identification, photography and just a better understanding of our fungal friends.<br><a title="DSC07598" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07598/4052194"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/194/4052194_89111e23d2_m.jpg" alt="DSC07598"></a><a title="DSC07600" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07600/4052196"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/196/4052196_8d3bb5ed33_m.jpg" alt="DSC07600"></a><a title="DSC07635" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07635/4052199"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/199/4052199_786df62f10_m.jpg" alt="DSC07635"></a><a title="DSC07636" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07636/4052200"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/200/4052200_3831fd39ce_m.jpg" alt="DSC07636"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/28/fungal-fruiting-bodies-7264406/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>alfordtoadstoolsaberdeenshirehaughton-country-parkfungimushroomshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/28/fungal-fruiting-bodies-7264406/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/25/taro-flowers-7241937/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-25:/2009/10/25/taro-flowers-7241937/Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:45:43 +0100 <p><a title="DSC07390" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07390/4015599"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/599/4015599_af8f6aa69e_m.jpg" alt="DSC07390"></a></p> <p>The final few photos from Duthie park show something that you don't often see - at leastin the Uk or in Fiji - in fact i had never seen this in Fiji - the flower of Colocasia esculanta - that's taro, dalo or cocyam to you and me.  The reason you never see it in Fiji is that the plants are pulled up, the tops cut off and the root boiled and then the top replanted. That is the plant never grows big enough or is left undisturbed long enough for the flowers to form - though I'm sure they must do somewhere in a neglected garden or that the breeding stations. It is quite clearly an aroid flower like the lords and Ladies we have in our garden (a flower that I still haven't seen yet - probably it too hasn't grown big enough yet).</p> <p>the lobnger we stay in Tipperty then the more wild flowers and garden escapees are showing up - more and more each year. I must stop using glyphispahte on the waste land and just do slash and burn each year - that way the "exotic native" plants will get to grow a bit and get recognised as newbies before we slash them down. It is quite amazing how many have turned up in just a few years - at least 4 or 5 this year.</p> <p>Anywho - if you look in the background then you see something hiding - another of those items that the Winter Gardens is known for (in addition to Spike the talking cactus, and the croaking frog). it used to be a Loch Ness monster in the pool formed from a stream that flowed down from the main room, through the fernery finally to the croaking frog. The stream is still there as is the frog but the monster and the aroids have been moved into the steamy bromeliad room where the dalo is thriving.<br>As to Nessie - that has gained yellow spots and a bright grin. It looks sickly to me which isn't suprising as Loch Ness is neither hot or steamy. You have to be Fijian to be hoit and steamy.<a title="DSC07391" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07391/4015600"></p> <p><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/600/4015600_907d0934d7_m.jpg" alt="DSC07391"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/25/taro-flowers-7241937/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>aberdeenwinter-gardensdalocolocasiataroduthie-parkhttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/25/taro-flowers-7241937/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/24/the-cactus-house-duthie-park-7236720/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-24:/2009/10/24/the-cactus-house-duthie-park-7236720/Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:11:01 +0200 <p><a title="DSC07387" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07387/4015596"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/596/4015596_45cc9404c2_m.jpg" alt="DSC07387"></a><a title="DSC07388" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07388/4015597"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/597/4015597_3bb8f6b0b5_m.jpg" alt="DSC07388"></a></p> <p>As i said in a previous post this was just a quick visit to the Winter Gardens in Duthie Park - and my camera was just about to run out of battery so I could only take a few more pictures which meant that I could only take a few more shots. So i took two plants - an Euphorbia above and the Californian Poppies below. <br>The euphorbia shows the leaves at the top, real leafy leaves. Some cacti have leaves early on too which drop off and are replaced by spines as they are for the euphorbia. If you need to know more then well I guess that's back to Wikipedia<br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia</a></a>. Euphorbia - the spurges - are a well known garden plant in the UK some of which are remarkably hardy even in up where we are in Aberdeen.</p> <p>As to the Californian Poppies <em>Eschscholzia californica </em>below well they are currently available on T&M  as an annual.  <a href="http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/1277/1.html"><a href="http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/1277/1.html">http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/1277/1.html</a></a> They are desert perennials and invaisive species in many hot places. Fortunately that doesn't apply in Aberdeen. They interested me because we have many self seeding yellow poppies in Tipperty and for a long time I thought they were Californian poppies but having seen these in the Winter gardens I aqm certain that we don't have Californian Poppies but Welsh poppies who are reknown for self seeding into walls (where they are in our garden.)</p> <p><a title="DSC07385" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07385/4015593"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/593/4015593_91d92610cf_m.jpg" alt="DSC07385"></a></p> <p><a title="DSC07386" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07386/4015595"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/595/4015595_1c1b58db34_m.jpg" alt="DSC07386"></a></p> <p>Finally i took a snap of Jiurie before we passed from the dry house into the bromeliad and orchid house. You can see how big some of the succulents have grown and I think a lot of them this end have been there for at least a decade maybe two or three. There are so many interesting plants in there that I could go back and get maybe a year's worth of posts.</p> <p><a title="DSC07389" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07389/4015598"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/598/4015598_7fe423a0b5_m.jpg" alt="DSC07389"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/24/the-cactus-house-duthie-park-7236720/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>aberdeenduthi-parkeuphorbiacalifornian-poppysucculentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/24/the-cactus-house-duthie-park-7236720/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/23/duthie-park-cactus-house-succulents-7227788/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-23:/2009/10/23/duthie-park-cactus-house-succulents-7227788/Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:44:46 +0200 <p><a title="DSC07381" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07381/4015587"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/587/4015587_2269a06544_m.jpg" alt="DSC07381"></a></p> <p>As i mentioned in a previous post the very first succulents I ever grew were kalanchoe plantlets from Mr "Ratty" Roberts the biology teacher at Wintringham. The first cactus was a rat-tail cactus <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disocactus_flagelliformis"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disocactus_flagelliformis">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disocactus_flagelliformis</a></a> from a jumble sale while the first succulent (also from a jumble sale) was an aloe. At the time I would not have been able to tell you that it was Aloe humilis but now - 35 years later - I would be able to because there it is in the picture above. Not my particular specimen but identical to the first succulent I ever paid for all those years ago. As i said before I had a wee windowsill collection before i went off to Uni and then began my travels for work etc and I wonder if it is significant that only now am I starting another collection of cacti and succulents, - We had a few cacti in the council flat we lived in in Seaton Aberdeen - a few mammillaria and a couple of huge christmas and easter cacti (which we still had). However even though we were there for 20 years all told it didn't feel like home, wasn't ours. Now our place in tipperty does feel like homeso now I can start to do a bit of collecting because after the 40 years of travel I am settled again. <br>It won't be much of a collection because I have to suppress the collecting bug for money, commonsense, and time reasons, but it will be a wee collection.  And the reality of mortality kind of destroys the obsession behincollecting for me. There is no real reason to make a mega collection when I know that anything I do will be split up after I die, or even worse the plants, books, music or whatever will be throw away and destroyed when I'm gone. How pointless does that make collecting. It's a bugger this mortality thing. <br>When i was a teenager - well before i had any kids i guess - mortality wasn't an issue because that was way in the future - as it should be - no one would want kids to truely face the inevitability of death.  That was when i could be obsessive about collecing (and I was) - but now - now it just isn't worth it.<br>What a miserable post this is. Anywho below are some more piccies of some of the other succulents in the cactus house. Is "the cactus house" the name of a novel? Maybe it should be - maybe it will be.... let me just think of a plot - boy meets girls, boy loses girls, boy gets cactus collection, boy falls in love with talking cactus, talking cactus turns out to be an alien, alien turns out to be female, boy get girl, boy gets prickled to death, girl gets pricked to death, The end. it'll be a western, an underwater western. An underwater western with a tragic ending - like romeo and juliet meets the creature friom the black lagoon meets the man from Laramie - can you smoke cigarettes underwater? Underwater tobacco... involved in a range war between the tuna ranchers and the underwater tobacco farmers - the tuna and the seaweed should be friends....One of the girls is a mermaid. He's a fish rancher. This is all good stuff - I can see the movie now - bruce willis and tom cruise as the fish ranchers - brokeback swimming pool - rene zwellwigggg, rene zweleigg, rene zewl... halle berry as the mermaid, angelina jolie as the talking cactus, brad pitt as the underwater tobacco farmer - but he secretly want to be a tuna rodeo rider - oooh I'm excited... bring on the big production number with dancing sharks and woody allen.... no sean connery...  in a Carmen Miranda hat.</p> <p>Where was I - the cactus house - the succulents - the piccies below - I really like the rossette shape of these succulents - it definitely appeals to the mathematical bent in my personality - and I do have a very bent mathematical side to me. The calm side, the logical side - hell - i just like the, okay.</p> <p><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/591/4015591_58b7fec90c_m.jpg" alt="DSC07384"><a title="DSC07383" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07383/4015590"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/590/4015590_04e14c5aa1_m.jpg" alt="DSC07383"></a><a title="DSC07382" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07382/4015588"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/588/4015588_0dc99c0007_m.jpg" alt="DSC07382"></a><a title="DSC07376" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07376/4015584"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/584/4015584_d6dadc20a5_m.jpg" alt="DSC07376"></a><a title="DSC07379" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07379/4015586"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/586/4015586_8c45627a46_m.jpg" alt="DSC07379"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/23/duthie-park-cactus-house-succulents-7227788/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>winter-gardensecheuersucculentsaloeaberdeenduthie-parkstapeliahttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/23/duthie-park-cactus-house-succulents-7227788/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/22/more-rain-in-aberdeen-7225509/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-22:/2009/10/22/more-rain-in-aberdeen-7225509/Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:32:08 +0200 <p><a title="DSC08238" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08238/4031146"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/146/4031146_57bb2c8ecf_m.jpg" alt="DSC08238"></a><br>Another raging torrent hits tipperty... okay it ain't the Philipines with two hurricanes in a week, or Western Samoa with a tsunami, or any of the other major disaster areas but it had us a wee bit worried - I got a call from Jiurie this morning about the burn getting close to the top again after a week of rain and a day of heavy drizzle. <br>We are well blessed for rainfall in Aberdeen compared to so many other parts of the world where they have either too much or tooo little. Now I won't go all geopolitical or anthropomorphic and say that there is no such thing as too much or too little rain - there just is rain and that the qualitative estimate of amount is based purely on humans - which it is - and that basically people often build their houses in the wrong place, which they do, but I won't. Nor will i get into the "if a tree falls in the forest does it make a noise" area (if there are no people in an area and it floods is it a disaster or is it just part of natures cycles) and I definitely won't go into global warming and climate change (because i reckon the jury is still out on what is happenig but that we better react like it is our fault anyway just in case it is) so I'll just say that it rained a lot recently in Aberdeen and today we were worried. <br>Worry and suffering is all relative and we have both seen enough of the world to know that our prob;ems are mere pinpricks compared to the problems of other but, well, they are our problems and so they give us something to worry about. Perhaps that is part of the human psyche - we are never happy, or never seem truely alive, unless we are worrying about something.</p> <p>And of course the flowers help us not to worry about our tiny little troubles in a big world of woes. And there are some nice flowers in the garden at the moment. The wet wether is helping the transplanted primulas bed in well while there's still the end of the roses coming through before the first frost  and some of the calluna winter heathers are particularly attractive - beautiful pinks and mauves across the rockery. Also the leaves are falling quickly so by the time I get back next week everything that jiurie photographed to day will be covered in brown leaves and I'll have to spend my days raking up soggy leaves before i can see anything.<br>.<a title="DSC08232" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08232/4031140"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/140/4031140_2356e038e9_m.jpg" alt="DSC08232"></a><a title="DSC08236" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08236/4031144"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/144/4031144_e0ed074596_m.jpg" alt="DSC08236"></a><a title="DSC08230" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08230/4031138"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/138/4031138_b3e9d4d494_m.jpg" alt="DSC08230"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/22/more-rain-in-aberdeen-7225509/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tippertyrainweatherhttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/22/more-rain-in-aberdeen-7225509/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/19/duthie-park-the-cactus-house-7203824/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-19:/2009/10/19/duthie-park-the-cactus-house-7203824/Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:50:43 +0200 <p><a title="DSC07369" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07369/4015574"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/574/4015574_4bb8fe3cee_m.jpg" alt="DSC07369"></a></p> <p>According to one website i read Duthie Park Winter Gardens has the second biggest collecion of cacti under glass in the UK, and the 2nd biggest collection of bromeliads too. In both cases it is only beaten by the Eden project in Cornwall (still haven't been yet. <br>It is a really impressive house and above is the view as you leave the Victorian corridor to enter the house. Once inside there are at least a couple of hundred species in prime condition very well displayed. There used to be one extremely special cactus in there but that has fallen foul of budget cuts. It was a talking cactus - yes it really did talk. If there was a busy day with lots of kids in the cactus house then a large eye on a stalk would rise up from a barrel cactus (called Spike) about a meter in diameter, just next to a wooden fenced enclosure and the cactus would talk to the kids there - answer questions etc. I wonder how it did that - snigger. <br>Don't believe me - check out the facebook group dedicated to geting it reinstated "REINSTATE THE TALKING CACTUS IN DUTHIE PARK" - there 2391 members. Below are two pictures I've borrowed from the group - Spike the talking cactus.<br>The second one shows better the size of the greenhouse - it's a fair size.<br><a title="n647519530_1633934_1863053" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/n647519530_1633934_1863053/4020964"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/964/4020964_c27e8bd82c_m.jpg" alt="n647519530_1633934_1863053"></a><a title="n68573730344_7654" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/n68573730344_7654/4020949"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/949/4020949_a3fc6fa8cf_m.jpg" alt="n68573730344_7654"></a></p> <p><a title="DSC07375" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07375/4015581"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/581/4015581_4147c0ba2f_m.jpg" alt="DSC07375"></a></p> <p><a title="DSC07372" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07372/4015576"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/576/4015576_728592525c_m.jpg" alt="DSC07372"></a><a title="DSC07375" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07375/4015581"></a></p> <p>They used to have a very big prickley pear Opuntia in the corner jiurie is walking towards in the first photo - big spikey pads. The first novel i wrote had a scene in the cactus house where the hero hid behind the cactus. <br>That big 'un disappeared a few years back but now they have one on the oppsite of the walkway (the plant above) and when we visited it was in bloom. It produced a couple of the nicest cactus flowers I have ever seen - a beautiful shafe of sherbet yellow. I like Opuntias because one of the first half dozen cacti I ever collected (was given by my mum - bought from a jumble sale I'm sure) was an opuntia that must have been 50 centimetres or so high.  Big pads on it about 15 cms (6 inches) in diameter. I think my ma soon came to hate it because it would always catch you when you tried to open the window. It's the small hairs (glochids) at the base of the spine that are the worse - they don't prick or scratch you like the 1 inch needle like thorns but they get into your skin and irritate you for hours.</p> <p>So the opuntia flower - maybe 4 inches in diameter, sherbet yellow and almost papery in it's appearance. Mayb it's just me but the stigmas in the middle look like two little hands reaching up, grasping for something - maybe trying to tickle a bee into coming close so that they can grab it's pollen. maybe it is just me - could be grasping hands, or praying hands or begging hands.<br> <br>Anywho the cactus house - one of the great things about living in Aberdeen.<br><a title="DSC07373" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07373/4015577"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/577/4015577_882c414a78_m.jpg" alt="DSC07373"></a><a title="DSC07374" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07374/4015579"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/579/4015579_fba88fda47_m.jpg" alt="DSC07374"></a><a title="DSC07371" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07371/4015575"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/575/4015575_08b9600bb8_m.jpg" alt="DSC07371"></a></p> <p><a title="DSC07375" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07375/4015581"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/19/duthie-park-the-cactus-house-7203824/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>aberdeenwinter-gardensdutthie-parkcactusopuntiahttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/19/duthie-park-the-cactus-house-7203824/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/18/duthie-park-the-cool-corridor-and-the-victorian-corridor-7194846/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-18:/2009/10/18/duthie-park-the-cool-corridor-and-the-victorian-corridor-7194846/Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:47:04 +0200 <p><a title="DSC07351" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07351/4015549"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/549/4015549_95d62b1072_m.jpg" alt="DSC07351"></a><br>After the climbers and creepers at Duthie park you can duck out and look at the japanese peace garden... hmm... built to commerate (is that the right word?)... recognise the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bomb. Hmm... there used to be a japanses garden on the other side of the corridor which was much nicer. It may still be there - we only had a quick visit last time because it was the enmd of the day and my parents were a bit on the tired side after they had trapsed around Aberdeen and going into a zillion and one charity shops. Oh yeah a quick visit so I didn't really have chance to have a good brows like I normallydo.this may not even be the commerative garden. If it is there is another interpretation of Japanese culture that does nothing for me (like the bonsais from a few days ago.) In my eyes this looks more like weirmacht and plaine concrete than it does Japanese. There used to be a parrot and chickens, and pheasants out this side of the corridor but no more.<br>Anyhow after this disappointment I went back into the cooler corridor with perennial bedding plants of begonias and pelagoniums (not geraniums note) - much more my style although the only flower which really caught my eye was a dark pelagonium. It looked much nicer close up and was actually quite unimpressive en-masse. Bedding plants are usually the other way round - nice en masse but unremarkable close up.<br>See what you think.<br><a title="DSC07352" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07352/4015550"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/550/4015550_1104ef05d7_m.jpg" alt="DSC07352"></a><br><a title="DSC07356" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07356/4015553"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/553/4015553_d094285219_m.jpg" alt="DSC07356"></a><a title="DSC07354" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07354/4015551"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/551/4015551_4fb11f3686_m.jpg" alt="DSC07354"></a><a title="DSC07355" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07355/4015552"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/552/4015552_9e1ccb80d0_m.jpg" alt="DSC07355"></a></p> <p> </p> <p>After the cooler corridor there is the Victorian corridor which has been recently restored but which I have already posted about so I won't linger this time. The piece-de-resistance is then coming - the Cactus house.<a title="DSC07360" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07360/4015554"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/554/4015554_4e8e7a4eba_m.jpg" alt="DSC07360"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/18/duthie-park-the-cool-corridor-and-the-victorian-corridor-7194846/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>aberdeenduthie-parkpelagoniumsbedding-plantshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/18/duthie-park-the-cool-corridor-and-the-victorian-corridor-7194846/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/17/creepers-and-climbers-duthie-park-7187054/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-17:/2009/10/17/creepers-and-climbers-duthie-park-7187054/Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:25:34 +0200 <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07340/4009648" title="DSC07340"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/648/4009648_b281e8f23c_m.jpg" alt="DSC07340"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07345/4009651" title="DSC07345"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/651/4009651_683636edf1_m.jpg" alt="DSC07345"></a><br> Back to Duthie Park Winter Gardens in Aberdeen again. From the main entrance there are several corridors that run off in different directions. We took the tropical shrub one which has many, many exotic tropical beauties in it - as you can see from the first photo. As I said yesterday there is much there that reminds me of Fiji, and of Grimsby and now there are plants that remind me of Libya - now that I have 2 years of Libya under my belt. Strangely there is nothing that reminds me of Angola. For some reason i don't associte the three years i spent in Soyo with plants - okay one year was offshore so you wouldn't expect plants and offshore to be associated but I spent over 2 years working in the Soyo base at the mouth of the Congo on shore but nope - nothing... at a push the sensitive plant which was a coomon weed, and maybe the water hyacinth which would float by just before the Congo hit the sea.... I must look out those photos but nothing really sticks out. I asociate Soyo, Angola more with animals particularly birds - the palm eagles, the ibises, wooly-necked storks, - and insects - water scorpions, preying mantis, swarming ants. Funny that - it had never occured to me before today.<br> Anywho - back to Duthie park. There is a brochure at the front door which I hoped would be online but I can''t find it and the most information I have found about the park and the gardens are on this website - <a href="http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/duthiepark.htm">http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/duthiepark.htm</a> As i said there are now some plants that remind me of libya - there is the carrionflower which I noted in a previous post and there is also the bindweed Convolvulus (or possibly Calystegia)shown above. A similar plant is running through the Flame trees opposite the office and blooming at the moment. They are a very vibrant blue/purple that almost glows among the green leaves.</p> <p>Two other climber/shrubs caught my eye in the corridor (apart from the Hibiscuses) but at the moment I have no idea what they are. nThe firat is a very thick petalled flower that is kind of fuchsia like. It almost looks plastic and artifical.<br> As does the second which ich is a red and yellow plastic hook shaped flower. It doesn't look real and I don't think the flowers were fully open when I snapped them. Apologies for the lack of botanical information on these last two. The photos are presented purely for entertainment.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07346/4009652" title="DSC07346"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/652/4009652_3ecce92234_m.jpg" alt="DSC07346"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07348/4009654" title="DSC07348"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/654/4009654_779c607df6_m.jpg" alt="DSC07348"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07347/4009653" title="DSC07347"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/653/4009653_358b44e548_m.jpg" alt="DSC07347"></a><br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07341/4011562" title="DSC07341"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/562/4011562_b136354997_m.jpg" alt="DSC07341"></a> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07342/4011563" title="DSC07342"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/563/4011563_f469f06830_m.jpg" alt="DSC07342"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/detail_dsc07341/4011575" title="detail DSC07341"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/575/4011575_4a0fda9c89_m.jpg" alt="detail DSC07341"></a><br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07350/4011564" title="DSC07350"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/564/4011564_421fbc4d31_m.jpg" alt="DSC07350"></a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/17/creepers-and-climbers-duthie-park-7187054/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>aberdeenduthie-parkbindweedwinter-gardenshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/17/creepers-and-climbers-duthie-park-7187054/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/16/duthie-park-winter-gardens-7182923/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-16:/2009/10/16/duthie-park-winter-gardens-7182923/Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:22:19 +0200 <p><a title="DSC07334" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07334/4009645"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/645/4009645_f15c568345_m.jpg" alt="DSC07334"></a><a title="DSC07335" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07335/4009646"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/646/4009646_a02379abbb_m.jpg" alt="DSC07335"></a><a title="DSC07337" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07337/4009647"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/647/4009647_0e2656db64_m.jpg" alt="DSC07337"></a><br>I've been having a miserable (self-pitying) week of it here in Tripoli - had back ache all week, and it is the middle of my rotation of 6 weeks - which is always a miserable time - can't see the end in sight  - and I'm only going to be home for two weekends and i could go on for several paragraphs (and did - you can thank the delete button for not having to ignore it). However there are several guys out here who are having a much worse time - they are from the Philipines where the two hurricanes have just struck so I can be grateful that my house and family aren't stuck in a disaster zone like there's are while they are away working for the yankee dollar. <br>Anyhow I need some cheer me-up pictures to get out of my self-obsessive misery so here they are - one of my favorite flowers - hibiscus - in one of my favorite places in Aberdeen - the Winter Gardens in duthie park. There is always something interesting in there, something to get excited about especially as I never went to Aberdeen until after I had been in Fiji for five years. <br>because the flowers remind me of those times (and the cacti and bromeliad house remind me of being a teenager in Grimsby)there is always something to look at and something to bring a grin of nostalgia or of recognition to me.<br>They say flowers are good for the soul... okay I say it and the 247 other hits on that phrase in Yahoo search  almost all of which seem to be florists - big suprise there, not - on the second page two of the hits are particularly relevant to me - one from Grimsby and one from Grampian - I wouldn't have expected almost 1% of the hits to be directly related to my blog post - synchronicity maybe. hope so.<br>Anyhow hibiscus plant - there are a few blooming in Tripoli that I pass each morning on theway to work and now even posting the pictures and talking about themm has lifted my spirits - it is true then - grow flowers, grow happiness... now where have i heard that before?<br><a title="DSC07349" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07349/4009655"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/655/4009655_5279431f99_m.jpg" alt="DSC07349"></a><a title="DSC07344" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07344/4009650"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/650/4009650_b3bd75a1f7_m.jpg" alt="DSC07344"></a><a title="DSC07343" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07343/4009649"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/649/4009649_635d22d053_m.jpg" alt="DSC07343"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/16/duthie-park-winter-gardens-7182923/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>aberdeenwinter-gardenshibiscusduthie-parkhttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/16/duthie-park-winter-gardens-7182923/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/12/title-7152123/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-12:/2009/10/12/title-7152123/Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:23:21 +0200 <p><a title="DSC06757" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06757/3987965"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/965/3987965_9af9ba2650_m.jpg" alt="DSC06757"></a></p> <p>Bonsai trees are trees that I don't really relate to - I tried growing them a couple of years ago, and also this year - as Judy got me a "Grow your own bonsai" kit for X mas this year - and Jackie or Freddy... or maybe Vika... or Lavasa, or Jiurie... got me a kit around 6 or 7 years ago. The seeds germinated for me - all those years ago - but the seedlings never lasted more than one or two months - either over watering or underwatering - probably the latter - or having no paitence and trying to grow the trees in the bonsai bowl before they were big and solid enough - in other words I didn't follow the instructions. This time will be better - I will be good. </p> <p>Possible product line for us? Bonsais are outside plants not house planbts (big mistake in my ideas/concepts) so need to be native to NE scotland for us to work - confiers grow really well around here and make classic bonsais - okay it is maybe not going to be a full time job - and I'm damn certain that the rabbits will have their say in things unless I can help it - but something that may be worth thinking about for the future.</p> <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06759/3987967" title="DSC06759"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/967/3987967_f08ac954c0_m.jpg" alt="DSC06759"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06760/3987970" title="DSC06760"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/970/3987970_ba34e4e557_m.jpg" alt="DSC06760"></a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/12/title-7152123/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>aberddentreesrhshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/12/title-7152123/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/10/this-fragile-world-minature-flower-arrangements-7137808/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-10:/2009/10/10/this-fragile-world-minature-flower-arrangements-7137808/Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:45:53 +0200 <p><a title="DSC06756" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06756/3987963"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/963/3987963_b0bfe62318_m.jpg" alt="DSC06756"></a><a title="DSC06754" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06754/3987961"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/961/3987961_d2de710f07_m.jpg" alt="DSC06754"></a><a title="DSC06755" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06755/3987962"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/962/3987962_a927fddaf4_m.jpg" alt="DSC06755"></a></p> <p>One of the catgories at the RHS show in Aberdeen was minature arrangements. The nine entrants are above with the winner below. I'm not sure what yhe brown object in the miccle is - possibly a daffodil bulb.<br>This is one of the categories that I definitely would not be able to compete in. I'm not sure that Jiurie could either.One of the low lights of getting old (i'm pushing 50 and Jiurie is pushing 60) is the decay of fine motor skills. We can still thread needles but there are other things for which my fingers and fine control are growing too gross. Typing is one of those for me - I feel that my finger tips are still growing so that it becomes ever more difficult to type accurately with my fingers hitting two keys at once - although my speed is increasing due to experience and knowing roughly where keys are. Okay i still need to look at the keyboard unlike a touch typist - eg Jiurie - but I can tyoe muh quicker than I ever could befre - except that a lot of the letters get slightly out of step occasionally and the wrong key will be hit because of my bigger finger tips. A laptop keyboard is bad and I know that I could never use a net book keypad - and a blackberry key pad!! forget it. Not interested.</p> <p>Anyhow- minatures. I like small flowers, I cannot lie, you other fellows can deny but when a small flower gets in your face... I like small flower so as such the minature arrangements should hve been right up my street but - to be brutal - I find them dull. Okay the pictures I took are not the best or sharpest but I think that is because I found the arrnagements dull so couldn't be bothered to make the extra effort. I could bang on about small things  but i won't bother because, as i said twice already I found them dull.<a title="Details DSC06755" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/details_dsc06755/3987987"><br><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/987/3987987_eee47531c4_m.jpg" alt="Details DSC06755"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/10/this-fragile-world-minature-flower-arrangements-7137808/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>rhsaberdeenflower-arrangementshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/10/this-fragile-world-minature-flower-arrangements-7137808/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/06/another-greenhouse-7109870/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-06:/2009/10/06/another-greenhouse-7109870/Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:44:46 +0200 <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08147/3972898" title="DSC08147"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/898/3972898_d0ba793e04_m.jpg" alt="DSC08147"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08152/3972899" title="DSC08152"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/899/3972899_946e1e2b5e_m.jpg" alt="DSC08152"></a></p> <p>At the moment I am debating the wisdom of buying another greenhouse - same size as the other - to fit ove the end and make the house twice as big (i.e. a 16 by 6ft house). The greenhouse this year was great - almost every surface filled with plants getting some heat or growing from seedling to plant. the Lupins and the aquiligeas were doing great before i left 9see above). Also the tomatoes - yellow balconie (never had yellow tomatoes before - much nicer than I expected) and the two cheapie pepper ones I bought at end of season (1 bell pepper and 1 jalapano - 50p a plant each) did really well. </p> <p>On the other hand, I'm only there for three months a year so Jiurie has to all most of the watering which I think she finds a pain, and the price - £469 - well you can buy a lot of tomatoes, peppers, chillis etc with £469. they won't be as fresh or as tasty but £469 is almost £10 a week for a year - even over 10 years it is £1 a week - we don't use that many tomatoes etc. </p> <p>One the other other hand - £469 is the price of a decent camera and I think I would get more usage out of additional greenhouse space. But then I don't need a posh camera either.<br> Maybe next year - or lets see if we get a bonus for this year - HA! Forget that sonny boy. </p> <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08187/3972903" title="DSC08187"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/903/3972903_c8a08ecf21_m.jpg" alt="DSC08187"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08152/3972899" title="DSC08152"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/899/3972899_946e1e2b5e_m.jpg" alt="DSC08152"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08192/3972905" title="DSC08192"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/905/3972905_65887d288e_m.jpg" alt="DSC08192"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/06/another-greenhouse-7109870/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>seedlingsgreenhousetomatoespepperslupinstippertyhttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/06/another-greenhouse-7109870/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/04/fuchsias-tipperty-7099254/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-04:/2009/10/04/fuchsias-tipperty-7099254/Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:07:38 +0200 <p><a title="DSC06248" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06248/3966894"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/894/3966894_d802b371ee_m.jpg" alt="DSC06248"></a><a title="DSC07424" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07424/3966897"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/897/3966897_e027265434_m.jpg" alt="DSC07424"></a><a title="DSC07326" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07326/3966896"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/896/3966896_c292bf1ba0_m.jpg" alt="DSC07326"></a></p> <p>This year we had a great number of fuchsias in the garden after I started to master the art of fuchsia propogation. <br>last year's attempt at taking cuttings was a total washout - or should I say a total mould-fest. Not one took. This year though I had the advantage of a shady greenhouse and shrink wrap rather than a heated propogator in the kitchen. The greenhouse worked so much better in that almost all cuttings took so we ended up with dozens of mini-fuchsias around the garden. the only fuchsia which take was the white hawkshead - which is a hardy fucshia - so ther emust be some trick that I have missed there. it had excatly the same treatment but you can see from the plants that they are very diifferent to the other fuchsias (example below) <br>Hawkshead (the white one on the left or top) has much smaller leaves and smaller flowers than a typical fuchsia such as that on the right (or below). It is also much more erect - in fact much more like one of te bush fuchsias that are used for hedging rather than a soft growth fuchsia - as I said more digging into the literature is required for next cutting season.<br><a title="DSC07988" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07988/3966916"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/916/3966916_52a40acab9_m.jpg" alt="DSC07988"></a><a title="DSC07987" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07987/3966914"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/914/3966914_06f6372e69_m.jpg" alt="DSC07987"></a></p> <p>Anyhow I was going to put a lot of photos of all the different types we had - must be at least a dozen - but then I looked at the quality of the flowers and they weren't brilliant. So many of them had spots on the petals or scorch marks from wind and rain. And after we thought our plants were so much better than the ones at RHS.<br>Anyway the fuchsia below is my new favourite colour combination (now that the delta sarahs have decided to get some pink tinging on the white petals.) So my new best favourite is the one below which I'm fairly certain is fuchsias Charlie Dimmock that we got from T&M in the special trial - $6.99 for 5 plants, DVD and fertiliser. It is a very harmionious blend of colours and I think that Jiurie likes it too.<br><a href="http://www.thompson-morgan.com/plants1/product/p3276/1.html"><a href="http://www.thompson-morgan.com/plants1/product/p3276/1.html">http://www.thompson-morgan.com/plants1/product/p3276/1.html</a></a></p> <p><a title="DSC06334" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06334/3966895"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/895/3966895_4e6a5b7497_m.jpg" alt="DSC06334"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/04/fuchsias-tipperty-7099254/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tippertyfuchsiashttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/04/fuchsias-tipperty-7099254/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/02/sweet-peas-7086989/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-02:/2009/10/02/sweet-peas-7086989/Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:51:27 +0200 <p><a title="3926937_1bbc96240d_m" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/3926937_1bbc96240d_m/3959155"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/155/3959155_705e8d093a_m.jpg" alt="3926937_1bbc96240d_m"></a><a title="DSC06711" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06711/3938658"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/658/3938658_e7ef4aba72_m.jpg" alt="DSC06711"></a></p> <p>This year was a good year for the sweet peas in our garden. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_pea"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_pea">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_pea</a></a> <br>I think they liked the wet even if they didn't like the coolness. they were nowhere as good as the ones at the RHS show as sown above (2nd picture of course) although looking at the picture now I'm wondering if those on display had artifically stiffened stems... they seem suspiciously straight but then they are of the very highest quality.<br>Ours weren't nearly as good but they were the best we've had so far - to be honest I don't remember planting the normal ones in the tub - definitely from seed but did I plant them? I must have. We grew enough to make the first posey of sweet peas I'd ever produced (but didn't take a photo to prove it of course).The ones int eh baskets - the dwarfs weren't as good this year as last but that could be because I din't prepare the baskets as well - using significnt amount of old soil from last year - in hindsight that was a bad choice.<br><a title="DSC06284" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06284/3959175"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/175/3959175_2ed1f04fa1_m.jpg" alt="DSC06284"></a><br>I managed to get a couple dozen seeds planted before I left - oin the greenhouse in pots for planting out next year. (Hopefully jiurie will be able/remember to give them a good amount of water - not too much and not too little - no I don't know how much that is. There are a lot of seedlings in there to try to keep healthy (don't over water - leads to a fungus diease called damping off which rots the stems)  - I split the seedlings into greenhouse and outside seedlings - hopefully the rain will keep the ones outside okay - but if not or if they aren't hardy enough then Jiurie can keep the insides one alive. She is becoming a gardener by default - she has to do the chores while I'm here - I guess she likesit - she'd planted around 500 bulbs over the last week with a few more hundred to go because they all arrived the week after I left for Libya - I don't think that she was too impressed - but she'd learning and I know that she will love the results when all the bulbs come up next spring and she can look at them and think - "I planted them!".</p> <p>Anyhow - sweet peas - the rabbits didn't devastate them - but I've read that mouse are fond of sweet peas. Perhaps they were too busy destroying the carnations to bother with the sweet peas.  I think we'll try out some perennial sweet peas next year see if they will last over wnter.</p> <p>Unfortunately sweet pea is one of the many smells which i can barely detect but they make a good flower - maybe ten stems make a good posey. For a pound or more? that would be 10p a stem... could be a winner - cheap enough to be pocket money/disposable so that people won't feel ripped off if the plants only last a day or two or until they get home...<br><a title="DSC06279" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06279/3959174"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/174/3959174_ef0d705ff8_m.jpg" alt="DSC06279"></a><a title="DSC07876" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07876/3959227"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/227/3959227_56b5b74ebc_m.jpg" alt="DSC07876"></a><a title="DSC06470" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06470/3959195"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/195/3959195_5384b7040c_m.jpg" alt="DSC06470"></a><a title="DSC06467" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06467/3959193"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/193/3959193_18cc0b56a7_m.jpg" alt="DSC06467"></a><a title="DSC06466" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06466/3959190"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/190/3959190_d75235a705_m.jpg" alt="DSC06466"></a><a title="DSC06463" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06463/3959188"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/188/3959188_cafe58d105_m.jpg" alt="DSC06463"></a><a title="DSC06464" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06464/3959189"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/189/3959189_d2a2ac1b96_m.jpg" alt="DSC06464"></a></p> <p> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/02/sweet-peas-7086989/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>sweet-peashanging-basketsaberdeentippertyrhshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/02/sweet-peas-7086989/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/01/forget-me-not-7078448/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-10-01:/2009/10/01/forget-me-not-7078448/Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:54:32 +0200 <p><a title="DSC07067" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07067/3955176"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/176/3955176_51732d1f87_m.jpg" alt="DSC07067"></a><a title="DSC07072" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07072/3955178"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/178/3955178_6625d8f393_m.jpg" alt="DSC07072"></a></p> <p>just had a couple days off posdting - catching up on the latest novel (writing, not reading) so been suffering from a lack of sleep - takes me at least 1 1/2 hours to write my 900 words a night - often it is 2 or three hours. Strangelyu it doesn't seem to relax me but actually hypes me so that I can't sleep well - welkl the novel-writing and stress at work, something is disrupting my sleep - twice in the last few nightsa I have been jerked awake by violence in my dream. It makes it really difficult to get back to sleep if you've just been splattered awake by the image of some monster biting out your stomach.in one gulp.. urgggh - shuddering even now as I remember it.</p> <p>Anyhow - happier things - you may not have noticed that I was gone but hopefuylly you forgot-me-not.  That's a little corny I know and it didn't really work as thge link to the flower of the day - the forget-me-not.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forget-me-not Aparantly the genus name (myosotis) is greek for mouse ear because the leaf is said to look like a mouse ear. Not to me it doesn't - although it is a while since I've seen a mouse ear that isn't crushed beneath the bar of a mouse trap. We get a lot of mice in our hgouse over the winter - not least beacause everywoman and their dogs leave the back door wide open half the time. The same people who complain about the house being cold (and it is) will still open every sodding window in the house and leave the door wide open during the day. It's obvious that they aren't payiong the heating bills. <br>The fresh air is good for you, they say (why is it always women that seem to want to do this - open all the windows - I refer my lord to the previous point about paying the heating bills. Don't get me wrong - I don't mind opening the windows wide once or twice a year to change the air in the rooms but every single day! It's not necessary - ort at least close them again before it starts to get dark.)<br>Where was I... I forget-me-not. - the one growing in our garden is positively, definitely , probably, possibly, maybe, could be Myosotis arvensis... the field forget me not - most flower in spring but this was spiking up the garden in early September. it is another of those flowers which is often passed over - a powdery blue which is easy to miss unless they are in drifts and reinforce each other - or unless you have a good close look. And i would highly recommend having a close look at this wee beauty - especially when it has the yellow eye in the middle. <br><a title="DSC07071" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07071/3955177"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/177/3955177_19c3d8af9b_m.jpg" alt="DSC07071"></a><a title="DSC06977" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06977/3955173"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/173/3955173_f6f03320bd_m.jpg" alt="DSC06977"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/01/forget-me-not-7078448/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tippertyweedsforget-me-nothttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/10/01/forget-me-not-7078448/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/28/banff-and-toadflax-7056086/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-09-28:/2009/09/28/banff-and-toadflax-7056086/Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:10:01 +0200 <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07205/3945206" title="DSC07205"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/206/3945206_ce74abfc0f_m.jpg" alt="DSC07205"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07206/3945207" title="DSC07206"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/207/3945207_3b216da9cf_m.jpg" alt="DSC07206"></a></p> <p>Last month when my parents were up from Grimsby we took them to Banff to have a look round one of the old towns in NE Scotland - that is old as in Victorian old, not Roman old. Banff used to be a rich place but is a little run down because of the slump in fishing in the North East. It still has a lot of grandeur about it, coaching inns, public fountains and a majestic view over to Macduff.<br> While walking around I took a few snaps that highlighted some of the difference between Banff and grimsby wher eI grew up. Most of Grimsby (at the mouth of the River Humber) is built on marshes on the very, very, very, flat land of lincolnshire. For most of the year Lincolnshire suffers agricultural drought - the average rainfall is only around 22 inches - but the wonders of irrigation mean that the area is very productive. And the lack of rain in the summer mmeans that there are many long bright days. The place is relatively dry for the UK.</p> <p>now Banff and north east Scotland are warm and wet (thanks to the Gulf Stream coming up the west coast and dipping down into the the North Sea - not as warm and wet as West Coast Scotland but still much wetter than where I grew up (which is like a rainforest compared to Libya where I am writing this). This wetness is reflected in the plants in Banff. You can see them hugging the tops of buildings - for example - see the ferns that grab every crevice on the side of the building above, or the moss roof of the building below.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07211/3945209" title="DSC07211"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/209/3945209_305d78fce1_m.jpg" alt="DSC07211"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07209/3945208" title="DSC07209"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/208/3945208_9878994c96_m.jpg" alt="DSC07209"></a></p> <p>Are these signs of neglect or just signs that simple plants have a better chance of thriving on the warmer and wetter Moray coast. Certainly I had only ever seen one fern in Grimsby while I was growing up - (on the inside of a water barrel at my Great Aunt's Ethel May's house) - but then I may not have been looking too closely. It would be very easy to say that these are signs of neglect but then I would be making assumptions - it is just as possible that the owners of these buildings wanted the ferns to stay on the walls or the moss on the roof. I know I would if I were them.</p> <p>The house below was having its roof slates replaced but there were still strings of toadflax crawling around the edges of the upper windows. Surely that has to be deliberate - the plants were deliberately left in place rather than ripped out and throuwn down which would be the work of seconds for anyone up there taking off the tiles. Maybe guerilla gardening?<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07213/3945213" title="DSC07213"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/213/3945213_916563936c_m.jpg" alt="DSC07213"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07215/3945214" title="DSC07215"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/214/3945214_a3c018fe96_m.jpg" alt="DSC07215"></a></p> <p>We have our own toadflax plants growing on the walls at the back and now creeping around the foot of the greenhouse. I must admint that I find the flap door -pretty easy to use and once it is secured at the bottom for the night I feel happier that the door won't blow open in the night like it did last year. The toadflax really seem to like the humidity and warmth in there, inside it is certainly lusher with bigger leaves and flowers. The plants are thriving on nothing more than bricks and mortar - literally. Now that is one tough plant.</p> <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08144/3945250" title="DSC08144"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/250/3945250_947b55749f_m.jpg" alt="DSC08144"></a><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08143/3945249" title="DSC08143"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/249/3945249_2307599426_m.jpg" alt="DSC08143"></a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/28/banff-and-toadflax-7056086/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>toadflaxbanffgreenhousehttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/28/banff-and-toadflax-7056086/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/27/lemon-balm-honey-bees-and-life-don-t-talk-to-me-about-life-7051531/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-09-27:/2009/09/27/lemon-balm-honey-bees-and-life-don-t-talk-to-me-about-life-7051531/Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:46:11 +0200 <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06017/3942812" title="DSC06017"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/812/3942812_b6c3bc9e09_m.jpg" alt="DSC06017"></a></p> <p>Today was one of them days - know what I mean - one of those - "Why am I wasting my life like this?" days.<br> I've been reading a book called "you can farm" by Joel Salatin - basically saying that small scale farms can make a profit by absorbing as much of the retail chain as possible - i.e. by adding value by using your labour. Very interesting - one of his centrepiece enterprises is markt gardening - with flowers as a sideline and he has known many who have reversed the priority.</p> <p>Yeah so today was a cubicle day meaning that I feel like I'm wasting too much time here. This year I was going to go to 4&4 rotation and spend more time at home but that option has been taken away from me. Now it's 6&3 and I didn't have a choice. At the moment my wife is out of my control and I don't like that.</p> <p>And then I was thinking about one of the other added value options - honey and honey products. I might have a go at keeping bees early next year. That's why the pictures above and below. They are pictures of lemon balm - Melissa officinalis. It is a beautiful taste - a gorgeous lemon flavor with a texture like mint. I love to pick a tip and chew it on the way back to the house. At the moment it is right in front of the new gate into the stalag so that everytime you go in you get a great waft of lemon because the gate crushes a few leaves when it is opened. I really wish you could smell it - it is divine.</p> <p>Now why is that related to bee-keeping? Well the flowers being a magnet for bees (as are all the labiates - mints, thymes, lavenders, rosemary etc) but the main connection is in the name. Melissa is the latin name for the Honey Bee. Strange that lemon balm should have the latin name for the honey bee rather than the bee-balm having it (Monarda sp.).</p> <p>We bought the plant a s small sprig two years ago and it has sprouted into a fine half meter high bush so clearly it is hardy in NE scotland (at least in the sheltered places - so I reckon we can expand the area of lemon balm if we find a good use for it.<br> That is one of the common mistakes (according to the book) - being more interested in what can grow and trying to increase volume of produce therefore being focussed on the how rather than the why - why do we grow something - you need to be more focussed on the market than the product. I have all the marketing guff firmly fixed in my head - all teh impetus, all the book learning but I don't have the actual experience and working like I am now then I ain't gonna get it. So yeah it was one of them days - one of them 'let's all feel sorry for Neil' days (plus the blog stats have taken a turn for the worse - the figures have slipped over the last week and, though it shouldn't, those sorts of things mean something.)</p> <p>So let's forget the whinging for the day and finish with a picture of the lemon balm after two months of well watered summer growth - it has sprung up and got bushy like a brush.</p> <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08070/3942799" title="DSC08070"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/799/3942799_f14796ca25_m.jpg" alt="DSC08070"></a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/27/lemon-balm-honey-bees-and-life-don-t-talk-to-me-about-life-7051531/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>lemon-balmbeeslabiatesbusinesshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/27/lemon-balm-honey-bees-and-life-don-t-talk-to-me-about-life-7051531/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/26/carnations-and-pinks-7045152/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-09-26:/2009/09/26/carnations-and-pinks-7045152/Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:04:05 +0200 <p><a title="DSC06707" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06707/3938651"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/651/3938651_faef074ff5_m.jpg" alt="DSC06707"></a><a title="DSC06708" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06708/3938652"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/652/3938652_e811c0fab6_m.jpg" alt="DSC06708"></a><a title="DSC06709" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06709/3938656"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/656/3938656_04517d5fe6_m.jpg" alt="DSC06709"></a><a title="DSC06710" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06710/3938657"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/657/3938657_61564024b6_m.jpg" alt="DSC06710"></a></p> <p>Above we have the carnations and pinks from the RHS Aberdeen show - beautiful flowerw which we would not have been able to match this year. I really like the carnations with the red tinged edges - very exotic.<br>We would noth have been abloe to match because only one set of dianthus came up for us this year - the trailing carnations in the hanging baskets. The others (the florist carnations in the front tubs, the carnations in the back tubs) did not get beyond the leafy stage and some of them barely got that far. This is a combination of dark and relatively cold weather 9carnations like it warm) and the bunny-mowers working out how to get into the tubs. in the front the carnations were reduced to twigs and nowt else. I dug them up and moved them into the improved stalag at the back and they have already picked up within a week. The tufts of leaves are surviving now that the rabbits can't get in . Hopefully there will be enough time for them to get bushy and put down enough supplies in the roots to last out the winter. A few of the bought in pinks did okay - though not spectacularly well - putting on plenty of leaf so that they should be big enough to flower next year - I think that the florist's carnations are fairly touch and go for this winter. Immediately below are the transplanted florists carnations.<br><a title="DSC08064" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08064/3938682"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/682/3938682_8898d86d96_m.jpg" alt="DSC08064"></a><a title="DSC08065" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08065/3938685"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/685/3938685_d1133edc6b_m.jpg" alt="DSC08065"></a><a title="detail DSC07922" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/detail_dsc07922/3938718"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/718/3938718_40afb5b5f8_m.jpg" alt="detail DSC07922"></a><a title="details DSC07943" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/details_dsc07943/3938720"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/720/3938720_bf8d347002_m.jpg" alt="details DSC07943"></a></p> <p>Above are the dianthus in the back tubs. You can see that the wicker cage has heloed the carnations in one basket (thought the clematis that was supposed toi crawl up the frame barely appeared this year) whiole in the other the dpinks round the edge are doing okay - staying green and growing up. However in this tub the scabious and the polyanthus that were put in as plunge pots aren't doing too well because of the slugs. (and the rabbits too I think - something is biting the flower stalks off the scabious in the bottom centre). I really wanted to see the polyanthus but they must be flowering around now and I am in libya so no luck - they are supposed to smell divine. hopefully the few that are up out of the way of the p[ests will produce some nice flowers for jiurie.</p> <p>but back to the carnations.<br>As i said only the ones in the baskets did well - and the ones that did the best were actually last years ones that had over wintered and then been planted out. I guess it is a little early for this years seedlings to do well. <br>The plants are extremely woody as this is their second year but the blooms are great. I think that the plants will be too big for baskets for next year but we'll see.<br>Here are our trailing carnations - <a title="DSC08017" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08017/3938677"></a></p> <p><a title="DSC08017" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08017/3938677"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/677/3938677_e2d2cc65dd_m.jpg" alt="DSC08017"></a><a title="DSC08020" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc08020/3938678"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/678/3938678_ca90024e81_m.jpg" alt="DSC08020"></a></p> <p><a title="DSC06239" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06239/3938746"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/746/3938746_89fe548833_m.jpg" alt="DSC06239"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/26/carnations-and-pinks-7045152/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>aberdeendianthuscarnationsrabbitsrhspinkshanging-basketshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/26/carnations-and-pinks-7045152/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/25/carnivorous-plants-pt-7040981/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-09-25:/2009/09/25/carnivorous-plants-pt-7040981/Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:02:36 +0200 <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07365/3936020" title="DSC07365"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/020/3936020_c2f81a463e_m.jpg" alt="DSC07365"></a></p> <p>Following on from yesterday's post about carnivorous plants here is the main display from the actual winter gardens themselves. There is a good display of sundews, fly-traps, pitchers plants, and bladderworts. they are well maintained and look very attractive. There ais also a good range of carnivorous plants available for sale in the plant shop at the gardens - but I resisted as i know that they wouldn't last well in our current set-up - they'd be over waytered with house water not rainwater - anyway I wasn't going to waste money on plants which seem (to me) to be temperamental.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07368/3936022" title="DSC07368"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/022/3936022_624b36fc9a_m.jpg" alt="DSC07368"></a></p> <p>One of the main reasons I built the (non-boggy) bog garden in the front was to try to grow sundews - see yesterday's post about my two encounters with sundews in the wild - as they are native to AB41 - our post code. I haven't spotted any at the sands of Forvie though i seem to remember reading that they are there. About three years ago when we first moved to Tipperty and I decided I wanted to grow things for a living was that if I could grow sundews - and also bearberries - then they might make a good cash crop. Both are collected from the wild for use in herbal medicines - usually from Finland it seems. Well i considered them as potential crops for NE Scotland - only i couldn't get either to grow,,, couldn't even get the seeds to germinate never mind grow. So that was a waste of a few pounds. I tried sundews again this year as i was thinking of bottle gardens. I think that carnivorous plants, particularly sundews, might make great bottle garden plants - low nutrient requirements, slow growing, high humidity - possibly in sealed jars, possibly not.<br> So to this end I bought some mixed fresh sundew seeds off eBay and planted as directed. So far - after two months - nothing. They are hardy and the germination is slow so I'm still hopeful - they are sat inside a plastic bag in a corner of the greenhouse and we'll see how they get on.<br> just one or two - for the bog garden would do.<br> I don't see that I can make any money from carnivorous plants as they are too specialised for me - and I prefer cacti and succulents, and heather, anyway.<br> maybe I'll try again in a couple of years time and in the meantime just take the odd trip to Duthie Park to look at their excellent collection.</p> <p><a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07366/3936021" title="DSC07366"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/021/3936021_cde2b33bda_m.jpg" alt="DSC07366"></a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/25/carnivorous-plants-pt-7040981/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>dutihe-parkwinter-gardensaberdeencarnivorous-plantshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/25/carnivorous-plants-pt-7040981/#commentshttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/24/crnivorous-plants-7040862/tag:frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk,2009-09-24:/2009/09/24/crnivorous-plants-7040862/Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:34:05 +0200 <p><a title="DSC06685" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06685/3936019"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/019/3936019_21496afa63_m.jpg" alt="DSC06685"></a><a title="DSC07365" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc07365/3936020"></a> <br>Like many small boys... like many men who are at heart small boys I should really say... I have been interested in carnivorous plants for many years but I have never had any success with them at all. The first one I ever saw and ever bought was a venus fly trap from Pennells (garden centre in Grimsbay) in the late seventies. And, I guess like so many others, I fed the fly traps with so many bits of meat that the plant rotted and died within a month or two. n the latre seventies venus fly traps were extremely exotic - you couldn't buy little kits at Woolies or plants at B&Q (and you can'y buy kits at Woolies anymore of course) - back in the late 70's I don't remember there ever being anything like B&Q - the "bigbox" stores that are the UK equivalent of Home Depot in the states. You bought your plants from pennells or no where and your decorating stuff from wallpaper shops, specialst hardware stores or Woolworths. <br>The late seventies/early eighties when was the retail parks and large warehouse stores for anything and everything started to hit Grimsby - I guess they had moved out of London and the SE by then. Anyhow - the venus flytrap - lasted around 2 weeks at most. Then a couple of years later I saw my first wild carnivorous plant - a sundew - Drosera - at Cumbrae in Scotland on a week long field trip with the Uni in the first summer breeak. It was my first trip outside England - I must have been 18 - almost 19 - and first field trip - I never did go on any overnight trips from primary or secondary school though I did go to the week long Boys Brigade camps down to Swanage and Dawlish when I was around 15 and 16 so I wasn't totally a homeboy during my teen years. Gee - when i think where my kids went in their teens - particularly the girls... and freddy leaving home at 16 for carlisle - totally different life to mine... anyway yeah - first wild carnivorous plant was a sundew among the sphagnum moss on the isle of cumbrae. I think the movement of fly traps is part of the fascination (along with the Sci-Fi aspects of plant eats animal instead of the other way round) and I also remember that I bought a sensitive plant from Pennells too probably around the same time. I was into cacti and succulents - had a reasonable collection of around a dozen or two including a couple of big opuntias - mainly bought from jumble sales by my Mam- great source for cheap plants - along the kitchen windows and the fly trap and sensitive plant would have been some of the first diversifications. The sensitive plant - you stroke the leaf lamellae and they collapse - stroke a bit harder and the whole leaf collapses down. The plant must have cost a couple of quid - £1.50 rings a bell (30 years later!)</p> <p>A couple of years on after Uni - Biology degree and crop spraying Masters I went to Fiji as a biology teacher (so many first there - not least mudskippers, stone fish, seahorses, seasnakes, wild turtles... too many to list in this post) and there were sensitive plants all over - I mean it was such a common weed it was amazing. And to think that I paid £1.50 for a plant that you just couldn't get rid of out there. Worst of all is that the sensitive plant has huge thorns on it so when you walk barefeet over a baddly maintained lawn you inevitbbly end up stepping on some of the huge things. Anyhow once I got back from Fiji (with wife and 5 kids to follow 10 months later) my second run in with a carnivorous plant occured. I hired a car to take my stuff to a new flat just before the wife and wee-uns arrived so the second day I took out a couple of friends for a run in the countryside up to Braemar (Ray and Rachel halliwell - though this was before they were married). We were searching for red deer as Ray really wanted to see some deer. We trekked across a field up a hill and I recognised that we were walking across sphagnum hummocks, so I said, "Ah yes, this looks just like sundew country" and I looked down and there - low and behold - was a sundew on the next hummock. They were so impressed and I was so lucky - made me look like a real David Attenborough!</p> <p>We spotted a few deer close to Braemar castle and watched them for ten or fifteen minutes and Ray was satified, went to Braemar then pushed on past towards the Linn of Dee (see previous posts) and there were hundreds of deer because the area was being used for vension ranching at that time. Ray was sick of seeing deer within ten minutes and we teased him most of the way back. When me Jiurie and Jackie recently returned to Linn of Dee there were no re deer so clearly vension farming is an idea that has had it's day - but everytime we go to Braemar we look around for deer and I look around for Sundews. So why the jukebox above from Dr Foreest's Cheese factory - nainly because I like the music and of course they are all original versions of songs that have been covered (i.e. eaten up and spat out) by other artists - it kinds of tenuously fits in with the them of carnivorous plants. More about them tomorrow.</p> <p>by the by the photos are from the display that was at the RHS Aberdeen flower show - done by the council staff from the David Welch Winter gardens in Duthie park.<br><a title="DSC06684" href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/dsc06684/3936018"><img src="http://data6.blog.de/media/018/3936018_eab25499db_m.jpg" alt="DSC06684"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/24/crnivorous-plants-7040862/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>carnivorous-plantsrhsaberdeenhttp://Frarys-Fresh-Flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/09/24/crnivorous-plants-7040862/#comments