CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

  Everyone looks forward to finding the first primroses, violets and bluebells blooming in spring, but the flowering of dog’s mercury  Mercu...

    Stinking hellebore  Helleborus foetidus , malodorous but a wonderful source of pollen and nectar for the first bees to emerge in spring,...

  Beautiful but deadly poisonous autumn crocus  Colchicum autumnale , cultivated in a woodland garden near the main car park in Hexham, Nort...

 At this time of year we are all on the lookout for the first sign of spring flowers - the first celandine, colt'sfoot or maybe even a p...

Last week we found this very early-blooming spurge laurel Daphne laureola coming into bloom on the bank of the river Tyne, near Hexham in N...

This cuckoo pint aka wild arum aka lords and ladies aka Arum maculatum - and scores of other names...

There’s an interesting collection of poisonous plants growing in the sand dune system at Warkworth in Northumberland. Of these the most noto...