The Beauty and the Beast

                                                 Rosa "Bonica"

The Roses are putting on a fabulous show right now .

               This beauty  Rosa "Bonica" is one of my favourites .

                                     Amorphophallus konjac 

      But the Beast has not yet finished it's outrageous performance !

           I am not detecting any fragrance and not so many flies are being attracted .

                                       These are fascinating plants .

                                    Amorphophallus konjac .

                                    Sauromatum venosum

Sauromatum venosum is now withering .

The beautiful spotted spathe is curling up .       Leaving just the long thin spadix .

Next if pollinated it will form a seed head at the bottom which would be fantastic ! 

   I can grow more !   🤩

Anyway , then a single petiole (stalk) should push up with lovely leaf on top . 

I will plant this out after it dies back in the early Autumn  and all my voodoo lilies will get covered with a nice thick mulch to keep them cosy and warm through the Winter months . 

Hopefully it will make one or two off-shoots , little tubers and then we'll have a nice clump of these sweet little monsters !

I sent away for some Arisaema speciosum  , Cobra Lily seeds to try .  

Other news -

We harvested a couple of tubs of our First Early Red Duke of York potatoes . 

Husband really enjoyed himself hunting for the beautiful red spuds  !

  My little grand daughter will do the next lot for me , which was the main reason I grew them in tubs this year .

We will use these straight away. (already had some ) Red Duke of York , turns out to be a very nice variety of potato . Not one single slug hole ! Very pleased !  

The storm clouds have gone . Didn't hear any thunder , plenty of rain . Everything refreshed again in the garden and the water butt refilled . 

The hot sun has come out again . I can only do garden operations very early in the morning or evening during these hot Summer months . 

I must remember to cover up and wear my sun hat when we go out on our walks .

        

                                                                   🌤️☀️☀️

Oh My Goodness ! 🤗 Look at this ! Look at this ! 🤩

So , I didn't do very much yesterday , due to having my ultra sound scan on my Achilles tendon .

It took most of the day with the very long drive there and back . 

So I just did a bit of pottering about in the morning . We've had a little more rain and everything looks  refreshed . I hoed away weed seedlings that popped up over night  . 

I checked that all is well in the greenhouse . The cucumbers are growing away fast now .

Tomatoes .

Here are the Courgettes . I didn't think I'd have courgettes this year . Two packets of seeds just did not make it . This , the third try have been successful and since I repotted them just the other day , have really surged in growth !  I have put them outside on the table today to start hardening them off . 

Anyway , so I first injured my Achilles dancing .....Bhangra  . ( very joyful bouncy jumpy dancing ) resulting in a very painful partial rupture  .

It did improve over time .

But now I've been and gone and done it again ....this time digging in the garden .....  🙄

This time it is painful tendinopathy and when it flares up it feels like a blow torch . I have to wait and see what my doctor thinks to do about it .....probably physio  I should think . 

Enough of that !

Come and look at this ! 

Remember the voodoo lilies I showed you back in the Spring ?

Actually this was taken on the 25 January . Look at those gorgeous speckled shoots !

And now ...

 Okay ..lets go in for a closer look ....

            What ? !!!!   Oh ! My goodness !  Look at it ! Look at it !   

  

                                                Oh ! lol ! WoW ! 

                          It's not even fully out yet !! 🤣😂🤣

My daughter gave me this clump from her garden last year . I think this is  Amorphophallus konjak.

I have some in pots which are not so boldly coloured , maybe I should plant them out . I think I was over pampering them . 

When they are fully open they have a fragrance of rotting carrion   🪰🪰🦟🐜🪳🪰 .....

                  .................. it doesn't last very long okay ! 

 That's how it gets pollinated .

Anyway , I am blown away by these !

I bought another one ....this one is different .  Sauromatum venosum  from the Greek word -sauros which means lizard  🦖 as in dinosaur and venosum - which I suppose is describing the vein like markings on the flower /inflorescence and the stalk .  Native to Asia and Africa and the Arabian Penninsula, it is also known as Typhonium venosum , the Indian Giant , Monarch of the East and Voodoo lily  - although it is actually  not a true lily , but an Aroid . 

 This flower/inflorescence is going to be awesome ! 

This is still only it's second year , so I'm not expecting much from it  .🌿🌿🌿

However , I am watching it very closely with interest 🤔 and will give you an update later on .

 

                                               Sunday 1st June 🌿

                                                   Tuesday 3rd June

                                                              Yesterday 

I don't know if this is going to push up a flower first or if it will be just a leaf . 

 We'll have to wait and see ! 

            ....and of course I will give you an update on this one as it begins to open  ! 

                                                                   🌦️☀️🌦️

Wow ! 🌿

 

                            🌿    Amorphophallus konjac gorgeousness  ! 🌿

                                       🌿 Voodoo Lilies  💚🌿