Sunday 2 September 2018

A Frog and a Froghopper

The Summer display in my hanging baskets was well and truly over. The Fuchsias came to nothing. They stayed still at about 3 inches high. Fortunately the trailing Lobelia put on a really nice display. Though watered every dry day even they eventually gave up the ghost.

I emptied and relined the baskets then filled them with new compost ready, I hope, for a Winter and Spring display. Round the perimeter are trailing Winter flowering Pansies. Taking up the centre portion are bulbs; Hyacinth, Dwarf Iris (all those are blue) and Puschkinia libanotica (Russian Snowdrops) which have white petals with a blue stripe. I've not grown those before so we will see how they get on.

As for the garden wildlife. A couple of days ago I spotted a young frog on the path

Common Frog DSCN8846

This one was a bit larger than others seen recently so may be a two year old.

While I was troweling compost from the bag to a hanging basket what should decide to leap in to have a close look at what was going on? A common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius)


 Frog Hopper DSCN8850

Weird looking creatures.

Finally a butterfly landed in the garden.
A Small Tortoiseshell

 Small tortoiseshell DSCN8835

A bit of a rare event here this Summer.

4 comments:

  1. These brightened up your labours.

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    Replies
    1. Adrian: Insect life is gradually becoming more visible. It had been a poor year for many round here.

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  2. Your prospective winter/spring display sounds wonderful - especially the bulbs which cannot be grown in a hot climate like mine. I do miss them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mick: Ah. I think many Spring bulbs need a spell of Winter cold followed by Spring warmth to get the active. I bet you have lots of lovely Spring flowers there which we would find difficult to grow here.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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