Roadside Tulips in Bristol

The Fort Royal Gardens is not the only place where you can find flowers. Nor do you have to look look in unusual places, although you may miss out on some gems if you don't keep your eyes peeled or at least be aware of your surroundings in terms of plants. However, there are lots of other places in plain sight where you will be able to see some very striking floral displays.

Traffic Islands are one of those areas that make excellent locations although I am not sure how many people actually stop and admire them. In any case they are there slap bang in the middle of some of the business streets for everyone to see and appreciate if they take the time to do so.

One of the largest flower beds can be seen on Queens Road in Front of the Victoria Rooms which houses the University of Bristol's Music department and sits at the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Brussels in Summer - # 3 - 2013

Brussels in Summer continues with more photographs of flowers growing in front gardens, sidewalk gardens, traffic islands and other public places accessible and easily  viewable by anyone who takes the time to notice and appreciate the efforts of the residents and community gardeners.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Forest in Summer - Part 1

I arrived in Brussels as just in time to see and photograph this Christmas Cactus then when visiting the city hall of Forest I took some time to photograph some of the plants and flowers that were planted in the flower beds in front.


Christmas Cactus, Schlumbergera hybrides

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Flowers and Trees on Avenue Louise Part 1

Flowers and Trees on Avenue Louise  Part 1

Aside from the hidden green spaces, massive forests, tree lined avenues and front garden gems one thing that you see a lot in Brussels and other cities, towns and villages in Belgium are flowers in median strips, along roadsides in baskets hanging from lamp posts and in roundabouts starting from spring until Autumn for as long as the hardiest flowering plants last.

Around spring time in July 2012 I went down to Avenue Louise because I wanted to take some photos of some statues that I have been meaning to photograph for a while, in particular this big composition at the entrance of the Cambre Forest of two men on horsesI think i will call it: Everything and nothing in particular, until I come up with something better or have enough material to split it up.

Then I got distracted by the flowers planted along the median strip of Avenue Louise in Brussels- Close to entrance of the Forest of La Cambre (Dutch: Ter Kamerenboos , French: Bois de la Cambre which is an urban public park on the edge of the Sonian Forest in Brussels.

 

Sorry I have no idea what the names of the flowers are. I have a suspicion as to the purple ones but want to check up on that first.

Ok I know that the Red ones are Begoinas, but that is it.

This is one thing that I really like about Brussels and cities like it: Tree lines avenues with  REAL Trees that provide lots of shade not to mention homes for all sorts of birds. It is not unusual to hear birds singing in the middle of the city in such areas.
In Spring 2012 at night tyou could often hear a nightingale singing on Avenue Des Sept Bonniers

 

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

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Facts:

The Sonian Forest (Dutch: Zoniënwoud,French: Forêt de Soignes) is a 4,421-hectare (10,920-acre) forest that lies across the south-eastern part ofBrussels, Belgium

Additional details:

As I said I will be posting the photographs of the statues on another blog which will cover  art, sculpture, food, history, culture, literature among other things. Basically this blog will be a catch all for other topics that I cannot logically cover in my existing blogs:

·         Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters)

·         The Blood of  Souls (language, translation and etymology)

·         Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general)

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Flowers in the City Heart

Flowers in the City Heart

As I have said before; if you keep your eyes open and are aware of your surroundings you will be surprised at how much greenery and flowers you will find in the oddest places.

Sometimes this means looking UP as people are fond of potted plants which they put out on their balconies or window ledges.

This was on the main road in Central Brussels between Debroucker and the Bourse. I just happened to look up as I was actually strolling along looking for examples of various styles of facades to photographs. Mostly they were Art Nouveau but then I spotted these flower pots with the amazing trumpet flowers.

 

Using the zoom I was able to get an even better appreciation of them. I wonder how many people walked past these beauties on that busy street without even noticing the stunning display several meters above their heads.



Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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Roadside Flowers in Antwerp, Belgium

Roadside Flowers in Antwerp

I visited Antwerp in August 2012 taking the train from Brussles and took some pictures of the Cathedral and some other interesting buildings. On my way back I took what I though was a shortcut and got lost. Well actually I was not lost because I soon found where I was once I looked at my map.

I have this habit of trying to take short cuts and end up miles from where I want to be because unlike cities like Adelaide which are set out in a nice simple grid places like Antwerp and Brussels, indeed probably most European cities are not set out in nice grids. The thing is because I had wandered far of course I ended up seeing some interesting places and things among them a few squares full of amazingly vibrant flowers.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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Forest & Uccle Communes in Spring PART 3

A group from the Commune of Uccle had a project where they gave free packs of mixed flower seeds to people in the Commune to plant in the various little plots of ground found along the sidewalks.
Most are the spots where trees are planted but there are some which are bigger and are part of traffic islands etc.
They used various seed mixes using native wild flowers. The types you would normally find growing wild in meadows and fields. The idea was to create a natural self generating flowering plots as they selected plants that would self seed. I guess we will see what happens next year. Some plantings were more successful than others.

The main problem for those that did not succeed has been due to some people chucking their rubbish bags on the spot where the seeds were so they got squished which is what happened to my efforts.

Here is a big area that was seeded and also had a mini picket fence and a big sign as well. I think that the big plots on the traffic islands were planted by the Commune (Town Hall).

They had so many different types of meadow flowers whenever I walked past I would slow down just to admire them.

Another thing that you see around in varrious communes here is baskets of flowers hung up on lamp poles. They stay up through Spring and Summer and come down around Autumn / Fall.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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