G
Gleb Berloff
Guest
Continuing my posts I just wanted to share what interesting plant species I encountered in or around Cambridge this year. As always I was a little late to see them blooming and hope to be able to see them very well next year. The real stars of the year were:
White helleborine orchids- This rare orchid grew in huge quantities on a playground this year! I was too late to see the attractive white flowers, but the stems of the plant indicated to me that it was very happy, and would definitely regrow next year. I hope.
Bee orchid- I found a bee orchid which had just finished flowering... right in front of Addenbrooke's Hospital!! The wilted flowers told me had I perhaps been just two weeks earlier I would have been able to enjoy the incredibly beautiful flowers.
Moon carrot- Moon carrot is an extraordinarly rare plant in the UK. And one of the places it grows is Cherry Hinton chalk pits. One of the only three places it grows in. I can freely share the location because good luck getting to it. The beautiful umbellifiers look amazing when images, and especially amazing is the image I attached below of that young peregrinelet sitting next to it! The same one was previously flying all over the place, including above me.
I also know where to look for pyramidal and common spotted orchids next year. These are extraordinarly beautiful plants.
Garden-wise, due to the coronavirus I both planted a lot of stuff and also began a war of extermination against some other stuff.
This year I planted an araucaria in my garden. I then watched it grow very well. Now it does have a few yellow needles but it has been like that since the growing season stopped. When it starts again, I have special conifer fertiliser to help it grow. I didn't expect it to do so well. I also got a juniper shrub, but whereas the araucaria is growing extremely well despite the very few yellow leaves, the juniper dried up despite my best efforts to keep it alive. I still don't know what caused that. We also planted three fig trees, four bamboo shrubs, one cherry tree and two thyme bushes, all of which is doing great. We also grew monster courgettes and tomatoes as well.
On the destructive side, I was hoping to let others deal with this when I asked for specialists to be invited, but I lost my temper when I found out that mistletoe had jumped from my apple tree, which has a huge infestation, to a cherry. So I lost my temper and spent the entire day today destroying the mistletoe. I got even more upset when I found it had jumped to our smaller apple tree. This mistletoe is a horrendous parasite and I will not rest until I eradicate it from my garden completely.
For next year, I will look for moon carrots and all orchids in the region. I also have plans to grow pumpkins and perhaps plant a spruce
White helleborine orchids- This rare orchid grew in huge quantities on a playground this year! I was too late to see the attractive white flowers, but the stems of the plant indicated to me that it was very happy, and would definitely regrow next year. I hope.
Bee orchid- I found a bee orchid which had just finished flowering... right in front of Addenbrooke's Hospital!! The wilted flowers told me had I perhaps been just two weeks earlier I would have been able to enjoy the incredibly beautiful flowers.
Moon carrot- Moon carrot is an extraordinarly rare plant in the UK. And one of the places it grows is Cherry Hinton chalk pits. One of the only three places it grows in. I can freely share the location because good luck getting to it. The beautiful umbellifiers look amazing when images, and especially amazing is the image I attached below of that young peregrinelet sitting next to it! The same one was previously flying all over the place, including above me.
I also know where to look for pyramidal and common spotted orchids next year. These are extraordinarly beautiful plants.
Garden-wise, due to the coronavirus I both planted a lot of stuff and also began a war of extermination against some other stuff.
This year I planted an araucaria in my garden. I then watched it grow very well. Now it does have a few yellow needles but it has been like that since the growing season stopped. When it starts again, I have special conifer fertiliser to help it grow. I didn't expect it to do so well. I also got a juniper shrub, but whereas the araucaria is growing extremely well despite the very few yellow leaves, the juniper dried up despite my best efforts to keep it alive. I still don't know what caused that. We also planted three fig trees, four bamboo shrubs, one cherry tree and two thyme bushes, all of which is doing great. We also grew monster courgettes and tomatoes as well.
On the destructive side, I was hoping to let others deal with this when I asked for specialists to be invited, but I lost my temper when I found out that mistletoe had jumped from my apple tree, which has a huge infestation, to a cherry. So I lost my temper and spent the entire day today destroying the mistletoe. I got even more upset when I found it had jumped to our smaller apple tree. This mistletoe is a horrendous parasite and I will not rest until I eradicate it from my garden completely.
For next year, I will look for moon carrots and all orchids in the region. I also have plans to grow pumpkins and perhaps plant a spruce
