Dreary, wet and miserable. And it’s July.
Instead of bringing you some ‘high brow’ news we thought we’d lighten the mood with some weird, wonderful and amusing garden related facts! (We call them facts – don’t quote us on the accuracy of the information below…!)
These were just some of the ones we most enjoyed reading… (courtesy of www.gardeningchannel.com, www.telegraph.co.uk (taken from the BBC quiz QI) http://www.examiner.com and http://grrrrrls.blogspot.co.uk/
Enjoy!
- Roses are related to apples, raspberries, cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears and almonds.
- Tulip bulbs were more valuable than gold in Holland in the 1600s.
- Tulip bulbs can be substituted for onions in a recipe.
- The onion is a lily botanically
- The juice from bluebell flowers was used historically to make glue.
- The flower buds of the marsh marigold are pickled as a substitute for capers.
- Britain has about 16 million back gardens, each containing more than 4,000 invertebrates (worms, spiders, insects) and about 250 plants.
- A snail can sleep for three years.
- A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
- A hummingbird will visit over 1,500 flowers in an average day.
- Mosquitoes are attracted to the colour blue more than any other colour.
- The average back garden contains 3.5 million species – twice as many as have been identified on the planet.
- Gnomes are banned from the Chelsea Flower Show.
- Cool as a cucumber? It’s true … the inside of a cucumber on the vine measures as much as 20 degrees cooler than the outside air on a warm day.
- The daisy got its name because the yellow centre resembled the sun. It was commonly known as the “day’s eye” and over time, was eventually called daisy.
Do you have any weird and wonderful facts you’d like to share? Email us and we’ll share them too!