Shakespeare’s birthday flower count

[callmemadam]

Years ago, I had an annual ritual of going round the garden counting all the flowers which were out on Shakespeare’s birthday. I had a bigger garden then and more interesting plants. The list was a useful record and showed just how different seasons can be from year to year. I thought I’d do it again now, for my own benefit. Naturally, instead of walking round the garden with a notebook like a sensible person, I walked round the garden and then played Kim’s Game, so I’m bound to have missed something. I didn’t take photos; the ones I’ve used are from previous years.

Lily of the Valley
Stitchwort (a wild flower or a weed, depending on your POV)
Yellow violas in a trough
Narcissus ‘Sun Disc’ in a trough (recommended variety)
London Pride
Erysimum ‘Bowles’ Mauve’
Primroses
Aquilegia ‘Winky Wooh’
Pink aquilegias with no name
Pulmonarias
Euphorbia epithymoides
Euphorbia ‘Glacier’
Euphorbia ‘Black Pearl’
Euphorbia mellifera
Geum bulgaricum
Dark red tree peony
Geranium sanguineum ‘Pink Pouffe’
Cistus ‘Grayswood Pink’
Erigeron karvinskianus
Osteospermum ‘Lady Leitrim’

In wildlife news, I saw a goldfinch in the garden this morning, which is a rare sight. Ironically, yesterday I pruned or removed plants of Verbena bonariensis. I leave it late because if I’m lucky, goldfinches will flock to eat the seeds. This year, they didn’t.

Comments

[gwendraith]

That's a good idea for documenting at any time of year. You have a super lot of flowers out. I only have Bluebells, Aquilegia, Geraniums and Three-cornered garlic.

How lovely to have seen a goldfinch, you know how much I love them visiting my feeders. Verbena bonariensis is one of my new plants:)

[callmemadam]

It's lovely that there's something new nearly every day.

Yes, really unusual for me to see a goldfinch. It was early in the morning and the bird was pecking away at the grass. What do they find there? I love the verbena but after a couple of years, it seeds everywhere and turns into a forest:-)

[gwendraith]

Goldfinches do prefer the early morning and the evenings I've found.

The verbena seeding everywhere will suit me if it fills in the space I have for it in my little plot, but we'll see how it goes.