Wednesday 31 August 2011

Echinacea Purpurea opening in stages







It only ever gives a few flowers so they are waited on with baited breath each year. I was trying to photograph each stage but this one surprised me by opening suddenly yesterday. Two flowers and three more to come. Not the bulging mass I hoped for when planting them but they are in a tough spot competing with tree roots from which I can't extract it to put it in a better place. The slugs did their best to destroy it but we picked them off nightly for 2 weeks until it's leaves were big enough to manage on their own. Now that it's flowering the effort feels worth it, even for just 5 flowers, but what great flowers.

5 comments:

scottweberpdx said...

Don't you just love Echinacea! I agree...there is such a wonderful anticipation seeing them opening...I can't imagine a garden without them!

Karen said...

What a wonderful photo shoot showing the stages of the echinacea's growth. I love how they 'grow into' the flowers instead of opening from a bud. Love this post, Cally!

abigail*ryan said...

Hey cally, good to hear from you! Yes, all well here in Belfast... much better than giving all our money to Ryanair, been here for about a year and a half now, how time flies!

...just about to stop making jewellery after so long. Looking forward to focussing on the homewares and textiles - more drawing, lovely flowers and plants and such... nice and relaxing, I'm sure you'll agree.

Health woes here, too (severe IBS for me, Ryan is a mystery - he's tried to die on me a few times this [ast year!) - so taking it a little easy is muchos important! Hope things are easing a little for you - and that the cold months don't come back too soon! Really good to catch up - I'll add you to my google reader and keep up with all your happenings :))) take care for now, oxoxo

Cally said...

Blimey, you've both been through the mill a bit. Can't imagine you not doing jewellery but if the homewares are working out it totally makes sense. IBS is such a buggr, I sympathise and hope you both have a healthier ear moving forward. The Vitamix certainly has made these things easier for me. Not a cure-all, but definitely a boost in the face of too many other negative factors.

julie said...

Such pretty shots. These are so familiar to me from UK -like an old friend. Xx

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