This site is pretty cool to and also recommended on the butterfly world website as where to get the seeds from (they also sell them in their own shops if you are going back).
Hi there everyone - lovely photos - I'm growing the deep red/scarlet flax/linum at the moment but will be on the lookout for seeds of the ones in the photo as they are really pretty.
I grow Phacelia tanacetifolia - don't know if it has a more common name !! - as a green manure keeping some for the garden and must say that the second photo looks like what I have in the garden !! The flowers are more of a lilac colour than the echiums that I'm growing.
I'm no expert but from experience have found that both echium and phacelia germinate readily and attract bees, butterflies etc so why not give both a go !!
Thanks MaxiiLS for the website details - another to add to my ever increasing bookmark list !!
Thanks for the replies. I will certainly try and find the Flax seeds, it really is a very impressive flower.
I don't think the second plant is from the Echium family but the flowers and leaves do look very similar to Phacelia tanacetifolia. I will do a bit more research on this and next time I go to Butterfly World, I will ask someone!
Annoying isn't it when plants look so much alike !!!
I'm going to take myself up on my own suggestion and try to grow both the blue linum and the Gilia next year as they both look really nice !!!
Don't ask where I'm going to put them in the garden if they do grow - I tend to think about such issues after the 'potting on' and plant purchasing phases !!!!
Gracie: lovely photos of beautiful plants. I hope you manage to get them.
fotofit: You've mentioned you are growing Scarlet Flax - Linum. I've sowed some seeds this year for the first time and am pretty sure it's not going well. I have seedlings at various stages around the garden but the ones sown earliest are about a foot tall and really spindly and delicate. The wind and rain has played havock with them and I have few left standing. How are yours? I don't know what to expect of them i.e. how they grow on from the spindly stage - or maybe I ought to be doing something to encourage better growth. Any tips, photos? I'm suspecting that a windy, wet Scottish garden is the wrong environment for them!
Mine are very spindly but flowers are lovely. Although seed packet advises sowing in open ground where they are to flower I always like to start seeds off in shed/greenhouse - just so as I know what not to 'weed out'.
I planted seedlings out in clumps a few months ago and some have survived the vagaries of the south-east Lincolnshire weather which has been very wet and windy this year !! All are still what I would describe as spindly but are in flower - I'm not sure but I think that this is charasteristic of the plant !!
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Hey,
Not sure about them individually.
But can you see any of them on this site ? http://www.pictorialmeadowsonline.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Manor_Oaks_Farm_Meadow_Mixes_1.html
This site is pretty cool to and also recommended on the butterfly world website as where to get the seeds from (they also sell them in their own shops if you are going back).
First one is a flax (linum) blue is the most usual colour, but there are pale ones with dark centres, and deep pink/scarlet ones too, and various shades in between http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=flax+flowers&hl=en&rlz=1C1SVEE_enGB425GB425&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=imDwT7fHHe-T0QWMkMDhDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CEYQ_AUoAQ
The second is Viper's Bugloss (Echium Vulgare) http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artfeb04/bjbugloss.html
both are really attractive to butterflies and pollinating insects.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi there everyone - lovely photos - I'm growing the deep red/scarlet flax/linum at the moment but will be on the lookout for seeds of the ones in the photo as they are really pretty.
I grow Phacelia tanacetifolia - don't know if it has a more common name !! - as a green manure keeping some for the garden and must say that the second photo looks like what I have in the garden !! The flowers are more of a lilac colour than the echiums that I'm growing.
I'm no expert but from experience have found that both echium and phacelia germinate readily and attract bees, butterflies etc so why not give both a go !!
Thanks MaxiiLS for the website details - another to add to my ever increasing bookmark list !!
Happy gardening !!
The first doesn't look like flax to me but Gilia tricolor.
I could be smug about that but it was only today that I saw it on a gardening blog, I wouldn't have been able to ID it yesterday!
http://theseedsite.co.uk/profile413.html
Thanks for the replies. I will certainly try and find the Flax seeds, it really is a very impressive flower.
I don't think the second plant is from the Echium family but the flowers and leaves do look very similar to Phacelia tanacetifolia. I will do a bit more research on this and next time I go to Butterfly World, I will ask someone!
Hi everyone !!
Annoying isn't it when plants look so much alike !!!
I'm going to take myself up on my own suggestion and try to grow both the blue linum and the Gilia next year as they both look really nice !!!
Don't ask where I'm going to put them in the garden if they do grow - I tend to think about such issues after the 'potting on' and plant purchasing phases !!!!
Thanks fotofit and toonia, you are both spot on with identifying the plants, very much appreciate it.
Gracie: lovely photos of beautiful plants. I hope you manage to get them.
fotofit: You've mentioned you are growing Scarlet Flax - Linum. I've sowed some seeds this year for the first time and am pretty sure it's not going well. I have seedlings at various stages around the garden but the ones sown earliest are about a foot tall and really spindly and delicate. The wind and rain has played havock with them and I have few left standing. How are yours? I don't know what to expect of them i.e. how they grow on from the spindly stage - or maybe I ought to be doing something to encourage better growth. Any tips, photos? I'm suspecting that a windy, wet Scottish garden is the wrong environment for them!
Hi yarrow2 - will get some photos tomorrow !!
Mine are very spindly but flowers are lovely. Although seed packet advises sowing in open ground where they are to flower I always like to start seeds off in shed/greenhouse - just so as I know what not to 'weed out'.
I planted seedlings out in clumps a few months ago and some have survived the vagaries of the south-east Lincolnshire weather which has been very wet and windy this year !! All are still what I would describe as spindly but are in flower - I'm not sure but I think that this is charasteristic of the plant !!
More to follow tomorrow !!