Colourful Verges

Bird's-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus.  Chapell Green, Crowborough, 3 June 2017.

Walking around Crowborough in June and July I have seen many colourful flowers in the roadside verges and garden borders.  Most are common in the wild, like this Bird's-foot Trefoil.  Many are actually garden escapes.   They all brighten the roadside.  Here are some of the wildlings.

Fox and Cubs, Pilosella aurantica.  Gordon Road, Crowborough, 3 June 2017.

This vivid Fox-and-Cubs is plentiful.  I enjoy it partly because I only saw a few specimens back in Hayes.   Now, this even comes up in my lawn. 

Green Alkanet, Pentaglottis sempervirens. Whitehill Road, Crowborough, 10 June 2017.

The blue-flowered and very vigorous Green Alkanet is quite scarce here, whereas it was everywhere in Hayes.

Great Willowherb, Epilobium hirsutum.  Goldsmith's Recreation Ground car park, 8 July 2017.

Great Willowherb needs a bit more space, and is happy here in the rough ground beside a car park. 

Common Mallow, Malva sylvestris.  Outside Crowborough library, 8 July 2017.

Common Mallow has lesser requirements, and has sprouted here in an untended patch of concrete paving outside the library.

Tufted Vetch, Vicia cracca.  Luxford Lane, Crowborough, 7 July 2017.

Tufted Vetch likes a less busy spot.  Here it is scrambling through the long grass and brambles under a half-wild roadside hedgerow.

Yarrow, Achillea millefolium.   Luxford Lane, Crowborough,13 June 2017.

Yarrow is scattered in the short grass everywhere.  You can see some of its leaves among the Bird's-foot Trefoil flowers at the top of this post.  This plant is in my own lawn.  There are yellow and red flowered varieties of this plant in the garden centres at this time of year, and it's easy to see where they would thrive.

Also in this shot are the tiny yellow flowers of Lesser Trefoil, sometimes regarded as a garden pest.  Here, it is vigorous at the start of the year but is now dying back, at the end of its growth cycle and probably hastened on its way by fungal infections, of which I have seen a lot.  But it will be back next year.