Tag: plants
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Atropa belladonna (Week 15, Wedesday)
Weeding around an overgrown Oemleria (and you know that an overgrown Oemleria is a swallower, don’t you?) I found inside it a large herbaceous plant with beautiful purple, bell-shaped flowers and entire, ovate leaves. A little bit of research online did not provide a match, and my colleague also had no idea what it might…
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Holly Walk (Week 15, Tuesday)
The Ilex collection at Kew is the largest of mature cultivars in the world but I must admit my prejudice: I find Holly Walk rather depressing, it’s my least favourite place in Kew and not only because it is an area under renovation. I’m not a fan of evergreens, or hollies, and this is 1…
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Euonymus: a plant I'll never forget (Week 14, Friday)
Euonymus europeus, the spindle tree, with its characteristic bright pink seedpods with orange seeds sticking out, is a plant I have known for a while. I had it in my garden, I picked seeds from one last winter which I am trying to germinate, and it’s in my next plant ID test. But I had…
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Hygiene (Week 14, Wednesday)
Quite a few plants grow in a restricted space in greenhouses, so hygiene is particularly important to prevent and control the spread of pests and diseases. In terms of prevention, clean tools and surfaces are very important. So pots are dipped into a sterilising solution and tools are cleaned with Hortisept, a persistent germicide active…
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Gallium aparine (Week 11, Thursday)
While pulling the Alliara, I found myself covered in cleavers (Galium aparine), another weed whose name I have just learnt, despite being familiar with the plant from the plot at home. Amazingly effective, cleavers, in, well… cleaving to whatever is at hand. Seed are not the only part of this plant of the Rubiaceae family endowed…
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Garlic mustard (Week 11, Wednesday)
The front of the bed Weeding week this week, and having done with the front of a bed, I decided to step inside, behind a wall of Spiraea… where I found what I can only define as a plantation of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) aka Jack-by-the-hedge! Just behind It was actually quite something: I had never…
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Neillia (Week 10, Thursday)
I was not familiar with the genus Neillia before I spent a whole afternoon digging ground elder from under one. That was an opportunity to become closely acquainted; I took the pictures below. There is probably a reason why I did not know Neillia, and it’s because there doesn’t seem to be much information around…
About Me
M.Paola Andreoni
I got the first allotment in 2007 (in the UK) and started growing my own food for the first time. Learning as I went along was not enough, so I studied some horticulture. I am striving to abide by organic principles. Brexit gave me a new life in the Netherlands, and two new plots by a nature reserve.
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