It must be at least ten years since we visited St. Mary's, the largest island within the Scilly Isles archipelago lying a short plane or boat ride off Land's End in Cornwall. It was there that I found this Echeveria - they come in many varieties, big, small, grey-green, lilac or reddish, smooth, hairy or downy. These Succulents along with cacti thrive out of doors on the Scilly isles because of the warmth that they receive from the Gulf Stream flowing all around the islands. My succulent was growing in a mossy stone wall surrounding an old church, I 'rescued' it, and ever since it has lived happily in the conservatory. I like it's soft green leaves and shape - it must like living here as it has grown much bigger.
My blogging friend Gina showed a plant growing in her greenhouse here which unexpectedly started to sprout, and she wondered whether it might flower. That very same week I noticed changes happening with my plant too.
Echeveria were discovered in the Mexican desert by botanist Antansio Echeverría y Godoy in the c19th, and can have pink, yellow, orange or red flowers - I am thinking the flower might be yellow! but H's choice is pink!
what colour do you think?
I have just come across an article suggesting that when an Echeveria flowers it is telling you: "I like it here".
In the garden Spring rushed in very early, but then growth rapidly stopped with the sudden prolonged cold spell putting everything behind schedule. The flowers now seem to be in a hurry to 'catch up' and several of the ones below are already in decline
This large Horse Chestnut tree was a mere sapling when we came here 20 years ago.
As this week draws to a close I shall be taking my usual annual trip down memory lane.
No words to describe about your pictures. Got attracted by all of them.
ReplyDelete♡ thank you
DeleteBeautiful blooms Rosemary and enjoy your visit down memory lane.
ReplyDeleteThe weather is perfect at the moment so hope it continues whilst away Margaret
DeleteYou have beautiful flowers everywhere. You must be someone with "green fingers" as we say in dutch.
ReplyDeleteWe use the same term too - I am a bit neglectful of them but they seem to enjoy the conditions nevertheless
DeleteOh how I wish we had room for a conservatory - there are so many different plants you can grow. One of my favourite films is Green Card with Andie McDowell simply because of the wonderful conservatory which is featured it has a fountain and terracotta floor full of exotic plants which thrive under her care. Have you seen it? The garden is lovely at this time of year and you certainly have an abundance of blooms. Simply gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see the film but wish that I had - we have really made the most of the conservatory this Spring as it was the warmest place in the house to sit when the weather outside turned so chilly.
DeleteSo beautiful photos, as usually.
ReplyDeleteThe collage is great, full of flowers of this time of year.
Thank you Orvokki♡
DeleteYour conservatory sounds like a wonderful place, Rosemary, and it must provide perfect conditions for the lovely plants. For the past year or so I have been collecting succulents, including several Echeveria - but I never knew their name! So thank you, now I know, and I want them to bloom too. The yellow one is spectacular. Easter cactus is new to me, and is beautiful. If I lived close to you I would want to take a piece of that geranium to strike - it is unusual and very attractive too :)
ReplyDeleteI don't normally hang on to Geraniums but just buy fresh each year for the garden, but decided to keep that one as it is so pretty. Hope that your Echeverias bring you flowers too, patient though.
DeleteSo uplifting to see so many 'bloomers'. I'm hoping to do so myself this year.
ReplyDeleteJean
Once you are settled I am sure that you will have a lovely garden.
DeleteThat Echeveria is beautiful. I have never seen one. I think it would be nice if you put a little tea table in the middle of the conservatory....and we can imagine having tea in there with you, surrounded with all of that beauty. :) Janey
ReplyDeleteWe spend many hours in there Janey - drinking tea and in the morning coffee. It is a great place for watching the garden birds too.
DeleteDear Rosemary, I love them all. Your photographs, as always, are stunning. That little dark Geranium blossom is such a show stealer in your mosaic.
ReplyDeleteI am still waiting for the "big fellow" Echeveria to bloom in my greenhouse. Now that I have had my Apple Blossom Amaryllises for several years they also surprise me by blooming later and later every year. I have seen them bloom in Mexico in late June and July. What is really amazing is that I ignore them for the rest of the year and they come back bigger and better every year.
Dear Gina - my Amaryllis are also neglected too, but must be happy.
DeleteThat little Geranium is one of my favourites, I am always very pleased to see it each year. It is Geranium phaeum 'mourning widow' sometimes called 'black widow'.
Your conservatory must look a bit like the Garden of Eden. Twenty years in one house, we've been in ours 13 and that's the longest we've ever lived in one house.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe we have been here so long, I don't know where the years have gone.
DeleteDear Rosemary - As I visit here, I am often reminded that I have lots of room to learn about new plants. The yellow flowers of Echeveria look fantastic and fresh with the white daisies. All of your flowers look happy enjoying spring. In my garden, the flowers are changing from spring to summer ones.
ReplyDeleteYoko
It is a lovely time of year isn't Yoko - everything is blooming, the birds are singing, butterflies flitting, it makes my heart sing.
DeleteHello Rosemary, All of your flowers are beautiful, but when you get an extra bonus like the Echeveria flowers (or when one finds an unexpected plant on a nature walk), one feels that a special honor has been conferred, which indeed it has.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Hello Jim - many of my plants are from little cuttings or as with the Echeveria, a plant found on our travels, so that anything extra really is a bonus. I have an Oleander about to flower from a cutting I did one year in Sicily, and a Datura (Angels Trumpet) also from a cutting that I am hoping will flower soon.
DeleteGlorious Spring!
ReplyDelete♡
DeleteAbsolutely beautiful!! Your home and garden must be a beautiful place at any time of year, but especially now with all of these amazing plants flowering and blooming!
ReplyDeleteThank you Amy - I don't really deserve that they should put on such a wonderful show for me as I am rather neglectful of them.
DeleteThe Echeveria is quite fantastic looking. The chestnut is gorgeous too - there are many streets lined with them here - red and white. I'd love to have a conservatory. I think it would be an antidote to the long grey winter.
ReplyDeleteI love 'free' plants that perform - I have two others that I am watching carefully - one a snippet from Sicily, the other from a friend.
DeleteI was amazed with the exuberance
ReplyDeleteplants.
Kiss Leah
Thank you for visiting Leah and your kind comment
DeleteAre you sure you don't live in the tropics? When I first started going down to Devon, Cornwall and the south east as a teenager I was amazed my cousin could grow grapes in her London greenhouse and that apples, pears and plums were everywhere in autumn in Kent in small orchards.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to visit the Scilly Isles and the famous gardens there but you seem to have most of the exotic species in your lovely conservatory already :o)
Beautiful display.
We actually grow grapes successfully outside against a stonewall, but I also remember having similar thoughts to yours when I lived further north.
DeleteDear Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteSuch beauty and your photos are absolutely magical. May is such a beautiful month with all it's bloom and colours. One just can't help but smile and take it all in. We've had som cold days here in Sweden now and I'm actually glad. This way it all slows down a bit and we can enjoy all the beauty of May for a longer period. Tomorrow I'll pick myself a big bouquet of lilacs as they've just opened up and smell absolutely devine. :)
Take care sweet Rosemary and have a lovely week.♥
Charlie
xx
Dear Charlie - the cold Spring has meant that the flowers are later than usual but as you mention we can enjoy them for longer. I love the month of May too, looking out of the windows each morning is such a treat.
DeleteThank you for visiting Charlie, I always enjoy your visits here♡
What lovely flower photos. Your conservatory must be fabulous - I bet it smells lovely too.....
ReplyDeleteFor some reason everything is blooming and doing really well in the conservatory this year - may be I have been a bit more caring of the plants there as the garden was too cold to work in for such a long period this Spring.
DeleteI do love your beautiful photos of flowers. It must be wonderful in your conservatory at the moment. We don't have one now we've moved and I do miss it. I've bought back succulents from Cornwall but I lost them when the temperature dropped very low one winter.
ReplyDeleteI love to see the candles on the horse chestnuts - one of my favourite sights of spring.
When the horse chestnut is in flower I am always reminded of a poem I read as a child. It was about a little boy who had been ill, and when he recovered he looked out of the window and saw the chestnut tree in flower which he thought was a Christmas tree with candles done especially for him. I have looked on Google but have been unable to trace the poem.
DeleteI have done the same with succulents from Cornwall. I had an especially lovely wine coloured Aeonium which I lost.
Dearest Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteYou are blessed for having your own conservatory! Always loved to have one myself... we only have a little greenhouse for keeping tropical plants shelters from occasional frost.
What a lovely collection you got and your photos are excellent.
Did not know that like the Gingko tree, the Cycas revoluta is also that ancient. We know them very well from our work and living in Indonesia. We had two in a planter on the balcony but lost them to frost...
Your Horse Chestnut certainly developed into a huge and very happy and giving tree.
This is the best time of the year when everything blooms.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Hugs,
Mariette
Dear Mariette - one of the things I love about this Cycas revoluta, apart from its elegant shape and form, is the fact that it is a vestige from that time so long ago. As you will know their fronds look like other ferns but have deadly thorns beneath I like to think as a protection from browsing dinosaurs!
DeleteThat's a great thought Rosemary!
Delete♡
DeleteSo many beauties here summed up by the colourful collage. The delicate pink flowers of the amaryllis are so pretty. I prefer the colour of your Easter Cactus flowers to mine which is candy pink although it's a picture when all the flowers are blooming. I do appreciate that. Enjoy your weekend!
ReplyDeleteThe Easter Cactus was quite a revelation to me when I put them on the computer, in macro they are so detailed and spectactular.
DeleteBlooming wonderful
ReplyDelete♡
DeleteDear Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I never heard of the plants name before. It has some exceptional flowers!
Dear Madelief the flower took weeks before it finally appeared
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