Some years ago I planted Allium cernuum bulbs and loved the flowers but larger plants grew over them and they perished.
A year ago I decided to plant seed and keep them in a pot. This is the result of the second year of my half packet of seeds. They came up so well that I decided to plant the other half of the seeds this spring – but I forgot to stratify them with a cold period. The second sowing has not germinated so I better look after these bulbs!
They are also called Nodding Onion and you can see the family resemblance in the papery covering of the flower bud.
Of course I grow them to watch the bumblebees that love them.
I love her heart-shaped pollen load!
The pot stays on the steps so that we can watch the bees from the living room.
I noticed that my blue geranium was not looking too happy and I decided to release her from the pot. The temperatures are shooting up this week to 35 degrees Centigrade (95 F) so I am starting to reduce my pots if possible.
It was a bit of a struggle to get the pot bound plant out of the small top of the pot (bad design!) but as I struggled I noticed things falling on the earth!
I think these are lizard eggs. A number of years ago I found similar eggs and kept them inside in moistened vermiculite until they hatched – and they were lizards. This time I have just covered them with soil and hoped for the best.
At the moment the Philadelphus and the Linden tree are competing for most perfumed plant in the garden.
We have several Philadelphus in the garden, all very beautiful and all very perfumed but none of them attract the bees; strange.
The fledged Redstarts have flown the nest and we see them in the back garden but Kourosh noticed that a redstart was visiting the nest box again. On the first of June he tried for a photograph and found one newly laid egg!
On the fifth of June he tried to see if she had more eggs but – oops, she was in residence. On the eight June she has a clutch five eggs. They are a prolific pair as the last chicks had only left the nest a few days before she started laying again.
Our excitement this week was that our Melia azedarach tree has flowered for the first time. Kourosh planted seeds he had collected from beautiful trees we had seen flowering in Girona in Spain. We did not know what they were and it was only through help on this blog we found out what the tree was called.
There are not many flowers on the tree yet but it is a start.
a french garden 