October colour
Pyracantha
Japanese quince
Michaelmas Daisy
Virginia creeper
Evening Primrose
Fuschis
Camelia japonica
Pyracantha
Japanese quince
Michaelmas Daisy
Virginia creeper
Evening Primrose
Fuschis
Camelia japonica
Simplyme33 · 31-35, F
ArishMell · 70-79, M
My tiny front garden is dominated by a Pyracantha and a Buddleia.
The buddleia straggles up to somewhere near like ten feet high, and still has some blossoms on it. I saw a Humming-bird Hawk Moth feeding from them the other evening.
I don't prune the branches with flowers unless they overhang the pavement, but wait until they've died back.
Both bushes grow out over the pavement and I keep them cut back. The fire-thorn's nasty stuff though, and I'm careful to sweep the pavement afterwards to make sure I've not left thorny fragments that might become stuck in a dog's paw.
The small back garden has a clump of dog-rose, pyracantha and ornamental ivy all entwined, against the prevailing lee side of a wall about six feet high. This had a pair of blackbirds nesting inside it this year. I've noticed too that blackbirds are partial to the firethorn berries.
The buddleia straggles up to somewhere near like ten feet high, and still has some blossoms on it. I saw a Humming-bird Hawk Moth feeding from them the other evening.
I don't prune the branches with flowers unless they overhang the pavement, but wait until they've died back.
Both bushes grow out over the pavement and I keep them cut back. The fire-thorn's nasty stuff though, and I'm careful to sweep the pavement afterwards to make sure I've not left thorny fragments that might become stuck in a dog's paw.
The small back garden has a clump of dog-rose, pyracantha and ornamental ivy all entwined, against the prevailing lee side of a wall about six feet high. This had a pair of blackbirds nesting inside it this year. I've noticed too that blackbirds are partial to the firethorn berries.
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ArishMell · 70-79, M
@peterlee They really are capable of setting up home anywhere!
I remember seeing one growing wild, on top of a disused gas-holder. Using the adjacent hand-rails as scale, it was quite a sizeable bush so how it found enough soil and nutrients on top of a huge steel tank exposed to all weathers, I cannot imagine.
I remember seeing one growing wild, on top of a disused gas-holder. Using the adjacent hand-rails as scale, it was quite a sizeable bush so how it found enough soil and nutrients on top of a huge steel tank exposed to all weathers, I cannot imagine.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@peterlee That would not surprise me. It loves broken, poor and stony ground.
It was among the first wild or feral plants to find homes in a new road cutting not far from my area, though it seems to have preferred one side more than the other, perhaps due to sun and shade variations.
The Buddleia is an opportunist par excellence!
It's also a great plant for bees, butterflies, flies and other pollinating insects.
It was among the first wild or feral plants to find homes in a new road cutting not far from my area, though it seems to have preferred one side more than the other, perhaps due to sun and shade variations.
The Buddleia is an opportunist par excellence!
It's also a great plant for bees, butterflies, flies and other pollinating insects.
