The wild garden of Wales

Subject: BS:The wild garden of Wales
From: Splott Man
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 09:32 AM

Apart from the common Michaelmas Daisies, Meadow Buttercups, White and Purple Clover, Trefoils, Vetch, Foxgloves, Campions, Herb Robert, Fireweed, Broom, Elderflower, Cow Parsley, Thistles (purple and yellow), Dandelions (and several other flowers that look very similar), Brambles and Dog Roses; there is a profusion of scarlet Poppies, another type of Poppy that lilac in colour, plus a similar looking plant, but with a red pom-pom flower like a Dahlia's (any ideas as to what that is?), and another crimson flower (probably from a domestic source originally) that can be seen in hedgerows all over the region, and huge banks of purple orchids.

Where?

Between J34 and J33 on the M4 eastwards. It makes sitting in a queue of commuter traffic worthwhile.

Splott Man

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: sian, west wales
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 10:23 AM

What? No Welsh poppies? (papaver cambrensis) Mine have come up a treat this year - finally. It's taken me years to convince them to make themselves at home here.

Let's think: Blodeuwedd was made of, "blodau'r derw, a blodau'r banadl, a blodau'r erwain", so oak, broom and meadowsweet.   

No pennywort in your hedgerow? Wild garlic, fennel, lady's smock, stinging and white nettles, bindweed (pest, but a pretty flower), chickweed, coltsfoot, tansy, sorrel, daisies (in swathes along the motorways out west here), yarrow, elderflower, speedwell, rosebay willowherb.

Can't think what your mystery flower might be. I don't think bergamot grows wild. I can't seem to grow it in the garden; the slugs are particularly fond of it. Can't grow broom either; snails colonize and destroy.

sian

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: sian, west wales
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 10:27 AM

Oh ... and seeing as this isn't, so far, in the BS section, there's a nice Welsh song ... "blodau'r flwyddyn yw fanwylyd: Ebrill, Mai, Mehefin hefyd. Llewyrch haul yn twynnu ar gysgod, a gwenithen y genethod." or something like that. Compares his love to all the flowers of the year. And then there's the thyme, roses, rosemary, etc in 'Ar Lan y Mor'...

I've been pottering with a bit of personal research: I have an theory that Welsh songs tend to go for wildflowers and landscapes (occasionally fields and crops) more than gardens and stuff. "Wild" is winning so far.

sian

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 10:35 AM

Splott, do you have a pic of the mystery flower?

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 11:28 AM

If the mystery flower is on a plant similar to a poppy, it could be a double-flowered poppy.

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jun 05 - 02:10 PM

SOunds gorgeous and delightful! Would love to see pics! Out here where we have to water to get almost anything to grow, it takes a lot of work. I have one volunteer snapdragon which comes up without fail. The sweetpeas I planted last year are struggling, gamely hanging on and trying to climb the fence. The mature rosebush, though, is beautiful...this area is really good for roses.

I see tansy used for landscaping here and we have a kind of huge lavender which grows well in hot, high-altitude sun which is also quite popular. I've given up on trying to get my poppies to flourish.:-(

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: Splott Man
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 03:47 AM

A photo would be difficult without a police escort, it's a motorway verge doncha know!

Double-flowered poppy sounds favourite.

Sorry Sian, no Welsh poppies. No wild garlic, I think that prefers more shade, there's plenty in woodland near me. Bindweed nearer Cardiff, plus another strange flower, large pale yellow trumpets growing out around the stem like loudspeakers (there's poetic).

I spotted another variety this morning but the traffic was moving too fast to get a close look.

I'll have to get a book to help identify a lot of these. I could do it when I was 10.

Splott Man

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: sian, west wales
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 04:12 AM

Ah! I know the yellow one! Evening Primrose, beloved of middle aged women.

siân

who obviously failed in her attempt to make this thread worthy of 'above the line'

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: Splott Man
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 07:25 AM

Do you mean Oenothera Biennis? I found a photo, that's the one.

I think the lilac ones are Poppy Queens.

A search hasn't yet yielded anything like the pom pom ones.

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: sian, west wales
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 12:48 PM

Well, actually ... some filmmaker guy I once knew had a swathe of mauve poppies in his garden. I admired them and he brought me a film cannister full of seeds, which I planted, and the back garden becamse a forest of the things. In doing a search in books, it would seem that these were ... ummm ... narcotic-producing vegetation. They sprang up EVERYWHERE for a few years, but now they've completely disappeared - although not due to any meddling on my part.

Funny old world.

sian

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 29 Jun 05 - 02:23 PM

opium poppies are white, as I recall.

oops - just checked - they can be white, pink, red, or purple.

that's papaver sominiferium.

the european corn poppy (papaver rhoes) does have some narcotic properties, but the oriental poppy does not.

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: Splott Man
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 03:40 AM

I spotted 2 new ones today...

On the slip from J34, 3 foot spikes of deep blue flowers, same shape as a foxglove.

And nearer Cardiff on a high bank, 3-4foot tall with pale blue flowers scattered all the way up.

Any ideas Sian?

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: sian, west wales
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 09:25 AM

MMario, the poppies I had certainly matched the illustration in Culpeppers so ...

Splotty, I can't think what the blue floxglovey things are. A wild columbine (aquilegia) is a deeeeep purple with trumpet shaped flowers but they don't grow on the stalk like foxgloves.

The others could be wild delphinium or succory, I suppose.

You're spending a whole lot of time in traffic jams these days it seems ...

siân

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: Jos
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 09:39 AM

You might be interested in the edition of 'Nature' that went out on 27 June, available on 'Listen Again'. It was about the management of the motorway and trunk road verges as a very narrow 33,000 hectare estate, with emphasis on its function as a natural habitat.

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: Jos
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 09:41 AM

Sorry, I should have added that it was on BBC Radio 4.

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 11:01 AM

Thanks Jos.

Sian, I'm a commuter, see. Some days good, straight into Cardiff with no queueing, some days differently good, with lots of sitting in queues looking at the verges. Today was good, so I whizzed past the blue ones. Pray for a queue tomorrow.

I'm going to have to invest in a spotters' guide of some kind.

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: GUEST,wildlone
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 03:58 PM

Splott Man, Where do you commute from?
I live in Machen so I quite often go down to Cardiff.
BTW is it Splott or Splow.
I was listening to local radio and a woman living in the bay area insisted on Splow.
but she did have an English accent.
dave

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 03:52 AM

Splow is an ironic joke attempt to gentrify the name. The same as Lower Roath or East Atlantic Wharf. I've got and English accent as well, very useful sometimes. Although when I visit home they say I've now got a Welsh accent.

Splott is pronounced as spelt. It's probably old Welsh. There is a pub called the Splotlands (sic) in Adamsdown. There's also a Splott between Cowbridge and Colwinston, and a Splott farm near Cheddar.

I commute from Llantrisant area.

Traffic too fast this morning for an ID check on the blue flowers. But some Evening Primrose has sprung up now. The dog daisies are on their way out now, but the Orchids are taking over the world. Rare species? Not round here mate! Nearer home I found some Celandines and White Anemones still out on a sheltered verge.

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: sian, west wales
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 10:58 AM

SPLOW????? Oh puh-leeeeeeeeeeeezzzzz. Shoot me now.

I could have bought a terrace house in Topaz St in 1980 for £8,000. Funny old world.)

I remember hearing on a wildlife programme once that some seaside plant had been endangered but has found a new home on the centre reservations of motorways ... where it gets all the run-off water and the salt from the winter gritting. Can't remember it's name but I see it down this way; little white flowers, and lots of 'em.

sian

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: Splott Man
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 03:23 AM

I know the one. Flowers a bit like white clover but smaller. All along the link road (A4232) from Cardiff Bay to the M4, and the Llantrisant link (A4119) from early spring, now gone to seed or disappeared.

Buddleia out in force now, and a blue cornflower type.

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 07:37 PM

The most fascinating bit of Welsh flora is seen by walking along the old railway from Blaenavon towards Brynmawr. A row of lime loving mulleins growing in the trackbed with acide loving moorland plants either side.




Before somebody "corrects" my spelling Blaenavon is the original spelling of the town's name. Blaenafon is modern affectation.

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 04:56 PM

Guest's spelling (and no, I don't mean of "acide") may or may not be correct. I checked on a site about the town which uses both spellings (to catch all web surfers) but claims that the spelling with an 'f' came first, but was then Anglicised to a 'v'. The spelling with an 'f' is slowly re-asserting itself.
Blaenafon FAQs

Nigel

Subject: RE: The wild garden of Wales
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 05:15 PM

I bet it was phonetic bevore it was spelled either way.