"Lawns" of the Boggy Brae

The lawns of the boggy brae are flowering well.

On the back terrace, a stride away as you come out of the house. Some kind of bistort, daisies, buttercups, common cat's ear, bog pimpernel on the holding wall, hart's tongue fern. Even some grass – Crested dog's tail (Cynosurus cristatum) , I think.

 Up the garden

Orange hawkweed, pignut and heath bedstraw.
The red leaves are from a eucalyptus tree.

White clover

Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) – the quintessential Scottish hill flower

And then down the side slope

Heath bedstraw and moss growing up around a hose that is 'stored' around an old spruce stump
(a different one from the honeysuckle stump). I can see tormentil leaves in there too.

 And down to the boggiest bit

Yellow flags and buttercups

The massed buttercups – love it!

Red clover and Lady's smock among the buttercups

Some of the yellow is starry Yellow pimpernel (Lysimachia nemorum)

Every now and then I come across an orchid. Both Francis Rose in his Wild Flower Key, published in 1981 (there have been revised editions since then), and Roger Phillips in his Wild Flowers of Britain, 1977, say that Southern Marsh Orchids do not occur in Scotland or Ireland. In spite of that we seem to have had one in the same place on the front bank for the last three years.

This is what it looked like today:

Close up Southern marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa)

And her is its cousin, the Northern Marsh Orchid, which also grows on the boggy brae – three so far this year:

Northern marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella)

And finally for today, looking up at a hedge for a moment:

Dog rose (Rosa canina) and fuchsia