The scabious has started to flower in our orchard:
There is a cluster of these that have just come into flower over the past few days. I was lucky to be able to photograph these as my wife was out with the mower yesterday and I just managed to stop her before they all got mowed down. I find these are a really attractive flower and they are now making the transition from a wild flower to a garden plant – you can now buy them at garden centres.
As the plant is tall and thin, the flower bobs around in the slightest breeze – to hold it in place I used my new home-made plant clamp (I cannot afford a manufactured one) – this cost less than £5 and is made from a ‘car-boot’ cheap tripod, a ‘flexi-curve’ and a couple of clamps. It seems to work quite well – you can see it in action below:
– you can also see how close the mowing got yesterday! The original version of the photo is below:
These photos can be seen in the gallery.