Flower Power

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There were at least 20 Monarchs, Queens, Viceroys, Frittelaries and a few bees trying to yank the neighbor’s flowers out of the ground. And ignoring four butterfly bushes. *SIGH*

Sterling Castle, Queen’s Garden. June 2022. SIGH.
It was still too cool for the bees to attack, but they started appearing as we left. Queen’s Garden, Sterling Castle. This is up on a terrace.

Scotland has beautiful roses. They also have mildew, black spot, and slugs. Amarillo has powdery mildew, black spot only if you work at it, and no slugs. And Scotland gets far more rain than does Amarillo, with more overcast days, so roses don’t fade. Oh, and in most of Scotland, their winters are milder in terms of “cold but consistent” instead of our huge swings. They grow huge roses. I just hope to have surviving roses.

Sterling, still. That unicorn could be scary to meet in person.

Summer is also when private gardens open on rotation. The general public can visit them in exchange for a donation to that year’s charity. We went to two of those, one of them way, way out in the back of beyond, in a walled enclosure that had been rescued from turning feral from neglect. The current Lady of the manor was weeding and trimming, escorted by a much petted and photographed Black Lab.

Water, mild climate, sun, space without wind to break the stems . . .

And then there were a few places that never had flowers (and in this case was being mowed, so I tromped around the giant and less-than-giant mowers.)

The Antonine Wall, also known as “mot the end of the world but the end of civilization” as far as the Romans were concerned. Roman Britain is on the right, barbarians to the left. You can just see the edge of the mountains in the far background, past the high-tension line. Sterling/Falkirk, June, 2022.
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7 thoughts on “Flower Power”

  1. Familiar looking spot on the wall, and amazing that after about a couple millenia, there’s still usable ditch and wall. Tribune’s order to the garrisons was probably: ” Collect the tolls, and at least, slow them down.”

  3. Texas is a rough area for roses. Have you tried some of the Griffith Buck roses? Buck’s breeding program was brutally simple. He would plant the seedlings in a field and walk away. No spraying, no winter protection…just check on them two or three times a year. My favorite is Hawkeye Belle. The flowers smell like honey.

    • I have not seen them available up here. There are some roses that are great down-state, but our winters are too cold and dry for them.

      • Usually the only way to obtain Buck roses is by mail-order.
        Griffith Buck was a professor at Iowa State University. His roses were bred for disease resistance ad winter hardiness. They might be worth a try.

  5. ‘Waving’, black thumb over here too… sigh Love the pics and the smells, but I kill cacti… sigh

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