Celandines

There's a place on the way into Shrewsbury from here, just a stretch of verge by the side of road down towards The Mount, where there is always a brilliant show of early celandines. So I remembered to keep a look out when driving past today, and, yes, there they were in all their glory. While it can be a garden pest to a degree, anywhere else the celandine is a real delight: it is an early buttercup with no petals, but with golden sepals doing the job instead. Sometimes there can be a double helping or more of sepals. I love the leaves, too, heart-shaped and often subtly patterned. Celandines open with the sun, so always look their best when the weather is bright. They have quite a long flowering season, from February through to May (though I've seen a few out here and there before Christmas when it's been mild), but are finished by the time the summer flowers really get under way. Celandines also propagate themselves vegetatively, via little bulbils which, as I know from experience, easily come away and hide themselves in the garden when you're trying to weed!

These were photographed by me a year ago on Pontesford Hill.