PBS Forum

Perhaps wild Britain is as bare as all the landscapes I see on the mystery programs I watch on TV.  There are no trees or bushes at all - just short green stuff that is probably grass.   The programs might all have been photographed up in Scotland, and maybe further south there are woodlands, but generally,  it's a good thing that people plant gardens.

Hey, I like that, and the ants would, too.

Anemone leveilii is supposed to have purple-blue anthers

The photo on https://www.ballyrobertgardens.com/products/anemone-leveillei  shows them., and so does your flower.

Well, veratrums are extremely poisonous but perhaps not to invertebrates.

Currently all the bulbs flowering in my garden are alliums.  The bees are delighted.

Various kinds of chives, lots of leeks - I guess I forgot to eat them all last winter. 

The ones in the photos are a kind of leek which is called Elephant Garlic. It is as tall as me when it flowers.  It has big bulbs which taste like a mild garlic.  When I pull them up, bulbils are left in the ground so I never have to replant them - they do it themselves.  I've read that if I don't let them flower I will have bigger bulbs - maybe I'll try that with a few of them next year.  I'll eat the scapes instead.

Of course, a poisonous plant needs to be attractive to cause children to eat it.  One with brightly coloured berries would be more deadly than Conium.

I'm glad they tried all those variables and found the seeds prefer the temperatures inside my house.  That'll be easy for me.

Are they just going to cut it down and leave it there for the seeds to drop?

Conium maculatum only lasts one year, so if it isn't allowed to drop seeds, it can be eliminated from an area in a short time.

No video - I'm usually too busy defending the seeds I'm gathering from the voracious ants.

Maybe you have  different ants.  We also have giant carpenter ants bent on eating the wooden frames of our houses.

I just discovered a packet of Erythronium sibiricum seeds from the Scottish Rock Garden Club.  I am astounded that I didn't get them sown the minute they arrived, as this is a species I don't have and I was delighted they were being offered this year.

I decided to soak them a bit before sowing them.  After a few hours, it looks as though they have germinated already, but the white bits must be the elaiosomes which appeal to ants.  I wonder where they've been hiding.  They certainly weren't noticeable on the small dark brown seeds in the packet.

Well, I think I'll sow them with the eliasomes, unlike what happens in nature when the ants bite them off to feed their babies.

Most Erythronium seeds are very reluctant to sprout for me, except for E. revolutum which has produced hundreds of plants from my one original plant.  I sure hope sibiricum grows.

We need a new topic:   Cooling Your Greenhouse

Is the Poison Garden just a curiosity to attract paying visitors, or are some of the plants used for serious research - like antidotes to poisons?

Are you going to visit it?

I'd rather wait a while -  the fast growing ones become weeds.

Diane  - still digging out Spanish bluebells after 40 years.

I hope you have a safe place to grow your new bulbs.

I took notes on growing Geophytic Pelargoniums from your talk in 2006 and grew one successfully for a number of years before it was overtaken by a rampant Cistus.

Diane