Wednesday 23 June 2010

The Right Place.







Vita Sackville-West in her Garden Book talks of how and where to place individual plants in the garden. She tells how she spent hours holding up various coloured flowers in various places to see if they fitted into the herbaceous plan, put them there and then, next year, found that they had seeded into different places and looked much better. A violet had seeded into a flight of steps and had flowered elegantly -purple against the grey stonework. I can see what she means - often where flowers choose their own spot they do it with the utmost elegance.
Today Tess and I went over to The Lakes to meet a friend for lunch. We packed a picnic and left home early on a bright, sunny morning so that we could stop and walk up to have a look at Cotter Force (Force being the Yorkshire word for a waterfall). I knew that the wild flowers would all be out on the sides of the path - and there is such a variety. We were not disappointed. The sun was shining and there was not a soul about. A pair of wagtails flitted about in the water, a few rabbits hopped about in the field, and the wild flowers were splendid.
But what struck me most is where the wild flowers had chosen to grow. I have chosen three of them to show you and I think you will agree that each has grown in such a suitable place for my photographs! So thank you campion and foxgloves - taking your photographs meant absolutely no time at all in thinking about the composition.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stunning photos - and thanks for your advice emailed me recently re the printer. I'm going to look it up NOW. Good luck with your journal; they are such fun to do and seem to help one vividly remember what one has done and where one has been. A.

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

They did choose perfect settings for themselves. Never new of the word 'force' for waterfall - makes sense, however, as waterfalls are such a force of nature.

mrsnesbitt said...

I have a tray of plants ready to plant into the dry stone wall which runs alongside our drive - I keep thinking about where exactly to plant them - will be an afternoon project - another one!

Oh by the way my printer is on its way! Should be here tomorrow or Friday! Oooooooooooooh!

angryparsnip said...

Wonderful pictures, what a fabulous place for a walk.
Plants know where they are suppose to be no matter where we want to plant them ....

cheers, parsnip

Titus said...

Beautiful Weaver. Local bracken and ferns round here seed themselves into walls, and as a result grow absolutely stunted - I thought they were a brand new species until I realised what was going on. Must get a photograph, they are incredible.
I love the word "Force" - thanks.

Elizabeth said...

Ah yes 'the volunteer'.
Always the happiest plant.....
I loved the idea that when planting daffodil bulbs you should just roll them out of the paper bag and plant where they land.

Remember corporation car parks in the 1950's
serried ranks of red and blue and white...?

Michala Gyetvai (Kayla coo) said...

The fields are full of wild flowers and we have many dog roses this year.
I spent time sketching in a meadow on Sunday.
June is such beautiful month and you have captured it with your pictures.x

Heather said...

Beautiful photos Pat - wonderful combinations of water, rocks and plantlife. I could do with Vita Sackville West when I come to find homes for my plants next week. I often find I've put half of them in then wish I'd done things differently. It's very hard to emulate Nature - she does it all so well.

Tess Kincaid said...

Your pictures are so idyllic, as I can imagine was your walk!

Mistlethrush said...

What lovely examples of colours and textures.
I have a couple of very pretty weeds growing on my front doorstep. So far I've resisted the urge to be tidy - because they are so pretty.

ChrisJ said...

Great photos and the flowers are exactly where they should be, but it took your good artistic eye to recognize that. I'm from Yorkshire long ago and I miss Yorkshire in June!

Rosaria Williams said...

Beautiful! Yes, mother nature knows best.

Lori at Jarvis House said...

I totally agree. Wildflowers are just that "wild." They do what they please, and probably better than we can arrange.

Golden West said...

I love that you have wild foxgloves! I have many that come up from seed from earlier plants, bu tit must be delightful to happen up[on them in the wild!

Pondside said...

The wild foxgloves here are stunning this year - something about the warm winter and cool spring, I think.
Every year I try to get the wild poppies to grow where I'd like them to grow and every year they insist on growing out of the gravel on the drive, and out of cracks in the wall.

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Bovey Belle said...

What lovely photos. You can't beat nature for putting on the best show. I have Aquilegias and Foxgloves which have self-seeded prolifically all over what is meant to be the gravel-with-small-clumps-of-alpines area. I must admit, they have made it look STUNNING and they got it right - best place to grow!

Jeannette StG said...

Nature knows best, doesn't it?:)

Unknown said...

Hello Weaver,

Lovely pics and I hope you all had a lovely day to match. On the subject of your new printer, I had to laugh after making my previous comment about Polaroid shares going up, when I heard that they are undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. Not that that's funny, just ironic when so many of your friends are interested in their product!

CHummelKornell said...

Wonderful photos! Such beauty. I agree that Mother Nature is the best gardener and I love how she randomly mixes things together. I grew up in a farming community where growing different crops each year in the same plot of ground provided sufficient nutrients to support the next years crop. Farmers got away from this sensible way to farm when all the chemicals were introduced. I now hear organic farmers talk about how they successfully rotate their crops. Perhaps we are coming full circle. Let Nature do what Nature does best and stay out of it. Simply do what you have done--take a photo and share the beauty!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks for the comments - I obviously hit a spot in all you gardeners out there - yes nature is indeed very clever at placing her plants in the right place. Maybe we should leave more to chance.

BT said...

You are so right Weaver and your photos just go to prove the point. They are lovely too. One of my favourite parts of gardening is letting things grow where they want to. I love it when alchemilla mollis pops up in the cracks in cement - how on earth does it seed there? And viola too, we have had loads appear from nowhere this year. I just love them.