Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Foxglove, naming and dead-heading

More  magnificent foxgloves. Nearly over now they have been late to flower but all the better for their tardiness.

Weeds - plants growing where you do not want them to grow - irritate. But they are much less irritating when you can give them a name. After discussing salvia or sage yesterday, I find that a little plant that has sprung up in the wild garden turns out to be yet another salvia. It is less conspicuous than those cultivated either for culinary or decorative purposes. It is in fact  known  in some quarter as wild sage and in others as wood sage. Though by no means rare,  it is not to be found in every flower book. But the search proves instructive.

In the garden apart from watering we are at present engaged in dead-heading. A pleasant pass time on a summer evening which someone I used to know described as " making you feel like a lord of creation."

3 comments:

Lucas said...

Fascinating photo juxtaposing two realities which are joined by the foxgloves.

Roderick Robinson said...

Love in a Mist. Delicate blue flowers suspended over a mist of even more delicate greenery. A weed? The word needs redefining.

Unknown said...

Not a weed, Robbie. It doesn't grow in the wild and is listed in seed catalogues as a garden plant. Its scienitific name, nigella, links it to a spice derived from the seeds of the flower rather than to the TV chef names one suspects after her Father.