After a successful thread started back in March 2020 at the start of the first lockdown, its probably about time to start a new one for 2022. Thank you to all for your contributions, no matter how small or big, each has been valuable and interesting, and hopefully you will continue to contribute to the 2022 thread.
The old thread: Plants, flowers and shrubs; Share your photos here can be viewed on the link below
https://community.rspb.org.uk/chat/f/the-tea-rooms/206836/plants-flowers-and-shrubs-share-your-photos-here#pifragment-4313=1
I'll kickstart this thread with some snowdrops that have come out in flower, crocuses will be out in many places soon, and then daffodils, and many more to follow throughout the year, and it will be nice to see what wild or garden plants, flowers or shrubs you come across on your wanders or around your garden. Without these plants, flowers and shrubs, nature would struggle to survive, they all a part of the valuable cycle of life, insects need them, birds need the insects, and so on through to the mammals,
I mentioned daffodils, these shoots are growing very well among the snowdrops, and it won't be long before the bluebells start showing shoots...
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Zo Clark said:
I was going to send a Crocus but it sadly died cause of the sudden change in weather it got battered over night so it died before the Bumblebees could even arrive and pollinate them cause I’m sad and disappointed about it at the moment I’m not going to send the Crocus itself but that’s just nature for you the weeker tend not to survive aswell as the stronger so it sorts them out by getting rid of the week and keeping the stronger ones.
The crocus bloom period for 2022 should be over for most areas now, they've all gone around here.
So a guess would suggest it was a natural dying off time related rather than weather orientated. But I've no doubt the weather will have helped the process, if that makes sense.
By the way the flower you saw out and about was a Hybrid. There isn’t much infomation about the flower you saw and there isn’t much infomation about it. and it’s defanatly not on Wikipedia cause I looked. Only the genus and other species in the genus is on wiki. but I found what type out flower it is. Genus Polyanthus Species: Primula Polyantha. It can be found in the uk.
Zo Clark said:Ok. I could of sworn that they were still flowering in April last year Iv seen other Crocuses around but they were still open which is why I exspected them to still be blooming. There was a day where we had very Strong gusts of wind and rain but not not just rain proper heavy downpour that lasted all day and that’s no exaggeration. It lasted all morning and afternoon and It went into the night aswell cause of that there was some flooding. then the day after when it was all over I found them battered and flat down on the border after that. The day before the heavy rain they were open and happy I checked them the day after the heavy rain and they were the complete opposite. And looked damaged. If they wernt battered then They might of lived abit longer. Exspeacially since A lot of crocuses I saw out and about were still open. I t was the timing of the crocus flowering aswell the The gusts and 24 hour very heavy downpour probably played a role in shortening its lifespan. If it didn’t get battered I would of said that it was just down to flowering period. It was a natural proceess but I think the process got sped up cause of being heavily battered by the wind and rain out of nowhere.
Crocus bloom lasts around 21 days, and generally an early sorting flowering plant, can be seen in flower around autumn time.
To date I've never seen a crocus in flower outside the early spring period, though I've no doubt someone will have, whether wild or semi wild or cultivated.
Zo Clark said:By the way the flower you saw out and about was a Hybrid. There isn’t much infomation about the flower you saw and there isn’t much infomation about it. and it’s defanatly not on Wikipedia cause I looked. Only the genus and other species in the genus is on wiki. but I found what type out flower it is. Genus Polyanthus Species: Primula Polyantha. It can be found in the uk.
It certainly looks like a Genus Polyanthus, thank you.
I been keeping an eye on them ever since I saw them closed. My Spring Crocuses were closed on the 26th February. 1 opened on the 8th March while the other 2 were still opening
https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/photography/279382/spring
at some point that week or the week after that’s when it got battered.. It was still the same yesterday so defiantly died.
I think the crocuses do flower at differant times in some places. This one is Spring Crocus the ones you see out and about. some of the ones you see out and about havnt been planted whereas with some of them have. there’s other types of Crocus but with those types you wouldn’t really see them out in the wild. but with this one you would find it in the wild. I think ones found in gardens are more likely planted than grown by themselves. I keep my Wildflower borders separate to the plants that have been planted So the Wildflowers don’t suffocate the un wild plants and cause it’s easyer to take care of them separately and easyer not to get them mixed up and easyer to keep an eye on them. Cause the crocus was planted Its in a differant border to the wildflowers. Exspeacially since you can find Spring crocus out in the Wild aswell it prevents confusion of weather its wild or planted. Even though seasons can be abit unpredictable sometimes cause of Climate Change some Wildflowers only come out in the Spring or Summer Autumn or Winter so can be good indicators of if a certain Seasson is approaching or has arived and Exspeacially since there so sensitive to temprature and climate can be a indicator of early or late Spring or winter weather. I once had a interesting Wildflower that only opened at night when it was cold enough and dark enough. I also had a wildflower that opened when it was sunny and only closed if or when the sun disappeared.
I think Spring Crocus does flower at differant times in some places even though most Spring Crocus do have a certain period in the season they open and stop flowering like you said and There’s probably lots of factors involved like temprature weather Aswell as timeing even for and probably Exspeacially for the non planted Ones
First of the Grape Hyacinth popped up today and something yellow from beside a pool.
Zo, I've been doing some reading up this morning regarding the polyanthus vs primrose.
I'm going for hybrid primrose, based on the main difference being a polyanthus has multiple flowers on a stem whereas a primrose has a single flower per stem, and they are definitely single flowers per stem.
However, I still value your input and thank you, its unlikely I'd have come up with the right answer. The nearest I came up with, and I wasn't comfortable with that, was wood cranes bill, except the petals are spaced on the wood cranes bill, not overlapping as a primrose or polyanthus is.