Sunday, May 10, 2015

Unexpected bloom.

At Christmas we had a lovely Amaryllis in bloom despite having been rather neglected, we had 'rescued' it the previous year from Lidl, rather dried up but still trying to make leaves. We gave it some TLC and it blossomed for us. We then forgot about it, until we spotted some green, it was still on a window ledge, we re-potted it, watered it and again it bloomed, just in time for Christmas. This time however I did get round to taking it from it's spot in the sitting room, meaning to dry the bulb off in the greenhouse. I never got round to it, it sat in the sunroom, last week I spotted a flash of red from under the Passion flower leaves, it was the Amaryllis.
Five months later and it's in bloom again.
It seems that this is one plant that thrives on total neglect.
So far May is proving to be a tad wet, in fact it's very wet, in just the first nine days we have had half of last years rainfall for May. In one of todays deluges Simon rescued a moth, he came in warning me not to go into the front porch which is where he had placed it, I peaked through the front door to see this creature,
it turned out to be an Emperor moth, even I had to admit it was beautiful, but big!
Even I had to admire it's beauty.
It's wings were three and a half inches across. Anything bigger than a cloths moth has me running for cover. Moths  along with snakes the one thing I don't 'do'.
Plenty of salad and our first watercress.
   Everything is growing at a pace in the garden including the weeds.

Super colour.
Lovely contrast .
The Tulips are still putting on a good display,
Ornamental flowering cherry.
apple trees and cherries are in bloom, maybe we might get a few cherries this year if the birds don't get them first.
First of our Clematis in flower. 
Rainy days means I get round to cooking more,
Simple but time consuming.
we had a hankering for Eccles cakes which although easy to make take time, lots of resting of the flaky pastry which has to be rolled three times, but they were certainly worth the effort.
Thank you useful hubby, just what I wanted.
The trellis has almost been finished, just one more section for Simon to do, he ran out of wood so we have to wait until tomorrow to get more to complete the job, but sufficient of the trellis was done to install it and plant the climbers which were desperate to be released from their pots.
Freddy, one of the kittens dreaming a wet day away.
The cats and Meg the puppy are fed up with the weather, they seems to be blaming us for it.
Tommy our eldest cat doing likewise.
The cats spend most of the time sleeping
Zara wanting more food.
or complaining that they want out, the pup just gets into mischief. She is a sweet little thing but has no conscience about anything, and the word NO does not apply to her.
And Meg being cute but disobedient, she is NOT allowed on the table.
Simon reckons that there is more in a vacuum than in her head, he might well be right.
Still my favourite tulip this year.
 

10 comments:

  1. I think we're sometimes too quick to jump in with plants without allowing them to do what they want to do, if only we'd leave them be we could end up with lots of surprises like your amaryllis. Eeek, that's one huge moth, but very pretty. Loved seeing the cute photos of your cats and of Meg of course. How can you tell that cute little face no.

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    1. I think you're right Jo about plants, the less we pamper them the better they do. I took seven cuttings last year from a friends clematis, stuck them in a pot and popped them behind my outside planters, completely forgot about them until last week when I spotted tendrils climbing into the planters, all seven had taken, they have now been potted up into their own pots and put back in the same spot, I swear they have grown another three inches in a week.
      I have surprised myself admiring the moth, normally I would have run a mile but it was so beautiful, and as it was water logged it wasn't flying around, it was released this morning. Meg is cute but does not understand NO, she's just eaten my handbag!

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  2. It's been an awful May hasn't it? I love your picture of Meg. She looks a real character.

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  3. I do hope the weather improves Dave, the greenhouse is full of stuff waiting to be planted out. Meg is cute but a little monster.

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  4. Lovely set of photos Anne. What a stunning moth! I have two strawberry plant bags from last year that I found behind the greenhouse, they have strawberries growing away on them. I'm sure my plants do much better when I don't touch them.

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    1. We had never seen an Emperor moth before, as he was in such perfect condition ( apart from being waterlogged) we think he had just emerged from his chrysalis, apparently they can smell a female 1k away from her pheromones, I hope he found a mate.
      Yes I think the secret is not too much pampering for plants, let them do their thing.

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  5. Beautiful pictures x

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  6. Well if the cat is on the table, why to you expect Meg not to be? Such a character.

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    1. Freddy the kitten was only up there to see what Meg was up to, the cats are normally very good not going on the tables, unlike Meg.

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