Kitchen Garden Forum

Past three days I have seen yellow, Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterflies.

We were walking on Silverdale, on the edge of the Lakes, last Monday and the weather was glorious. We sat on a limestone escarpment looking out to sea and eating our lunch and we lost count of the amount of yellow butterflies we watching flitting around.

Dear Catherine, gosh, does that mean there could have been more than ten. I know, i have the cheek of the devil....

(I will ignore OH's rude remark .....)

Lucky you, Catherine. They will have been brimstones which emerge early and are common around Silverdale. We saw ONE brimstone on our allotment last summer which was the first one I had seen in this area. Hopefully, they are now moving into this area like the speckled wood and ringlet have done over he last few year.

Oodles of them OH....
(Me too )Thanks Monika I did not know what they were called.

Saw a red admiral and a peacock yesterday

RHS Harlow Carr today: one brimstone and two small tortoiseshell on flowering heathers, in spite of the cool wind, also several bumble bees.

Hi Monika, Just thought we would go to Harlow Carr over the weekend, what do the spring bulbs look like at the moment as we went one year and we were too early and not much was out and showing and very disappointing. So we have not been in spring since.

Too windy for butterflies today, but I can say that there is plenty of colour in Harlow Carr gardens. I try to go every year as my birthday treat on 26th February and there was a lovely display of cyclamen, crocus and all the spring bulbs, the perfumed vibrunums, sarcococca and winter honeysuckle and several different coloured stems of cornus, also lots of winter heathers. The alpine house also had lots of colour and some interesting ones I'm not familiar with.

They seem to have more staff now and the kitchen garden and everywhere else seems very well cared for nowadays. Betty's tea rooms were excellent as usual too.

Yes, Catherine and PP, there was plenty of colour, especially in the alpine house, also hellebores and heathers, though I would wait a little longer for the main spring flowering time, especially the tulips of which they always have a good display.

We are fairly regular visitors there (my OH used to teach courses there and a daughter lives very near, in fact, our granddaughter has just started a weekend job in Bettys) and it certainly looks very much better cared for than it did some years ago. You may know that the RHS took the gardens over from the Northern Horticultural Society who were very strapped for cash and staff at the end.

Hi Monika, I think we will leave it a few more weeks for the main bulb display. You have lots of family interest in Harlow Carr then. How lovely that it runs in the family.

I must admit that it is looking a lot better than it did a few years ago. But I did not know that it had been taken over by the RHS. We did join the RHS several years ago but had to let the subscription lapse as we found we didn't have time to make full use of it.

Maybe next year we might be in a better place to rejoin.

If you join Garden Organic you get concessionary free entry to RHS gardens including Harlow Carr, so it is a good investment if you don't want to join them both.