Another botanical blog from our residential volunteer, Claire...
Claires time at Loch of Strathbeg has now come to an end but we have enjoyed having her around and keeping an eye on our garden and plant life on the reserve. A warm thank-you from all the team for your hard work during your time here!
"As the days have been warmer, more and more flowers are starting to appear on the reserve.
A plant no one can miss are the spikes of blue flowers that have been around since the start of May, we aren't sure of what they are only that they are in the lily family, and perhaps horticultural relative of squill or star of Bethlehem, which isn't saying much really. If you do come into the garden and recognise this mystery plant, please let someone know what it is, it would be lovely to find out!
Also in the wildlife garden, the bistort is flowering. You will recognise it from the small rounded spikes of slightly fluffy pink flowers. The herb Robert has started flowering and the other geranium species are soon going to put on a show too.
For the moment the flower to look out for in the garden is the purple clematis montana which is climbing along a trellis on one of the garden entrances. Scrambling along the other side of the trellis is a honeysuckle, which will produce lovely orange flowers in a month's time, hopefully.
Two other lovely plants to keep your eye out for are the yellow welsh poppy and the light green spurge. There aren't many of them around in the garden, but their bright colours are a pleasure to see. But of course right now the stage belongs to the bluebells! Both in the wildlife and in the woodland gardens. You cannot miss them!
On a more aromatic subject, you will also find two different kinds of wormwood (possibly sea and field wormwoods), lavender, mint and a poor old thyme that was found to be still alive beneath a lot of dead twigs. Hopefully it'll regenerate and become a nice dome within a year or two.
In the vegetable patch, the onions are definitely distinguishable now. Something is still eating them however, and various measures have been discussed, including using coffee grindings to deter slugs.
Another plant that was a mystery to us a week ago has now been identified. You may have noticed clumps of bright orange flowers have come out, mostly towards the middle and back of the garden. After a few a few hours poring over plant ID books, we now know it is as a geum, a flower in the avens family. Actually, if you look closely in the ditches on the entrance road to the reserve, you may still spot some water avens in flower, although the common comfrey and russian comfrey may have crowded them out by now.
Out in the marsh the sea club-rush is out, its seed heads looking like cotton grass. The wood-rushes and the cinquefoil are starting to grow and the big butterbur leaves are very hard to miss! There is a lot of bright blue thyme-leaved speedwell around and of course still some changing forget-me-not in dryer areas of the reserve.
If you are walking past the rookery on your way here, you can spot some lovely pink purslane by the side of the road, under the trees! Keep a look out for lots of different plant on the road side, such as vetches, peas, trefoils, plantain, sorrels (some sheep's sorrel has been seen closer to the seashore), and various umbellifers (which could be cow parsley and sweet cicely).
Have a lovely time looking around!
Amy Telford, Community Engagement Officer (RSPB Scotland Loch Lomond)