What's outside

Also, what I didn’t realise was that the image was a close up. So the plant was much too small to be knotweed :slight_smile:

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You are right; it can take several years to kill it off completely. There’s much nonsense written and spoken about the ‘best’ way to get rid of it. The chemical that works most effectively is glyphosate but it has to be used carefully and kept away from children and pets. Although used in agriculture (and in parks and playing fields until recently) it is often sold mixed with other chemicals and that makes it much less safe. Because Japanese knotweed has hollow stems they can be cut at waist height and the glyphosate poured in at much weaker concentration than usual. It will be absorbed and travel throughout the plant which will get weaker and weaker with successive treatments until it is all gone. If you don’t know what you are doing you need someone who does but it isn’t rocket science either.
Raymond

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This is the usual purple foxglove:


and this is the white variant that I encouraged. It flowers a little later so the buds are just opening.

and this is what I got when I crossed the two:

It is pink and doesn’t have the dark markings on the inside.

Similarly, there were some yellow poppies arrive a couple of years ago from my neighbour’s garden so I crossed them to my red poppies last year and got orange poppies this year:


Fun, isn’t it?

Raymond

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Heddiw - Today.

(gwyfyn) Adain ddeifiog - Scorched wing (moth).

Cheers J.P.

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Drudwy is Starlings I think…but what is a single starling?

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Quick look in the dictionary shows ‘drudwen’.

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Heddiw, rhywbeth newydd i me - Today, something new to me.

Gorfanhadlen - Common broomrape

I seem to remember @pippapritchard found something similar last year.

Life is a curious carosel of coincidence, remembering a post earlier in the year i was looking
for false morel (fungus that appear in this area sometimes), didn’t find any but it was
worth looking. :smile:

Cheers J.P.

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Every evening till way after 10pm, at the top of it’s voice, often echoing another nearby - the song thrush. It’s such a treat.

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Diolch! But you should see my little toy poodle’s face and cocked head as my ipad starts tweeting! Where is that birdie? Very confusing for a little dog!

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Heddiw - Today.

Cyw aderyn du’n dechrau ymddangos - Young black birds starting to appear.

Cheers J.P.

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Brilliant picture!

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Wow! Ardderchog!

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Heddiw - Today.

Never certain about fungi (without microscopy), but today at last i found a possible contender.


I’m tempted to say ‘bolbitius titubans’ (maybe).

Carpiog y gors - Ragged robin.

Tegeirian bera - Pyramidal orchid.

Cog yn yr pellter - cuckoo in the distance.

The black bird photo’s won’t be high quality as i only go near the nest if the parent is away,
It’s a stretch and i don’t stay long (but today).


cyw aderyn dy dal ymddangos - Young blackbirds still appearing.

Cheers J.P.

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You’re posting super pics ar hyn o bryd @ramblingjohn. I’ve never even seen a cuckoo!

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Only a blurr in the distance in my case. When I lived on Gower we had at least one calling who I heard whenever I took the dogs up the hill. I could tell which tree(s) it was in, could see it, even, but not clearly. Always just too far away!
p.s. It was this thread that tempted me on to the Forum in the first place and I shall always be grateful to the Forum for that!! And, obviously, to you John!!

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Now, a confession. On a programme on BBC Scotland called Beechgrove Garden, a while back, I heard mention of ‘the little white rose of Scotland’. I have always liked roses and we had a dark corner, so I e-mailed the programme asking about them. We must have got crossed wires because I followed their instructions and planted rose. It really flourished this strange year, but I found the little white rose on line and it says it was a wild one, a damask one, so open like wild roses are. Mine is therefore, not really ‘the little white rose’ but…

also, I totally failed to work out how to reduce the size of the picture! Sorry!

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Oh but it is so much easier to see your roses with the photo this size! And they are lovely.

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I’m not at all sure about this @henddraig, but I think it might refer to the Guelder Rose, which is a type of Vibernum.

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On second thoughts @henddraig, I think it is more likely to be the Burnet Rose ‘Rosa pimpinellifolia’.

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You are quite right! I misremembered. Burnet Rose was the name I found by Googling! My rose definitely not that As is clear:-

So, good job I did not plant it in the wild garden up the back! But, we now have the beginnings of a wild flower meadow at the front! This hill was terraced to make flat bits for houses. There is just our house and next door on this level and in front, below our front garden’s retaining wall, is a path and a bit of ground to which we have access but do not own. Janet used to keep it mowed, but the Council do it eventually and it starts to look quite pretty as time passes. The wet caused it to get left and we decided to let it be. Best so far is a little patch of what I think are oxeye daisies just in front of our steps!

Lucky we took this pic! They came and cut it this afternoon!

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