Last week while we had torrential rain and I couldn’t get into the garden, mass decapitation was taking place in the woodland! I couldn’t believe it when I went there today to see how my snakeshead fritillaries were coming on, masses of them had no flowers at all, when the week before there were loads of buds about to open.
At first glance everything looks ok, its only when you come to examine each flower that you realise something is wrong.
This is what I found, either a flower chewed in half…….
or completely gone, most were like this.
There were just one or two that had escaped, thank goodness, they are all white, don’t they taste as nice I wonder? Who had wreaked such havoc in the woodland I hear you cry…….
…this is the fellow who is responsible!! I have read many times that pheasants are partial to snakeshead fritillary flowers, but so far haven’t had any damage during the 22 yrs we have been here with a pheasant visiting the garden. Maybe this year we have a different one who has a sweet tooth! Is the only answer to erect a fence around the fritillaries or buy a gun, what do you think? Don’t worry, only joking about the gun!
In the meantime I will leave you with a photo of how it should look at the moment, this was taken last March.
I will let you know what happens, there are still a few buds, so hopefully they will be allowed to grow properly and open into beautiful flowers. I can hear him making a noise in the garden at the moment, it sounds as if he is in the woodland, maybe I will have to sit in there to protect my flowers…………. no I don’t think so, it is freezing today!!
