• About my Blog
  • GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and This Site
  • My Life in a Suffolk Lane

A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: red dead-nettle

Primroses

12 Sun Apr 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in plants, Rural Diary

≈ 41 Comments

Tags

Celandines, cowslips, early dog-violet, primroses, red dead-nettle, Suffolk, wild flowers

IMG_4326Primroses (640x480)

Primroses (Primula vulgaris) along the edge of the ditch at the side of the road.  I saw these on Good Friday after we had been to church and then to the Rector’s house to enjoy Hot Cross Buns.

The primroses this year are so abundant.  They are everywhere!

IMG_4327Primroses (640x480)

Richard pointed these out to me. He had noticed them while he was cycling to church on Good Friday morning to strip the altar.  After we got home we walked down the lane towards Rumburgh.

I am not sure if these pink primroses are the naturally occurring pink primroses or if they have spread from a garden.  Primroses and cowslips hybridise very easily but as these ones are some way from the nearest house I hope that they are naturally pink.  I have seen a number of pink ones on my travels this spring.

IMG_4328Primroses (640x480)

Here is a close-up of them.

IMG_4333Primroses (640x480)

These are the primroses on the bank by St Margaret South Elmham church. I took the photo on our way home after the Easter morning service.

IMG_4334Primroses (640x480)

They do look very pretty in large groups.

I think all the wild flowers have benefited from two milder winters and lots of rainfall.  We had no time during last summer when it became too dry for the grass to grow.

IMG_4335Primroses and celandines (640x480)

A couple of lesser celandines (Ranunculus ficaria) are with these primroses.

IMG_4336Cowslips (640x480)

Some early cowslips (Primula veris) just coming out.

IMG_4337Red Dead-nettle (640x480)

A patch of rather stunted red dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum)

IMG_4340Early Dog-violet (640x480)

Early Dog-violet (Viola reichenbachiana) was growing under the hedgerow.

IMG_4338Cordelia's geese (640x480)

As we walked past Cordelia’s house we saw her geese walking down the drive.

IMG_4339Cordelia's geese (640x480)

They are free to roam wherever they wish to go.

IMG_4342Primroses, celandines and daffodils (640x480)

The grass was starred with golden celandines. A few daffodils have been planted here too. More primroses at the edge of the ditch.

IMG_4345Celandines (640x480)

Just a few celandines with what looks like Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) leaf rosettes, a few Common (Stinging) Nettles (Urtica dioica) and Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) shoots too.

IMG_4344Our house (640x480)

We went into the field and looked towards our house.

IMG_4343Our house (640x470)

Here it is.

IMG_4346Primroses (640x480)

A last photo of primroses. On the other side of the hedge are Jacob sheep with their lambs. I tried to photograph them but the hedge was so thick I couldn’t get the camera to stop focusing on the hedge instead of the lambs!

 

I hope you have enjoyed the flowers!

Before I publish this I must ask for your advice.  I have been looking back at posts I published last April and have noticed that at least one has disappeared.  I have not erased it myself, in fact I hadn’t looked at these posts since I published them.  I have no idea when it/they disappeared.  I remember a post about a trip to Covehithe – I still have the photos in my Media Library.  Has this happened to anyone else?  I don’t suppose there is any chance of my retrieving them; they are of no real value but I would like to know if there is anything I can do to get them back.  I have mentioned this on the WordPress Forum but I have had no response.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Wild Flowers? or Weeds?

20 Thu Mar 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, Uncategorized, wild birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bumble bees, chickweed, dog violet, flints, greylag, marsh marigold, narcissus, red dead-nettle, sunset, sweet violet, weeds, white dead-nettle, wildflower

Our garden is too large for us to keep every part of it neat and well manicured and I wouldn’t like it half so well if it was.  I love gardening – digging, weeding, tending plants, but there is always risk, responsibility and pressure to do things properly and at the right time.  The wild, untamed, untidy parts of the garden are just pure pleasure to me.  I have no yearning to tidy them though I realise that some management is necessary which is why we had the work done to the big pond a few weeks ago.  The ‘weeds’ I assiduously pull out of my flower beds I love to look at in the wild garden.  Flowers at this time of the year are a wonderful source of nectar for insects, especially bumble bees, just out of hibernation.

The red dead-nettle, Lamium, a member of the mint family, grows all over our garden and is a very common plant in Britain and flowers for most of the year.  Both it and the white dead-nettle were boiled and used as pot-herbs and as pig-swill in the past.  They had many medicinal uses, most notably against the ‘King’s Evil’ – scrofula, a type of tuberculosis that caused skin eruptions.  Culpepper says ‘The herb bruised and with salt and vinegar and hog’s-grease laid upon a hard tumour or swelling, or that vulgarly called the king’s-evil, do help to dissolve or discuss them’.  It also ‘makes the heart merry, drives away melancholy, quickens the spirits’.  If you look at the photo below carefully you will be able to see the dark anthers under the hooded upper lip and the darker purple markings on the lower notched lip.

003Red dead nettle

 

The white dead-nettle’s flowers are bigger than the red’s.  It relies on bumble bees to pollinate it’s flowers and they (the flowers) are custom made for bees.  The lower lip is a landing stage for the bee and has two small lateral lobes and a notched middle lobe.  The anthers are black and are under the hooded upper lip.  As the bee enters the flower seeking the nectar the top of it’s abdomen brushes the stamens and gets covered in pollen which is then transferred to the style of the next flower it visits.

005White dead nettle (480x640)

 

We don’t have as much chickweed in this garden as in other gardens we have had probably because we get so many ducks, geese and chickens passing through.  They love the plant, which can also be eaten by humans as a salad vegetable.  The flowers are so small that most people hardly notice them but looked at closely they are quite lovely.  The botanical name is Stellaria, little star, and the name is quite apt.  The styles are white and the stamens are such a pretty pink.  Chickweed is a member of the pink family.  It has a single line of hairs which run the whole length of the stem and if a drop of dew lands on the plant it runs down the stem by way of the hairs until it gets to a pair of leaves.  Here some of the water is absorbed by the hairs and the rest carries on down the stem to the next pair of leaves and so on.  This water is reserved in the plant in case of drought.  It flowers almost all year round and is widespread and prolific, which is why most gardeners hate it!

006Chickweed (640x480)

 

This marsh-marigold plant is in our small pond and is the only decent plant in there.  It flowers and flowers and looks so bright and cheerful.  We have another plant in the big pond but I have never seen any flowers on that.  I also discovered a very small plant in the ditch by the big pond with much smaller flowers.  I posted a photo of it a few days ago.  Another name for marsh-marigold is Kingcup and according to one of my flower books this is derived from the Old English ‘cop’ meaning button or stud such as kings once wore.  Apparently, farmers in many parts of the British Isles, used to hang marsh-marigolds over the byres of their cattle on May Day to protect them from the evil doings of fairies and witches.

008Marsh-marigold (640x480)

 

We not only have dog violet in our garden but also sweet violet which is the only violet flower to be scented.  In olden times they were strewn on the floor to sweeten the air.  Their scent is lost almost as soon as it is noticed and this is because the flower produces a substance called ionine as well as the scent.  Ionine dulls the sense of smell so that not only does the violet’s scent disappear but any other odours too.  Clever!  In the verge near to my mother’s cottage are many white violets which are very pretty.

011Sweet violet (640x480)

 

Our garden is full of flints and some of them are enormous.  Trying to make new flowerbeds has taken so much time and energy as these great stones have to be levered out all the time and more and more keep appearing.  I quite understand the old folk thinking that stones grew in the soil.  This is our Lindt flint as we think it looks like a Lindt chocolate rabbit.

012Lindt flint (640x480)

 

A pretty narcissus has just flowered.

013Narcissus (640x480)

 

The dear goose sleeping on her nest.

002Sleeping goose on nest (640x480)

 

And lastly a few pictures of last night’s sunset.

014Sunset (640x480)

015Sunset (640x480)

016Sunset (640x480)

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow A Suffolk Lane on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 687 other followers

I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

My Posts

Jul 2022
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Feb    

Pages

  • About my Blog
  • GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and This Site
  • My Life in a Suffolk Lane

Archives

Blogs I Follow

Posts I Like

amphibians art Arts and Crafts churches cooking Days out domestic animals family fish Folk Traditions Gardening Historic Buildings holidays Insects Landscaping literature music Norwich plants Rural Diary seashore theatre trees Uncategorized walking weather wild animals wild birds wild flowers woodland

Tags

architecture autumn beach berries birds blackbird blackthorn butterfly church clouds common knapweed cow parsley crocus daffodils Diary dogwood family field maple flowers fungus garden gardening geese greylags ground-ivy Halesworth Hawthorn heather holiday Holly Holy Week horse chestnut Hoverfly insects ivy Lake District Lent lesser celandine lichen Lords and Ladies Mallard mallards Minsmere moorhen moss music Norwich Peak District pheasant plants pond ponds primrose primroses Rain rooks Rumburgh Rumburgh Church sheep Sheffield snow snowdrops spring Suffolk Suffolk Wildlife Trust sunset the Beck trees viburnum bodnantense walking weather wild cherry wild flowers winter-flowering honeysuckle witch-hazel

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Goodreads

Blog at WordPress.com.

Interesting Literature

A Library of Literary Interestingness

naturechirp

Celebrating God's creatures, birds and plants...

Sophie Neville

Writer and Producer

Going Batty in Wales

Developing a more sustainable lifestyle in SW Wales

Paol Soren

A bit of this and that

Our Lake District Escapades

Exploring the Lake District and beyond

Making Book

All sorts of stuff about books and book manufacturing

Julian Hoffman

Notes from Near and Far

Short Walks & Long Paths

Wandering tales from around the coast of Wales

Dukes and Princes

History, heritage and genealogy about Europe's highest ranking aristocrats

The Biking Gardener

An English persons experience of living and gardening in Ireland

Nan's Farm

A Journal Of Everyday Life

Walk the Old Ways

Rambling Journeys in Britain with John Bainbridge. Fighting for the Right to Roam. Campaigning to Protect Our Countryside.

Writer Side UP!

Waking the Writer Side...and keeping it "Up!"

Meggie's Adventures

Travel, thank you notes and other stories from Meg King-Sloan

amusicalifeonplanetearth

Music and the Thoughts It Can Inspire

lovefoundation.co.uk

Traveling Tortuga

Simply Living Well

Pakenham Water Mill

Historic watermill in the beautiful Suffolk countryside

Take It Easy

Retired, not expired: words from the after(work)life. And music. Lots of music!

Secret Diary Of A Church of England Vicar's Wife

Public Rights of Way Explorer

PROW Explorer

thanksfortheadventureorg.wordpress.com/

The Beat Goes On

#TBGO

PLESZAK

Frank Pleszak's Blogs

John Bainbridge Writer

Indie Writer and Publisher

roughwighting

Life in a flash - a weekly writing blog

Walking the Old Ways

Rambling in the British Countryside

A Voice from Iran

Storytelling, short stories, fable, folk tales,...

CapKane

thoughts on social realities

SkyeEnt

Jottings from Skye

jodie richelle

embracing my inner homemaker

Skizzenbuch/Blog

Just another WordPress.com weblog

Author Kevin Cooper

Life, Love, Tears & Laughter: Then, Now & Hereafter.

Have Bag, Will Travel

The Call of the Pen

Flash Fiction, Book Reviews, Devotionals and other things.

Book Jotter

Reviews, news, features and all things books for passionate readers

John's Postcards

STADTAUGE

Ailish Sinclair

Stories and photos from Scotland

Art in Nature

The ‘Beauty of the Moment’

The Strawberry Post

Here to Entertain, Educate & Inspire!

You dream, I photographe it !

Smile! You’re in Barnier World......

theinfill

the things that come to hand

Dr. Mary Ann Niemczura

Author of "A Past Worth Telling"

Provincial Woman

LIFE IN MUD SPATTERED BOOTS

A Quiet Celebration of Life on a British Farm

The Pink Wheelbarrow

The Mindful Gardener

The sensory pleasures and earthy delights of gardening.

Luanne Castle's Writer Site

Memoir, poetry, & writing theory

  • Follow Following
    • A Suffolk Lane
    • Join 687 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • A Suffolk Lane
    • Customise
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
    %d bloggers like this: