Thursday 11th June 2026 - Rain, Flora, Fauna and Worth Waiting For

What has happened to the weather?  It’s been raining pretty well every day this month and it’s not been particularly warm either.  As a result, there were only about ten sellers for both todays and last week’s car boot sales, on the sports field.  In my move towards growing more perennials, I am always on the look-out for suitable plants at the car boot sales.  I was pleased to purchase three last week to fill in some gaps.  Today, I was tempted by the pots of alliums but with only spaces left for low growing plants, I had to pass these by.  Instead, I bought a couple of bunches of cut flowers from a village resident who has a very impressive flower garden.  Back home, these have been arranged in a vase and placed where I can see and appreciate them from my lounge chair.

I always associate June as the month for spotting wild orchids.  We are always reticent about telling anyone where we see them, in case word gets passed around and some idiot decides to dig them up.  Have I seen any this June?  Yes, but as they say ‘mums the word’. Away from the world of orchids, I was surprised to see a broad bordered bee hawk-moth, along with a painted lady butterfly, close to the gabions, the other morning.  I think it must have been the warmth, radiated from the stones and flints, which was attracting them.  Walking up to the top of the cliffs and onto the High Street, a group of around ten to twelve red legged partridge chicks were busy, under a hedge, foraging for seeds and foliage.  There was no sign of either parent, only a pigeon sat nearby – was this babysitting?  It’s not uncommon to see muntjac deer and pheasants in the village.  The deer can cause a fair bit of damage if they gain access to gardens.  Last year they grazed on two of our young shrubs. I ended up putting some chicken wire around them, as protection.  The coprosma survived but unfortunately the euonymus was unable to recover from the damage and died.

Approximately three to four years ago, I saw an unusual coloured outdoor growing amaryllis in a gardening magazine.  I searched online for a company who sold the bulbs.  There was just the one, a firm I’d had some pretty unimpressive plants from in the past.  But with no other choices, I ordered the bulbs.  Since then, each summer they’ve failed to flower.  While I was repotting them along with several other overwintering plants in the greenhouse, at the end of this winter, I decided that if they failed to bloom this year, they would either go in the brown bin, or get relegated to the back of a border.  I’m sure you can guess what I’m going to say – yes, one of the bulbs has produced a flower and with the other just starting to sprout leaves, I’m keeping my fingers crossed, this will also bloom.  Today’s photo is of the amaryllis bloom which I have to say with its green petals with red stripes, has been worth waiting for.