Bless me for I have sinned. It is some time since my last blog & why is that? It was almost done & dusted. I was going wow you nature lovers with a chat about the joys of parent-hood in an urban setting. You see the robins had started building a nest at the back of the garden. This then led onto lengthy reminiscences about my trials & tribulations last year with the blackbird family which had me in a state of high anxiety for some weeks. I had the stories, I had the pictures, then the bloody robins decided upon some better bit of real estate, they had called in Kirsty & Phil & moved elsewhere.
What to write about now?
It came to me whilst wandering round Wisley on Sunday morning admiring some of the flowers. The camellias were beginning to get into their stride; lots of big blowsy blooms which I duly admired. I was then reminded that, on the whole, I love single flowers much more. This camellia flower says it all.
The double kerria japonica is widely grown, but look how more effective the single flowered version is.
![images[3]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_1D0Kb_K_dSk/S7TpUgRNC_I/AAAAAAAAA20/Bkb7h7DRyMk/s1600-h/images%5B3%5D%5B5%5D.jpg "images[3]")
![images[5]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_1D0Kb_K_dSk/S7TpVa4Y39I/AAAAAAAAA28/G1fCkgtBEFc/s1600-h/images%5B5%5D%5B4%5D.jpg "images[5]")
I love the many & varied flowers of roses of all stages of blowsiness but at the end of the day am a real ‘sucker’ (there is a vague joke there by the way) for the single flower. I have a lovely deep red ‘Dortmund’ in my front garden which I love. Indeed there are many examples of different plants I could talk about, but best not.
Needless to say there are some doubles which quite frankly should not exist!
![images[8]](http://lh5.ggpht.com/_1D0Kb_K_dSk/S7TpXJV4f_I/AAAAAAAAA3E/pk-259gKaOE/s1600-h/images%5B8%5D%5B6%5D.jpg "images[8]")
Oh, OK then, here is one picture of one of the (now deceased) baby blackbirds from last year.
‘Runty’
I too find many single flowers better than their double cousins, particularly in the case of kerria - a messy little double flower. Sorry to see narcissus 'Rip Van Winkle' condemned, I am still waiting for my newly acquired ones to flower. I'll let you know if I agree.
ReplyDeleteI love single flowers as well - so much more elegant than those frilly pom-pom things! There were two double kerrias in our garden when we moved here - we kept one, but I think if we'd realised how long we'd end up staying here, we'd have chucked that out too.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more about double daffs.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter Ms B :o)
ReplyDeleteRO xxx
I love single flowers too, but make an exception for some double hellebores. Hope you are having a good Easter. I like the faintly anonymous but still holiday feeling of Easter - not as overwhelming as Christmas but still important somehow.
ReplyDeleteOoops Gilly, sorry about Rip van Winkle, I think it's the fact that it is a small one that makes it less acceptable - to me. I was trying to be understanding there but I'm not sure it really worked!
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter to you all. I agree Elizabethm; Easter actually seems to be much more of a holiday than christmas. Less hard work & forced enjoyment.
BTW I do have a number of double flowers in my garden - the camellias are now out!
I enjoy your photos and the slightly random effect my computer has on them. Sometimes they are there, sometimes not and sometimes the one I see is not the one that is supposed to be there. Occasionally your baby bird has been a building ...
ReplyDeleteI love the purity of single flowers but actually really like the blowsiness of doubles as well. My camellias are all doubles but as yet, those that managed to keep hold of their buds through the winter are still nowhere near flowering, though a bit of colour is just beginning to show in places.