Plants – Tipton's Croft

New faces

~~Six~~ Five new wildflowers identified so far this year. They may not be rare but they’re joining a growing list, now up to 106 different wildflowers her at Tipton’s Croft.

Make it ~~seven~~ six! Here’s garlic mustard (but not in flower yet).

Update: we have misidentified the yellow archangel as a native wildflower. This one is actually an invasive non-native subspecies (Lamiastrum galeobdolon spp argentatum) so we are now busy removing it from the edge of the field. The pale patches on the leaves are what makes it distinct from the native variety.

100!

We have now identified 100 different wildflowers in the field. Some are common, some are rare, some were here before us, some we introduced and some arrived on their own. All of them are native or naturalised English wildflowers and though many of them would be considered weeds in a garden they are all welcome here!

www.tiptonscroft.org.uk/blog/flora/

Early summer at the Croft

Oxeye daisies, meadow buttercup, yellow rattle, ragged robin and a sunset

Ragged robin

The first time we’ve seen this wildflower in the field. Particularly attractive to long-tongued bees, apparently.

Spring has arrived

Cuckoo flowers have appeared in the meadow: small clusters of pink flowers amongst the raggedy early growth of grasses. A sure sign that spring has finally arrived, though a little later than last year and for some reason that flowers a lot pinker than usual.

The ground is getting very dry now and the clay soil turning to rock. We’re probably going to have to start watering all the new saplings that we planted this winter as their new roots will be desperately searching for moisture. Not something we usually have to do in April.

Hope

Common and blue

So must be a Common Blue Damselfly, sitting on a new water lilly leaf.

One day we’ll remember to go out with a decent camera to get better photos.

Spring colour

Need more than flowering grass? Here’s some real spring colour.

Even grass flowers

OK, it’s not as pretty as other flowers, but Meadow Foxtail is the first grass to flower here in the spring, so we think it deserves a mention.

The first cuckoo of spring

The damp winter has helped the cuckoo flowers this year – proof that spring has arrived at last.

Slow January

Not much happening, but the days are ticking by and getting ever so slightly longer. The barn owls are still visiting the nest box at night, often going there just after dusk and in and out until dawn. No sign of the tawnies, but we can still hear them in the woods nearby. The field is soggy, the lake gently overflowing, frost in the mornings and footprints of badgers and foxes, but apart from that all is quiet.