Six on Saturday – 25th April 2020

Is it really time for Six on Saturday already? Despite everything, the week flies by. Spring is well under way. I do love this time of year. It has been exceptionally warm and sunny (for the west of Ireland at least), but we won’t complain. So here is this week’s six.

1. Ragged jack kale self seeds its self freely around the garden and at this time of year the flowers are valuable food source for pollinators – usually bumblebees and hoverflies but I have also had a solitary honey bee.

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  Hoeny bee on kale flowers

2. Common carder bee – this one feeding on comfrey that is now flowering outside as well as in the greenhouse.

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  Common carder bee on comfrey

3. Autumn olive – the flowers smell a little of citrus and are popular with bumblebees too.

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4. Crab apples. There is the one I showed last week. It is at it’s best now and the scent is heavenly. I have another crab which is the red leafed variety. The flowers are pink and not too plentiful – in fact it’s hard to see them against the leaves. The fruits are tiny. Still I like the leaf colour, as it adds contrast to the mainly green leaves of the other trees in the garden.

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5. American Hawthorn is also in flower. It usually flowers a bit earlier than our native hawthorn.

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6. Red campion, I grew these from native seed collected at Raheens wood and they are doing well at the base of a hedge.

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Thank you to The Propagator for hosting Six on Saturday.