Interlopers

The end of May already!  Where does the time go?  Well, some of it, but not all, goes on working in the garden, which right now is needing a lot of time spent in it.  It’s that time of year when the garden suddenly bursts into life.  A couple of days away, and we came back to noticeable prolific growth, fuelled by the rain in the early part of the month followed by sunny, warmer weather (although lately there has been a stiff wind from the north-east which is showing no signs of going away, and which is making it feel really chilly). 

Much of the growth is predictable at this time of year, with the usual plants flowering: the wisteria, species roses, aquilegia in various colours, apple trees.  But some are interlopers.  Take tulips, for example.  The huge red tulips – I don’t know the variety, they’ve been in the garden longer than I have – formed the basis of a ‘red, white and blue’ vase for the Coronation Street Party, although they had been knocked about by the rain and wind; the little pale orange species tulips came up, very pretty as usual; and ‘World Friendship’ and ‘Angelique’ made a good show in the pots where I had planted them.  But, just as my favourite early white ‘Exotic Emperor’ tulips died back, up popped an interloper tulip in the same pot – bright yellow and very striking.  This year’s misnamed tulip (there’s usually one).  

Big red tulips - with white and blue companions

Orange species tulip (T. urumiensis?)

Unknown yellow interloper -

- with rather lovely internal markings

I have quite a good display of alliums, the big purple ones, in the bottom border this year; but in the little pot on the patio where the Allium karataviense live, an unknown pretty white-flowered plant has appeared; what is it?

Flowers in the allium pot

Another interloper, about which I have mixed feelings, is alkanet.  There’s been quite a lot of it on the fringes of the veg plot this year.  It’s a big plant, with lovely true-blue flowers and large hairy leaves, and it seeds itself undesirably about the place; and since it has a huge, deep tap-root, it’s not easy to get out.  But the bees love it, and I tolerate it (up to a point) for that, and also because I like the colour of the flowers.  I’ve now pulled up nearly all of the flowering stems, in the hope that I’ve caught it before it sets seed.  There is another, more welcome, interloper among the veggies; last year’s leaf beet plants set seed, and several seedlings are coming up all around.  I’ve moved some of the biggest ones to better spots.

Alkanet

One of the best interlopers is a single snapdragon (antirrhinum) plant that appeared in the gravel border in the greenhouse.  I let it grow, and in its nice sheltered spot it has produced a large number of lemon-yellow flower spikes, of florist-shop quality, that are providing vases for the house right now.  Sadly, it's growing where the tomato plants will shortly have to go!

Yellow snapdragons

Not quite an interloper, but a blue tit surprised us the other day by flying into the nestbox with food for its brood.  We hadn’t seen it taking nest material in, and had assumed that the box was unused this year.  A very stealthy little bird!