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When we moved into this house we had a sort of little shoot with very long thorns on it. Nobody knew what it was so I kept cutting it back. After many years I noticed my neighbour had a tree with exactly the same charactistics with.....wait for it , pomegranites. We eventually let it flourish and every year we had huge pomegranites, a bit too sour to eat but great for my daughters restaurant for decoration. But then if they weren't picked they would split and the birds would eat them. It had beautiful orange flowers. Eventually we cut it down or rather kept it small to make way for a pool.  Think its still there , havent looked lately with all the snow and rain.

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This is the first posting of the cards in the pre-war Players set of motor cars. Not every member is a car buff, so I will be interspersing cards of different subjects to try and please others. The in

I love those thrift flowers - they seem to thrive on very little..... I suppose that's how they got the name.  I have some red valerian (aunt Betsy, I call it) but they seem to be crowded out by the pink ones 

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If I have the correct information it appears there are more than 25000 types of known Orchids in the world, and more discovered each year.

 

I know they are fascinating flowers and I once did a course on Sugar Craft choosing the Orchid as the flower I would model my creations on.  I have to say I was very proud of my efforts as they turned out to be very realistic. Good enough to eat, Truly, as I would secretly eat the bits that dropped off, whilst modelling. :biggrin:

 

That said. Though the  Orchids are quite exotic to look at, the periwinkle  is the flower that  appeals to me the most. Common or Garden variety, I just love any naturally blue flowers, though you can get different colours for the garden, we have never grown any. Not quite a bright a blue as the cornflower but still as thrilling to spot them whilst out walking. Great cards again Chulla. 

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We grew periwinkle at our last house under a yew tree in the garden.  It looked lovely when in flower but it spread very quickly and when the leaves turned brown in the autumn it looked very messy.  The flowers were beautiful, though....  

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I made a drastic mistake at my last house by planting small ones in my rockery. Horrendous. Within a couple of years it had taken over the whole area, and no stones could be seen. It took me ages to dig out all the roots. Never again !

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Spotted Orchid in the wild, I took this pic in Woodhall Spa,next to this plant you can just see a Bee Orchid

 

Woodhall_wildlife_(2).jpg

 

Rog

I know it's not cigarette cards but it gives a good comparison

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We get a crop of those orchids in our hayfield (Mayfield’s hayfield!) in June and July. I don’t know where they came from as it was sown with a grass and clover mixture some 40 years ago and was grazed by ponies for some 25 years. We just left it to revert to a natural meadow and it’s truly amazing what a variety of wildflowers grow there now. We have deliberately avoided seeding it with any wildflower mixtures. The only human intervention is the haymaking in the summer. We open it up during the village “open gardens” every two years and we get some seriously interested wildflower people looking at it and we learn a lot from them. Natural meadows are a bit of a rarity as most fields round here similar to ours are grazed by horses. We do have a long waiting list of hopefuls! I think a few months grazing by sheep would now do it some good. 

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Phil,  let us know when the 'open gardens' day is and we can all come over for a meet up and look round your meadow!   You could, of course, always provide us with a cream tea!

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You’ve just missed the last one in June 2017. Next one is 2019 but the committee are debating whether to make it slightly earlier. If it is earlier we’ll opt out because there’s nothing to see until mid June other than grass. Cream teas are served in the village hall by the ladies of the W.I.

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Good pictures Chulla thanks for posting, There is plenty of Ragwort out here and it's a "reportable weed" supposed to send horses crazy if they eat it during certain stages of it's growth (the ragwort not the horse) and as such it is encouraged to pull up the weed and do away with it,on the other end of the scale however there are about 50 species of insect that rely on the weed for their existance,why do humans have to interfere with nature?

anyway Chulla keep posting the pictures I enjoy looking at them

 

Rog

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Slightly of topic and apologies to Chulla, this is the wildflower identification book I use,it's 8 inches by 3 /34 inches

P1060467.jpg

P1060468.jpg

The illustrations are very similar to the ones on Chulla's cards,if you are interested in wildflowers this is a very good book

 

Rog

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Just found your cards Chulla. Another of my favourites amongst them. Primroses. You have to be alert to spot them sometimes, as they grow so low to the ground. I recognise the colour of them now from quite a distance away, as I scour the hedges on our almost daily drives in the remote lanes around West Mids. The wild ones have a distinct creamy lemon colour as do the Cowslips. We some times only see odd ones and then in just a short distance down the lane there can be banks laden with them. They are all just beginning to show themselves around here. Thank you  for the pics miduck.

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When I was little, before we were told not to pick wild flowers, I used to pick primroses with my cousin who lived on a farm in Wiseton (in north notts).  Unfortunately as soon as they were picked they drooped and lost their freshness.... I also remember walking round the paddock at another cousin's, pulling up ragwort because I was told it was poisonous for horses

i have never seen the flower on the last picture... 

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We have pulled the ragwort out of our field for many years. We even have special ragwort fork. We have now virtually eliminated it although we always walk up and down the rows when the cut hay has been winnowed just to check for the odd stalk. It’s the Cinnabar moth that’s attracted to lay it’s eggs on the ragwort.

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