Railway tracks are a good locale for urban wildflowers. Red Valerian is in flower among the clinker with Buddleja bushes to follow. As I photographed this spot a lady with a pram was taking a snap on her phone to send to her parents. She said Red Valerian grew all over the garden when she was a child and the sight of it made her feel nostalgic. 

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)

Purple Toadflax (Linaria purpurea)

 An abundance of flora will bloom in the damp ground of Oughtonhead Common in the weeks and months ahead. As Brian Sawford once noted: "Marshes fed with highly calcareous waters can support a great variety of wildflowers". 

 Dog Rose (Rosa canina) is much in evidence at the moment. Hedgerows are the classic habitat but here one grows right next to one of the ditches that cuts across the common. As I stood at this spot I heard the call of a Cuckoo loud and close by. 

 Good to pay a visit to the South London Botanical Institute last week. Urgent repairs and refurbishment necessitated the closure of the building for over a year (and the garden with it). In fact it has yet to reopen to the public but will do in the near future. I dropped by to help the gardeners with a few tasks- it was nice to catch up and have a natter.

 Rainy day. It's said that we have had the wettest 18 months on record. Prior to that we had the most severe heatwave/drought since the summer of '76.

 I took part in the annual Open Gardens in my neighbourhood today. It always happens round about now which is after the spring flowers have peaked but before most of the summer flowers appear. Accordingly it's rather variable what may or may not be in bloom depending on the weather we've had.

 Obligingly Trailing Bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana) trails all around the front steps and is flowering a couple of weeks earlier than usual...

 Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorous). Vigorous in marshy margins and a good choice for pond side planting- if you have a pond that's large enough. I grow one in a big pot in a big bucket and it looks fine in a border among other perennials. 

 Smoking! The bees at Benslow were calm today but it was a different story last weekend. Working in the gardens with Jif on the Saturday and Sunday there were swarms both days. Ashley -Benslow's beekeeper- was called in.

 He said he was more or less expecting swarming to occur and had observed "swarm preparations" in the hives during the weeks before. We had that cold spell late April-early May then the weather turned warm at which point bees are liable to depart en masse. 

 Ashely got to work separating queens along with brood and food in several of the hives. Transferring them creates colonies in vacant hives and this division reduces the likelihood of swarming. 

 Sometimes a swarm may be a mating foray whereby the queen leaves the hive but returns soon after along with her followers. When bees swarm to find a new home they will cluster for several hours e.g. on a branch then depart. Both kinds of swarm were evident at Benslow and at least one colony has gone but Ashley's intervention was timely. 

 Walking on the Pegsdon Hills last week. Late afternoon, sunny, breezy. Gusting clouds creating dramatic contrasts of light and shade raking fast across the undulations of the escarpment. This view is looking towards Knocking Hoe illuminated in the top right of the landscape.    

 First walk this year round Knocking Hoe. The sun didn't really appear but the day was mild with a soft muzziness as the layers of the landscape receded towards the horizon.

I thought the Pasque Flowers might be over by now. In fact they are just starting to bloom.

Cowslips are a "common" wildflower but the Pasque Flower is rare. 

On the slopes of Knocking Hoe they mingle. A striking contrast.

Bees need weeds!

A handsome stand of Solomon's Seal outside one of my favourite pubs. What's not to like? 

 Laburnums are flowering magnificently at the moment. The flowers seemed rather brief and sparse on this one last year, probably another instance of variable weather having an effect.

 All parts of the tree are toxic to humans including the pea-like seed pods and there have been some scare stories in the past. The two species L. anagyroides  and L. alpinum are of the Pea family Fabaceae but not all peas are edible. Moral of the tale: look at Laburnums, don't eat them.

 Note the bumblebee moving in to forage. Laburnums are a magnet for bumblebees so it would appear their metabolisms experience no ill effect.

 Two self-seeding biennials: Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and Honesty (Lunaria annua).

 Both are of the Brassicacacae family of plants i.e the mustard/crucifers/cabbage family. Both are important food plants for butterflies -and not just the flowers. Several species of butterfly (e.g. Orange Tip) lay their eggs on the buds; later the caterpillars feed on the seed pods.

 Garlic Mustard is native to the UK and prolific. Honesty has naturalised and is fairly widespread. They pop up all over the place in semi-sunny/semi-shady spots. In fact A. petiolata has another common name which accurately describes its main habitat: "Jack by the Hedge".