20th June 2007 - What the rain brings
What rain we’ve had this last week. Glad to say that, as we live on a hill, we had no flooding, and the worst that happened was that the gutters couldn’t take the downpour and overflowed all over the windows. Just as well we hadn't cleaned them. Karl and I were treated to three very fine thunderstorms, with cracks and rumbles strong enough to rattle the house. And – a first – there were no power cuts.
"...a crowd of Verbascum caterpillars hatched out on my lovely Verbascum 'Helen Johnson' and got stuck right in."
During those rainy days, a crowd of Verbascum caterpillars hatched out on my lovely Verbascum 'Helen Johnson' and got stuck right in. I didn’t discover them till after the rain stopped, when they had already chewed their way through a large part of the plant.
Verbascum caterpillars
Close up, these caterpillars have markings on their heads that give them scary faces, like Chinese temple demons. I’d hate to come across a giant one.
Verbascum caterpillar face
The temptation to unleash hell on these pests, with a big fat can of lethal spray, is strong at these times. Seeing the plants I’ve tended so carefully being chewed to the ground when I could just kill the pests with one squirt of poison is hard and I have to remind myself that they are part of the food chain. So I go round with my bucket and pick them by hand. The slugs get moved to the woods and the caterpillars are squished and left for whichever creature wants to finish them off.
It isn’t all bad, anyway. The plants that were waiting to go into the ground have gone in and are settling well. Parts of it haven’t worked out quite as planned, but you expect that. The Sweet Williams I thought would be a dark enough colour to go in the hot red/orange/yellow bed have turned out to be pale pink and I shall cut them for the house. We don’t often have cut flowers, especially out of the garden, and a vase of them are currently looking very pretty in kitchen, combined with white Nigella and some fern fronds.
Most of these new plants have yet to flower but Schizostylis coccinea 'Major' is about to open its buds in the hot bed and two of the Potentilla thurberi 'Monarch's Velvet' are already flowering. Both of the Sisyrinchiums - both the tall yellow striatum and the low-growing, blue ‘California Skies’ – are flowering well. They’re so reliable, these two, and with such pretty flowers. Sedum spurium 'Green Mantle' is just coming into bloom adding its bright yellow to the gradual colouring up of the garden.
In the cool, blue/purple/pink white bed are the above mentioned S. ‘California Skies’, Linaria purpurea in pink and purple, Heucheras, Anthemis punctata subsp. cupaniana, the only white flowers so far, and Erigeron karvinskianus. Aconitum napellus will soon be with us and I’m looking forward to the tall stems of rich blue flowers. Deadly though Aconite is, being the UK's most potent nerve toxin, it's a beautiful addition to early summer colour.
Aconitum napellus
The rain brings the opportunity for a life-long pleasure, looking at water drops on the leaves of certain plants. Water gathers differently on leaves, depending on the plant, and I was especially struck by the beauty of the drops on the leaves of Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’. Somehow the drops stay separate and remain more or less spherical, and they reflect silver from the base. If you get yourself at the right angle, they glisten like jewels, and I like to think that this is what diamonds look like when they are alive, before they die and become glass-like.
Water drops on a Cotinus leaf
It is sights such as these that serve to remind me that the truest beauty is all about us and is free to be looked at. The Best Show on Earth is the Earth itself.
© Copyright Miranda Hodgson 2007