Awful weather - typical Brits talk

goldfinches

Loving all the photos from everyone on here and have a couple I snapped this afternoon while walking along a side street.


I'd never seen bindweed with this colour and size of flowers before so when I spotted it over a low front garden wall I whipped out my phone to take a photo and then I looked up and saw this.



I hope I haven't made you all shudder too much.

wort

I love my black elder Farway,  does anyone know what the purple plant is , I was thinking it was a tall version of a campanula ?

Farway

Loads of rain all day today, I can hear the snails slithering already, spotted on halfway up my front door, presumably wanting to come in to meet his mate who is outside on the bathroom window

Wort, the black lace elder, I'm hoping my one gets like yours in time, high impact plant I've always thought

The purple flower I'd agree, some sort of campanula, I wonder if they they hybridise like Aquilega?

GF, is that bindweed some sort of Morning Glory? Nice looking plant whatever it's name

Sorting the colouring of foxgloves with leaf inspection, reminded me of an April fool joke one year when a garden mag reported a breakthrough in plant breeding enabling you to sort the eventual flower colours by the seed colours, red seed = red flowers, white seeds = white flowers etc

Today I have two tomato flowers open, Shirley & Tumbling, I've attempted the bee bit with a paint brush as they are very far apart & tapping them just won't do it for now

From despair a month back to flowers now, kind of sums up gardening doesn't it?

Here's the Tumbling flower

-taff

Um...tomatoes are self pollinating, they don't need bees...Just shaking them is enough to distribute the pollen where it needs to go. Chillies and peppers too...

Farway

-taff said:

Um...tomatoes are self pollinating, they don't need bees...Just shaking them is enough to distribute the pollen where it needs to go. Chillies and peppers too...

taff, ,I know that, had you registered my post in full you would have seen

" I've attempted the bee bit with a paint brush as they are very far apart & tapping them just won't do it for now"

I only have two flowers, one each on separate plants at least six feet apart, I think that distance would require on hell of a shake don't you?

-taff

I don't understand. The flowers on each plant will pollinate themselves by themselves unless you're looking to create a hybrid for seeds next year. Tapping each one is fine. They don't need to swap pollen.

Ganga

Here is my black elder ,2 years old ,do you prune /cut them back at the end of the season or just let them grow year on yearear ,

goldfinches

@Farway - as far as I know Morning Glory and bindweed are the same plant IYSWIM and I've always used the two names interchangeably. I agree that it is a handsome plant and the one I snapped especially so. Lovely photo of your tomato flower.

@wort - definitely a campanula (aka Canterbury Bells), look out for visiting bumbles, all the campanulas around here attract them in droves.

RAS

-taff said:

I don't understand. The flowers on each plant will pollinate themselves by themselves unless you're looking to create a hybrid for seeds next year. Tapping each one is fine. They don't need to swap pollen.

That's generally true. GO have some useful free seed-saving guides

No12 tomatoes (gardenorganic.org.uk)

-taff

I don't suppose anyone here has successfully hybridised a couple of heritage tomatoes have they? If they have...any tips?I usually grow a medium size round black, I want to try mixing it with a beefsteak green just to see what will happen really....