Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Botanists required



What does everyone think? I'm hoping this plant is a redcurrant. it definitely had red berries last summer and the leaves are identical to the blackcurrant plants that I planted. Good old google says yes, but the pink flowers have thrown me a bit as the photos seem to have white flowers. I'm wary of eating berries that I'm not sure of, but the thought of letting edible fruits rot in my garden is an anathema. 

We also mounded up the potatoes yesterday, very exciting. Hopefully all the dirt will protect them a bit from the frost that may be coming soon judging by the weather forecast.


I also do a mums walking group up the Malvern hills on a Wednesday and the bluebells are in bloom a bit earlier than usual because of all the beautiful weather. So I took a quick snap to share the joy.



Plants are looking great in the greenhouse too, can't wait to get them into the patch!




Also got an automatic greenhouse opener a while ago and it's working hard to stop the seedlings getting scorched. 



9 comments:

  1. your garden and young plants look great, can't help you with currant bush, I don't like them, so this year will be the first year I am growing blackcurrants for hubby.

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    1. First year growing blackcurrants for me too, lets hope for a bumper crop!

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  2. It could be a flowering currant, the berries would have been red before going black, took this description on the web, It is a deciduous shrub growing to 2 m (7 ft) tall and broad. The bark is dark brownish-grey with prominent paler brown lenticels. The leaves are 2–7 cm long and broad, palmately lobed with five lobes; when young in spring, they have a strong resinous scent. The flowers are produced in early spring at the same time as the leaves emerge, on racemes 3–7 cm long of 5–30 flowers; each flower is 5–10 mm diameter, with five red or pink petals. The fruit is a dark purple oval berry 1 cm long, edible but with an insipid taste.[1]

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    1. Thanks Dawn, seems really similar, no smell though?!

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  3. We have flowering currants very similar to your photograph. Does it give off a beautiful perfume like smell?

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    1. Not that I've noticed Dave. I'm in two minds whether to eat the berries when they arrive.

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  4. Lovely bluebells! I used to walk a lot in the UK, and the woodlands full of bluebells always took my breath away. Thanks for reminding me of those lovely memories.

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    1. Vera you're very welcome, no bluebells in beautiful France?

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  5. Definitely not redcurrant, or blackcurrant or whitecurrant for that matter !
    These have 'hanging bunches' of 'flowers' that turn into the fruit, they look like bunches of tiny white grapes initially, you can't mistake them, google pics of redcurrants.
    You live in a beautiful part of the world.

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