Information on this page is kindly provided by Terry and Dot Underhill |
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South Devon Alpine Garden Society | |||||||||||
A number of garden lovers in Rattery are members of the South Devon Alpine Garden Society . We are a small but very friendly group but not specialists in alpine plants, instead we love a programme that covers small plants and visits to botanically rich areas of the world. We have a small sale table, another for members to display a plant or flower of interest and a raffle of plants or related items. There is a “coffee” break at the outrageous price of 50p for a mug of coffee or tea and a biscuit. We meet the 1st Wednesday in the month from September to April at the Dartmoor Lodge Hotel, Pear Tree Cross, Ashburton , starting at 7.30pm |
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Yellow-rattle | |||||||||||
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Teasel | |||||||||||
A visitor queried why I was growing a particular tall weed in my garden, not realising that it was an exceptionally good plant for wild life. It is Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum, a biennial that surprisingly is not in the thistle family but Caprifoliaceae - the Honeysuckle family. It is a stately plant reaching up to 3m and produces spiky heads of purple pink flowers. The flowers are rich in honey and are loved by the bees, butterflies and numerous other insects. The seed heads are loved by such birds as Bullfinches. After flowering and seeding the heads are very attractive whether left standing in the garden or used in interior decoration naturally or coloured. I use some as Christmas tree decorations. |
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Wood-sorrel - Oxalis acetosella | |||||||||||
On the shady semi-wooded banks along Cumming’s Pond Road are patches of shamrock-like leaves with delicate, veined, white bell-like flowers nodding in a gentle breeze standing just a few centimetres above the foliage. These are Wood-sorrel, with other colloquial names such as’ Granny’s Sour Grass’, due to the delicate sharp taste when the leaves are eaten, making them ideal as an addition to salads, ‘Cuckoo flower’ and ‘Alleluia’ because of their flowering time especially between Easter and Whitsun. The way the leaves fold back are responsible for other names such as ‘Sleeping Clover’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Many years ago I visited a north-facing garden above Porlock where beds of low growing dwarf Rhododendrons flourished above a solid carpet of Wood-sorrel producing a magical gardener’s delight. That garden scene and floriferous carpets growing naturally surrounded by moss, and nearby Moschatel and Primroses take some beating . |
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Spring | |||||||||||
A walk down Cumming’s Pond Road from Crabber’s Cross on April 1st revealed that Spring has arrived. There are patches of Dog’s Mercury, a highly poisonous plant of ancient woods and hedgerows, producing spikes of small green flowers. The male flowers display yellow anthers, whereas the female flowers, borne on separate plants are all green. Just opening are the small green flowers of the Town Hall Clock, Moschatel, and the small white, bell-like blooms of Wood sorrel, its clover-like leaves being edible but sharply acid. A few leaves added to a salad are nice. Bright golden Lesser celandine open fully in the warmth; its nodule roots resembled a very bad attack of piles and therefore the plant, under The Doctrine of Signatures, was believed to provide a medical cure for problem. In extra damp spots patches of the Golden Saxifrage is flowering. Masses of lemon yellow Primroses flourish, although plants seem to drift towards the bottom of hedge banks where they succumb to damage by close cutting passing traffic. Perhaps a workshop is required to save some of these to divide and replant higher up the banks. In the garden, signs of spring having arrived are the number of weeds such as Bittercress, Veronicas and Dandelions showing flower colour, while birds, previously happy to be together are now competing for territories. See also Wild Flowers
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Dormice | |||||||||||
If you see a sandy brown mouse about 8cm long with a fur covered tail about 6 cm long, and prominent black eyes without a dark rim you are very fortunate because it is a dormouse. They are very illusive tending to be nocturnal, and dormant usually from October to April, hibernating in tennis ball like nests made of fine bark strips of honeysuckle, bramble and hazel, in leaf litter, usually at the base of hazel bushes or in hollow tree trunks, with their tails wrapped over their rotund bodies. Nests may be higher in the summer, when they will use tubes placed under branches or even nest boxes.
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Ivy - Friend or Foe | |||||||||||
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Snowdrops | |||||||||||
New Year’s Day, and the first flowers of snowdrops are opening in the churchyard by the war memorial, the first of many thousands planted in memory of our son, Duncan. In the language of flowers snowdrops mean, hope, and consolation, and growing outside will bring happiness, but ill luck if grown indoors. A few blooms in an envelope were once sent as a message to warn off over ardent wooers. Dot and I have been enjoying snowdrops since early October when the Greek species commenced flowering. We can expect to have other species and cultivars providing us displays until April. . Snowdrop Valley, Timberscombe, near Dunkery Beacon Planting snowdrops in Rattery Churchyard March 2010 and some of the planting team. |
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