There was this red flower that was really bugging me. It looked like a fat ear of red corn, or a very elongated burnet. I took photos, asked Google Lens, and waded through my Collins Wild Flower Guide literally from cover to cover, but nothing looked like this flower (see below).
And then, about a week later, it actually burst into flower – purple ones – and I realised that I had been looking at the buds!
The red buds, which had once clustered together like ears of corn were now stretched along the stem in tiers and opening into layers of purple flowers. Many of the spikes were now over 2m tall. We used to have one or two making a purple tunnel down one of the paths by the pond, but now we seem to have purple drifts competing with the Great Willowherb, which is still going strong.
