'The bulb is the oddest looking: a fat bud with long fleshy roots like a giant starfish'
The plant was a species of eremurus, a bulb whose magnificent flowers punctuate the poor soil and rocky slopes of central and western Asia. Transplanted into British gardens, these imposing plants, sometimes 9ft tall, create a spectacle that few others can achieve. Part of the excitement generated by eremurus is to witness the energy that, in only a few short weeks of early summer, transforms a bud pushing through the soil into leaf, stalk and then flower, every day rushing further skywards.
The common name of foxtail lily and, less commonly, desert candle, evoke the form of the flower. A thick stem is covered in June with tiny buds slowly opening from the bottom of the stem to the top to reveal star-shaped flowers. By the time the relay has fizzed its way to the tip of the spire, the first flowers are beginning to fade. On the tallest species, the top 3ft of the stem are covered with flowers. The spectacle is not long-lasting and, after a couple of weeks, all the flowers have faded to make way for seed pods the size of Mirabelle plums. I usually leave the skeletons standing, both for their architectural outline and to allow the plant to self-seed.
この記事は Country Life UK の February 09, 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Country Life UK の February 09, 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds