Oxford botanical garden in July.

This is what I wanted to see, The Merton Borders. This area in early spring was made up of small green mounds of vegetation, today it was alive with insects and tall plants casting shadows on dry paths in the midday sun.

The plants are densely packed as 85% of them were established by directly sowing seed. Their diverse nature ensures a long succession of flowering through the season. It is allowed to die back over a long period after the autumn, providing a rich habitat for many types of small birds and mammals. It is drought tolerant requiring no artificial irrigation, staking or fertiliser. Today I wanted to see how it had coped with our three heat waves.

Let us look at three plants that are in full bloom at the end of July.

The most dominant one is Silphium terebinthinaceum Prairie dock.

It dwarfs everything else with large spade shaped rough leaves. The arrangement of the leaves seems to provide a way of maintaining lower leaf temperatures at midday and a more efficient way of producing its carbon resource. The plant develops slowly but is difficult to kill when it is mature as its large taproot can reach depths of 14 feet /4m.

The leaves of Silphium as rough as low grade sandpaper.

This photograph shows tall stems belonging to these enormous spade shaped leaves. They hold yellow 5-6cm in diameter flowers high above other plants.

Solidago canadensis is on the left, a spear shaped fluffy yellow flower on a graceful plant moving easily in any breeze. It is casting shadows on the path at midday as is Eryngium planum/ Flat Sea Holy.

This prickly plant and thistle is also growing well along the canal.

It is good to see this area flourishing in the heat of our midday sun.

I was also interested to see the water lilly pond, and a bed still colourful belonging to the daisy family.

It is noticeable that the lily pads are bunching together on the right but the flowers themselves though few are beautiful.

The daisy diversity growing area as well as the other planting areas are still being helped with water.

From these two photographs one can see the green in contrast to the dry lawns.

These well loved gardens, the oldest here in the UK provide so much that I have to share this little conversation.

Visiting aunt with two young children.

Aunt: These are very old gardens.

Child 1: I know and you must go slowly and look carefully because you miss things.

Child 2: …and you know we live next to them and can come here often!

Look carefully and enjoy:

A midday walk.

‘ Mad dogs and Englishman go out in the midday sun.’

I am so pleased we could go back on Friday.

Take care,

Sandy 🙂