In early October 2011, I was on a work trip in Ireland (Cork) and stopped off to see the city’s botanical garden for the first time! Here’s a series of pictures of unusual fruit bushes and trees taken on my recent visit to the National Botanical Garden in Dublin. I’d never seen such a good collection of Berberis before – impressive diversity…
Poncirus trifoliata, Hardy Orange/ Dversitron – never seen a bush quite this large. It wasn’t hardy enough for my garden and I lost mine after it sulked for 3 years
The earth sinking to reveal the full moon on the first day of my “new year” (according to the solstice)…and not only that, after years of trying, I finally captured crows flying over the moon’s surface on the way in to the roost at Vikhammer from warmer pastures on the other side of the fjord….and a few minutes later it was obscured by clouds!
WISHING ALL MY FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS A VERY HAPPY FESTIVE SEASON AND MAY ALL YOUR PLANT DREAMS COME TRUE!
I was working in the garden when I noticed the light on the northern horizon as the earth fell slowly to reveal the full moon:
Quercus mongolica (Mongolian oak or the Shandong silk oak)! Did you know that the Chinese not only produce silk from mulberry trees, but also from Mongolian oak trees? The Chinese oak silkworm, Antheraea pernyi, is the worker employed according to Food Plants of China! See https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/10/1/180/887115
The Mongolian oak nuts were also sometimes eaten and the leaves were used for tea, boiled with the fruits of Siberian crabapple, Malus baccata!
I captured this flock of Jackdaws over the bay yesterday. They glide and soar synchronously through the air and here you see the birds one after one diving in free fall from the sky to land on the beach where they were foraging! They have so much fun!!
This afternoon the biggest flock of Jackdaws (kaie) ever recorded in this area assembled in the field below the house before flying off towards the roost at dusk with hooded crows (kråke)!! Some 1600 birds (counted from the first video)! It’s been around -10C all day today!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
