Cosmos – Garden Stars That Shine

The Daisy family, Asteraceae, is the second biggest and provides some of the best loved flowing plants we have. Cosmos are well ordered flowers with fine featherlike leaves that stand tall. The name Cosmos comes from the Greek for ‘ordered world’.

They are well ordered and keep their form, even when massed together, giving a super colourful display in any border. Colours range from chocolate, through orange, magenta, pink and white. All with a yellow centre with radial petals, like little solar systems or galaxies in perfect synchronisation. A very apt name, Cosmos.

Cosmos - multi-coloured

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The tree has fern-like, light green foliage and bright acid-yellow flowers that grow in clusters of small round balls.

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Populus alba with fluffy catkins

Populus alba Tree – Alternative Name White Poplar

In a local water meadow the White Poplar, populous alba, has come back to life. The air is heavy with fluffy white ‘cotton’ that covers the ground nearby. This is the seed dispersal method of a lot of similar trees in the Willow family, Salicaceae. Once pollinated they blow off in the breeze to find space to grow. 

The White Poplar is not native to the UK but has been naturalised over most of the UK. It loves water and can grow in the salty winds of coastal areas, too.  The leaves are silvery underneath and darker green on the top. Unlike the long slender leaves of it cousin willows, these leaves broader and crenate at the edges.

Populus alba with fluffy catkins

Syringa pubescens - Lilac

Not a Common Lilac – Syringa pubescens

There are lots of plants that are referred to as ‘Lilac’, but not all are the same family. This particular Lilac is from Korea and China, the Syringa pubescens. Flowering at the same time a the common Lilac, it can be seen in gardens of Europe more and more. In my own garden I have had one many years, but as a shady garden it survives but prefers full sun.

These delicate tubular flowers can be anything from white to dark magenta and change as the flower develops. A much smaller, slower growing shrub than the Common Lilac.

Syringa pubescens - Lilac

Pieris japonica red foliage

Plant of the Week – Pieris japonica

Pieris japonica

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The early foliage starts out deep red and mellows to yellow and then green. Best suited to partial shade woodland areas, this acid soil loving plant will thrive with little effort.

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Fraxinus ornus - Manna Ash

Manna Ash – Fraxinus ornus

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Fraxinus ornus - Manna Ash

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Mayflower for May Day

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Crataegus monogyna - Common Hawthorn - May Flower