@botanybeck.bsky.social Was it just me or was .bsky.social very slow on Sunday at 8pm?
Natural Historian
@james99.bsky.social
formerly @jahasse at X (formerly Twitter) Still walking while attempting to naturally historicise; battling the wannabe wood to keep a “wildflower” garden intact
#Sheepleas being left long, presumably to allow late flowering after a brutal Summer, delivering nicely now with this Pinky Purple eleven #WildflowerHour
The Ivy flowers doing their thing at this time of year, feeding all the bees. Also helping a Red Admiral, temporarily woken up by the warm sunshine. #WildflowerHour
A rather grey walk was brightened up by this glorious Chicory flower. I love blue flowers so had to stop for a closer look. The reproductive structures inside the flower are incredible - long blue & white striped tubes with branched tips curling out the top of each. Stunning. 💙 #wildflowerhour
Not #WildflowerHour but today's BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming Awards nominee Fresh Flour Company in Devon is worth a huge shout-out..."fresh milling wholegrain flour on granite stones...heritage and population wheats into...[my fave] slow-dried pasta..." www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
The Food Programme - The BBC Food and Farming Awards 2026: The Food Producers - BBC Sounds
Sheila Dillon and Paula McIntyre meet this year's Best Food Producer finalists.
bbc.co.uk
There's something so unreal about Bladder Campion, a bunch of exploding mini-balloons that makes them my #FavouritePlant for #WidlflowerHour
Very few flowers about as the heat and drought hit SE really struggles to recover despite some recent rain, but this resilient patch of Common Michaelmas-Daisy (Symphyotrichum × salignum) doing great work feeding the equally resilient Small Copper butterfly #WildflowerHour
Good blooms of Devil's Bit Scabious along several semi-mown verges along farm trackways in the Surrey Weald despite the heatwaves and drought #WildFlowerHour
Brown leaves carpeting the woodland floor so it's time for Autumn cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium) #WildflowerHour
It may be super dry in the South but chalk is such a wonderful store of water that the Hog's Back above Guildford was full of blooms for #WildflowerHour much Burnet Saxifrage, Scabious, Knapweed in this area
Some nice patches of Bell Heather in bloom at Brookwood Cemetery, loved by our target, the Grayling butterfly #WildflowerHour
Little sun, little water, little soil, little problem for a deep purple Broadleaf Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) #WildflowerHour
Wild Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) flowers down the flower head creating some very pretty pink ruffs #WildflowerHour
Fetcham Downs seemed to be at peak for #WildflowerHour #StillFlowering I think because the chalk is near the surface and excellent at holding moisture (Wild Carrot, Yarrow, Scabious, Marjoram etc etc)
Our back garden is more of a (sandy soil) woodland glade and it would rapidly go back to that in the absence of good grazing animals or me. #WildflowerHour - still puzzling about the walnut!
Trying to rig up some temporary sun shade for our patio and plants in pots, was inspired by a new visitor to the #WildflowerHour back garden, a Silver Washed Fritillary - though the resident Comma not happy! Cue aerial battles.
Yellow definitely the colour on uncut Surrey sandy gardens and verges, awash with ?Smooth Hawksbeard (Crepis capillaris) #wildflowerhour
Never seen so much St John's Wort as in this Leatherhead chalk hillside garden, #CuratedMeadow #WildflowerHour
25 of the best (for us) ... peak back garden #wildflowerhour before it's all eviscerated in the coming heatwave? Will report back next week.
Very strange Common-spotted Orchid growing in fairly deep shade on Box Hill amongst normal CSOs, Twayblades and Narrow-leaved Helleborines. Tall, leaves all the way up the stem, and just a few flowers at the top, weird! #WildflowerHour #WildflowerID
Box Hill for #OrchidChallenge for #WildflowerHour great variety, just 6 of the 8 or more available with a bit of hill walking and local knowledge: abundant Chalk Fragrants, Twayblades, Common Spots, Bees, Broad-leaved Helleborines (almost out) and Pyramids
@wokingperegrines.bsky.social Is this one of yours? Square yellow ring on right leg, I think. Roosting on a church tower in Elmbridge. Often heard in the area, finally seen properly and recorded.
And today competing in numbers with the Painted Ladies an amazing dozen or so White Admiral butterflies on the Brambles all across Bookham Common #WildflowerHour
Need a #WildflowerHour nod to the massive influx of Painted Ladies adorning our UK wildflowers up and down the country - counted a dozen or more just in our OxEye Daisy-heavy back garden on one afternoon this week.
Dames Rocket (Hesperis matronalis var albiflora) looking good on a Bookham Common bridleway - should go back for evening perfuming... #WildflowerHour
Nice to see even the #NGS open garden at #Chilworth (the new owners so well continuing the long and glorious charitable tradition at that house) embracing the wild with flowering and bug-friendly Ground Elder as well as the Buttercup #WildflowerHour #WildflowerGardens
Roadside verges rich in Ox Eye Daisies, but also can self seed around our old (no longer a) lawn, though slower to fully arrive, and probably won't survive 34c + UV7 on Tuesday here 😞 #WildflowerHour #WildflowersShow and
