Category Archives: Wildflower Wednesday
Return to the Duver – November 2015
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I haven’t posted a Duver post since the end of May, but it’s still there, and as beautiful as ever.
This post is a combination of some photos I took on Saturday, and then these, more atmospheric ones taken this morning before work. There aren’t any flowers, but hopefully you’ll forgive me.
I have managed to find a (very) few flowersstill clinging on – rather tatty Chamomile,
precociously early wild garlic, or Ransoms.
and a couple of escapees.
For mellow fruitfulness I can offer the last few blackberries
some beautiful rose hips
and a bevy of tiny little mushrooms, barely bigger than my thumbnail.
As for foliage, look at this, a beautifully frost dusted thistle. And yet no frost in my garden, higher up and further from the sea. Now how does that work? 
Wildflower Wednesday – late May 2015
I’m a day late joining the Wildflower Wednesday meme, but excited to report that it’s Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima) time again on the Duver.
As last year, I’m struggling to convey the scale and beauty of these wonderful blooms.
In this photo, the thrift is joined in the foreground by Silverweed (Potentilla anserina). This has a pretty silvery leaf (clue’s in the name!) and spreads by runners. It seems to be increasing its hold on the Duver, with significant areas now covered in an argent carpet.
Also joining the Thrift are the first spires of Digitalis, projecting through the marram grass.
Further out on the sandy spit, the first of the Evening Primrose, Oenothera biennis are also blooming.
The small patch of Bladder Campion (Silene vulgaris) is just coming into bloom. As I mentioned last year, according to Sarah Raven it’s ‘edible and said to taste like peas – the young shoots are good in a spring salad or as quickly wilted greens’ but I’ll continue to leave the wild campions alone and instead pick my peas at home!
And to finish, two photos of the field opposite the house.
The first was taken a couple of weeks ago, and I don’t remember ever seeing the cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris so tall, or the Alexanders, Smyrnium olusatrum providing quite such a lime green sea.
Yesterday, the scene was rather different as the fluffy white clouds have been strimmed away. Bizarrely it reminds me of a newly shorn dog, all exposed and uncomfortable. Doubtless it will all grow back and soften up once more.
With thanks as ever to Gail at Clay and Limestone for hosting the Wildflower Wednesday meme.
Wildflower Wednesday – (very) late March
Well I might have known things would start to go awry now I’m back at work – here I am posting my Wildflower Wednesday on a Sunday.
Sadly there’s not as much progress on the Duver as I would have hoped. Some stalwarts are still in evidence, the Daucus Carota
primroses
and the gorse.
And there is a new, good sized clump of violets to admire. 
However, whilst the shrub I’ve photo’d for the last couple of months is finally putting on some proper growth, I now have to admit that I can’t think what it is! Help please!
And to finish, no flowers at all, but a jolly ‘stripe’ of geese.
With thanks as ever to Gail at Clay and Limestone for hosting the Wildflower Wednesday meme.
Hopefully by next month there’ll be some new wild blooms to admire, and I might even be on time!
Wildflower Wednesday – late February 2015
This picture sums up the look on the Duver at the moment as the season changes from winter to spring. Much of the Duver is still brown, but there are increasing flashes of green. The leaves above are of one of three yellow tree lupins which reach up to about 5 foot. The perfect new leaves look so fresh and optimistic against the surrounding drab.
Another promise of the future is this perfect rosette of Digitalis, covered with an almost Jenga like formation of dried out grasses.
There’s plenty of fresh green growth on the Butterbur, 
and more flowers than I remember seeing in the past.
There are also still a lot of Wild Garlic or Ramsons, Allium ursinum, flowering, particularly in one spot at the base of an oak,
as well as, close by, Winter Cress, Barbarea vulgaris, which I haven’t noticed before.
And, whilst I like to think that spring is on its way, there doesn’t seem to be much sign in a whole month from January’s photo, on the left, to this!
Roll on March!
With thanks as ever to Gail at Clay and Limestone for hosting the Wildflower Wednesday meme.
Wildflower Wednesday – January 2015
These photos were actually taken on Saturday because it was just such a beautiful morning. Quite a contrast from this morning’s walk, when the wind was blowing the rain horizontally!
The picture above shows the lovely tracery of branches of our old friend, the over-the-road-oak.
Googling ‘Sea Beet’ for this week’s post, I came across the following article from the Guardian from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, which highlights three plants which can be foraged in the UK. All of them are growing on the Duver and looking good right now, in the middle of winter -Alexanders, Smyrnium olusatrum
Sea beet, Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima
and Wild garlic or Ramsons, Allium ursinum.
I’ve never foraged from the Duver (other than blackberries) but I’ve definitely enjoyed wild garlic. However, that has been picked from my garden, where I’m desperately trying to eradicate it!
There really isn’t much sea beet on the Duver so I think that should be left well alone, but there must be nearly an acre of Alexanders. Perhaps I should give that a try – according to Hugh F-W “The flavour is aromatic, fragrant – a little musky, a touch juniper-ish”.
In addition to the three plants above, I saw plenty of Winter heliotrope or Butterbur, Petasites fragrans.
Gorse, Ulex europaeus
and something I’ve not seen before. These fresh, green, sword shaped leaves were obscured by scrubby growth that was removed by the National Trust earlier in the year. This has opened up the view and also cleared the area to allow these plants to thrive. I think they must be Iris foetidissima, see close up of leaves below.
Assuming that’s what they are, I look forward to seeing them all in flower.
To finish, a couple more photos – the first showing the marram grass, Ammophila, glossy in the winter sunshine,
and a final one, a little nod towards spring.
With thanks as ever to Gail at Clay and Limestone for hosting the Wildflower Wednesday meme.
Wildflower Wednesday – late December 2014
The last Wildflower Wednesday of the year features photos actually taken on a rather grey looking Monday. Despite the gloom, however, a number of white blooms were showing up well – Daucus carota,
wild garlic
Winter heliotrope, Petasites fragrans
and the odd slightly tatty looking chamomile.
More ‘sunny’ (I wish!) a good showing of broom
much rarer, a single thrift flower still showing some colour against the papery remains of many others.
But to end on a more forward looking note – amongst fierce looking thorns on the dog rose, new buds peeping. Roll on spring!
With thanks as ever to Gail at Clay and Limestone for hosting the Wildflower Wednesday meme.
Wildflower Wednesday – late November 2014
Although there’s been very little in the way of frost here, the Duver is now looking distinctly wintery.
Whilst there are odd flowers – like the cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris
wild garlic, Allium ursinum
and bedraggled chamomile,
these are the exception.
The majority of plantlife is either brown and decaying – my beautiful Sea Thrift, all over for the year – 
and likewise the wild carrot, Daucus carota,
or are resolutely fruiting in a last chance reproductive saloon – rose hips,
seed head of Iris unguicularis
and Black Bryony, (Dioscorea [or Tamus] communis)
However, one thing clearly thriving in the relatively mild damp, is the funghi.
Sorry no names, but aren’t they extraordinary? And no, I haven’t eaten any of them!
With many thanks, as ever, to Gail at Clay and Limestone for hosting Wildflower Wednesday.
Return to the Duver, Wildflower Wednesday – late October 2014
As some of you know, St Helens Duver is owned by the National Trust, and they have recently completed a brush/undergrowth clearing exercise, opening up some lovely new views from the path that descends to the Duver. Shame that at the same time they haven’t chopped down the trees threatening to obscure our view!
I took these photos during Monday’s beautiful morning as I knew today it would be grim, and sure enough, there are stair rods coming down as I type.
On the Duver there is still an occasional new thrift flower to admire, but the majority have turned to a sea of papery heads.
There are grass seed heads everywhere. These ones look like South African restio grasses and are much darker than
Marram grass (Amophila), here together with the Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaena).
There are still plenty of new chamomile flowers coming to replace the those already faded.
As well as the occasional new Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)
With many thanks to Gail, who hosts Wildflower Wednesday from Clay and Limestone in Tennessee.
Duver Diary 