Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Alpin Plants

As I mentioned in the previous post, during the cold months I like to read and review my photos and videos, remembering interesting places, sun and warmth. Today I will share photos from my archive of the wonderful Botanical Garden. 
I have always been interested in how plants survive high in the mountains, how they can grow on rocks and stones. So a few years ago I was happy to visit the alpine plants section of the Botanical Garden.

There is flora from mountainous regions of the world, such as the European Alps and Pyrenees, Himalayan mountain meadows, North American highland meadows, Mediterranean shrub lands and the southern Alps of Victoria, Australia and New Zealand.

 

The photograph shows that the dwarf cedar shrub forms low, dense stands about a meter high on ridges. Other alpine plants occupy damp places, meadows or swamps, and have an abundance of primroses such as Primula nipponica and Rhodiola rosea.



Small plants are found where snow accumulates in deep drifts. Saxifraga asiatica and Сinerariа maritima are typical of these harsh habitats and survives in places such as alpine deserts.


 

As the winter snowpack melts  in the Alpine zone, plants experience a burst of growth and flowering. The entire growing season is completed in about three months.
Since almost all alpine flora blooms during the same period, a spectacular flower show is often seen.

Have a nice day!


source: 

source: 

 

My video: RHS Garden Wisley

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Wednesday, November 27, 2024

'November' by Thomas Hood

November in northern latitudes, especially at the end of the month, is often a damp, cold month, with frequent fogs, gray skies overhead and black trees with bare branches. 

Sometimes the low sun illuminates the snow-covered trees and they look mysterious, the sky turns blue. During the day, the weather can change dramatically.

In the city, where there is a lot of traffic and warmth, the snow melts quickly, the lawns with drooping dry grass. On the coast, the gray sky hangs low over the banks, the forest is in fog. At the end of November, there is snow and the water partially freezes.

In the cold months, I always want to read more books, your posts, search the Internet for poems by poets I have not read before. 

I found this poem written by Thomas Hood (1799-1845) for my November post and decided to illustrate it. It seems that the weather in November is always the same: there was fog, snow was flying with the wind, sometimes it rained and sometimes sun shines.

 



No sun – no moon!

No morn – no noon –

No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day. 

No sky – no earthly view – 

No distance looking blue – 

No road – no street – no “t'other side this way” – 

 


No end to any Row – 

No indications where the Crescents go – 

No top to any steeple – 

No recognitions of familiar people – 

No courtesies for showing ‘em – 

No knowing ‘em! 

 


No traveling at all – no locomotion – 

No inkling of the way – no notion – 

“No go” by land or ocean – 

No mail – no post – 

No news from any foreign coast – 

 


 

No park, no ring – no afternoon gentility – 

No company – no nobility – 

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, 

 

 


No comfortable feel in any member – 

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, 

 


 

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, 

November! 

 

 

Thomas Hood was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt". He later published a magazine largely consisting of his own works.
Born: May 23, 1799, London
Died: May 3, 1845 London


All the best to you! 

 

My video:


 


Sunday, November 10, 2024

Autumn In Botanical Gardens


 

I think you will agree with me that the Botanical Garden is beautiful in autumn, despite the gloomy sky and light rain. On such a day I visited the Gardener's plot in the Botanical Garden. The figure of the gardener immediately caught my eye, he was standing with a shovel, like many of us in our gardens. It’s as if a gardener was wondering: what should he transplant this fall?

 

 

 

 

What is interesting about this plot? It contains perennial plants and herbs that do not require constant care.

I guess I won't be wrong if I say that having beautiful plants that don't require constant care is a dream of many gardeners. In this garden I saw perennial flowers, long-blooming shrubs, tall grasses swaying in the wind.





I also liked the color combinations of the plants - with dark red foliage, ash-colored low shrubs, purple and bright yellow unpretentious flowers. 

When I left this garden plot, I saw that the Gardener was back at work, sowing his garden.

A large sheaf of tall Cortaderia selloana grass greeted me goodbye.

 

 
 Have a nice day!

P.S. photos from my archive.
 
Here is my video 'Villa d'Este'