Little bunches of mixed blue, purple, red and pink-colored flowers would appear in the shops around Mother's Day, which falls much earlier in England. And one appeared in my A level botany exam to identify. Of course I knew what it was but still had to go through the process of identifying it with my Flora. Does anyone use a flora anymore? Or did they go away like log tables?
I bought half a dozen of those strange little corms this year and planted them in a pot. The first flowers opened the other day. They are much larger than the native anemones, Anemone berlandieri, and A. caroliniana, which are dotted all around the garden. I like them just as much.
The are usually the first flowers to bloom in the spring, although this year they seem late. But true to their common name 'windflower' there was a stiff wind blowing which heralded a cold front.
But I discovered someone else who likes these pretty little flowers. The rock squirrel, Spermophilus variegatus. In my opinion he is far more of a garden enemy that the tree squirrel. He has been eating the flowers of my wild anemone, dianthus, pansy, violas and munching on fleshy succulents and green vegetables. He also enjoys the seed that has fallen to the ground under the bird feeder.
He is a persistent creature and is not easily deterred. My neighbor tells me he lives under the rocks around his pool but he comes over to my house to eat.
Your rock squirrel blends into the scenery so much better than our western gray squirrels but mine also have annoying eating habits - they seem to like Gazanias. But they only eat the petals, leaving the central disk. A side effect of keeping them out of the bird feeders has been increased consumption of Gazania petals. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteYes. they are eating the petals here. I don't mind them eating the food that falls out of the bird feeder. That just saves a lotto weeding.
DeleteLol the little squirrel decided that your garden is a banquet. We don't have rock squirrels here, only red squirrels. But they can do some serious damage when they feel at home. I have 5 of them living in the woods next to my house and they gobble down everything they can find. They even climbed my balcony and took all my walnuts that were drying. They left me with an empty bag. :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know we had red squirrels here. I know in England that the grey squirrels are killing off the population of native reds.Either way there really are comfortable feeding in our gardens.
DeleteLove anemones- but it's one I just assumed dint grow here so I've never even tried them! I will be trying them next year now! And I love your blog, by the way!
ReplyDeleteI grew these in a pot and kept them in the greenhouse over the winter. Because it was so warm they started growing and had no water for 5 weeks. I rested them in a lanky sad condition but they have recovered and are just starting to bloom. Unfortunately all my freesias succumbed to the cold winter. So disappointing.
DeleteBeautiful flowers, evil little critter!
ReplyDeleteBad enough having one kind of squirrel attacking the garden, but two!
ReplyDelete