Friday, 24 August 2012

Nicotiana mutabilis

These have been the surprise hit of the year. I'd grown them from seed under glass and after the meadow mix failed to germinate I put them in in their place. They sat and sulked through the rain and somehow survived the attentions of all the slugs; they must have been putting down good roots because in the last month they've thrown up all these flowers up to 2 metres high. I always used to grow sylvestris but found out that British moths, unlike in their South American cousins, are unable to get at the nectar at the base of their long tubular flowers. Not so mutabilis, which is also enjoyed by the carder bees, and even the smaller honey bees squeeze their way into the flowers.




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