"Scottish Snippets"

"Colour Supplement"

23 September 2006

Each week the Rampant Scotland Newsletter includes a number of photographs which illustrate the weather, flora and fauna of the current week around Scotland. There are so many such graphics worth including that a separate "colour supplement" is created so as not to totally overload the Newsletter. Here is this week's crop!


Anemone Japonica make a grand display at this time of year. They flower for a long time and come in both white (as here) or pink and mauve. The individual flowers are 2/3 inches wide and the plants can be up to five feet tall.


We may not be able to grow grapes or peaches outside in Scotland, but apples and pears can grow in orchards. But they are usually not grown commercially. These "Red Victoria" apples were photographed growing in the large walled garden at Culzean Castle in Ayrshire.


There seems to have been an explosion of "Silver Y" moths this year. They are a well-known immigrant species, and can turn up in thousands under the right conditions. While numbers have not been quite at that level, I have seen them in abundance in both Fife and in Ayrshire - these ones were photographed in the gardens at Culzean Castle. Unlike many moths that only fly at night, the Silver Y is also a day flyer. Its name comes from the silver marking on the wing which is (supposedly) in the shape of the third letter in the Greek alphabet - gamma.


This variety of Dahlia rejoices in the name "Glorie van Heemstede", a tall, free-flowering variety with beautiful yellow flowers that respond well to the sunshine.


Clematis are well known as climbing plants that scramble up hedges and walls, reaching for the sky with their striking, colourful blooms. With the blue sky behind, who could believe that this was an autumn picture?


This Painted Lady butterfly and the bee are competing for the nectar from these Helenium flowers in the gardens of Finlaystone Country Estate in Renfrewshire. It is sad to think that this lovely butterfly, which has probably flown in from the Mediterranean, will not survive a Scottish winter.

If you want to look back at earlier editions of this Colour Supplement, there is an Index Page





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