Croatia has been a true eye-opener when it comes to woodland plants. Another of our favourites – the “Primrose” has always been thought of as ‘English’. It does grow wild in England of course and we did find some poor half shrivelled ones in Andalucia last year – really not the ideal conditions for the fair Primrose – but I hadn’t thought too much about finding them in Croatia and Slovenia. Read More…
Before we left NZ the Mother had been looking up Fritillarias on her IPad and had found that there were 76,000 of them growing in a park just 10 minutes from where the Nephew has just moved to in Oxford. He was despatched to capture them on film. Which he obliging did as the lucky blighter only has to walk 40 mins down the tow path of the canal to get there.
That started us wondering if they were to be found in Croatia…. seemingly Mr Wikipedia told us we were MORE likely to see them in Slovenia… Read More…
We climbed and climbed many steps to get this amazing view from the Castle at Kotor, Montenengro which is just an hoursp or so south of Dubrovnik. Not only did we enjoy the view but marvelled at the gorgeous Iris pallida plants that were in full bloom clinging to the many rocky crevices on the way up. They looked stunning with Euphobia wulfenii – the parent of the gorgeous variegated Euphorbia ‘Silver Swan’ which has proved so popular in NZ over the past few years. When you see where they naturally choose to grow you can understand why they love our hot, HB conditions. Drought just isn’t a problem for them.
Our first chance to get out and find some plants (as that’s what we have come to Croatia to do) was the tiny island of Lokrum which is just 600m – virtually a 10min boat ride -from the Old City.
Although inhabited by Benedictine monks since 1023 it wasn’t until Archduke Maximilian Ferdinand of Habsburg built a mansion built in 1859 that plants came to the fore on Lokrum. He laid out an amazing garden with an incredible variety of botanical wonders. Read More…
