The INFOMANIAC Garden Photos Event 2026

 Welcome to the 16th annual I N F O M A N I A C  GARDEN PHOTOS EVENT, and the 7th to be hosted here at Inexplicable Device! 

 

 Many thanks to all of you who have sent in photos of your gardens and green spaces - from brand new gardens to existing, mature ones to indoor arrays of pot plants, the GPE has them all.  And to those of you who haven't quite managed to send your photos in yet, you still have time - we would love to see what you've grown this year.

 

 Instigator and hostess of the GPE many a few years ago, The Very Mistress, has this to say:

"I didn't grow my usual sunflowers. [-] I let the wee garden go wild. Instead, I had a massive number of yellow flowers on long stems that keep returning, and they last a long time. I've forgotten their name but they're from the aster family as are sunflowers. I also had many milkweed plants which are good for the Monarch butterfly population. 

And, like Miss Scarlet, I have an unruly bush. :)"

Speaking of Ms Scarlet, as The Very Mistress is sans sunflowers I nabbed one from Scarlet's collection to illustrate this post (I don't have any either).

 

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Right.  Before we get to the aftermath of the Terrifying Triffidery sideshow, here's a little taster of the super blooms coming up throughout November in the GPE: 

 

 

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 So, let's get on with matching up the triffids to their handlers (and any remaining body parts with their hapless owners) in the results of

 

Terrifying Triffidery

 

 For anyone who may be late to the game and has not yet had a guess, scroll down no further and visit yesterday's Hallowe'en post to see the triffids and see if you can work out who sent what.

 For everyone else, here are the triffids: 

 

Triffid #1 from Herr Mago : "[-] there is one Halloween picture, isn't this what is called a "Green Man" ?"

I believe Mago may be talking about the Green Man architectural motifs, such as ceiling bosses seen in European cathedrals and churches.  His wizened wax flower (Hoya carnosa) certainly does look like it could be found in the rafters of old buildings!

While Ms Scarlet thought it was pretty, no one guessed that Mago had provided this triffid.

 

Triffid #2 from Mistress Maddie : "The item is actually a nigella flower....but the cropped and filtered one is the seed pod! They look creepy to me."

Ms Scarlet also thought this triffid was pretty, too.  And as with the first one, no one guessed Maddie had nurtured this triffid.

 

Triffid #3 from Mitzi : "I'm ready for my close up Mr Device."

Don't let the dish fool you, these are not lemons (or pears).

No, Mitzi's bursting pustule (thank you, Maddie) is a potato eye!

Mago was the only one to guess correctly, here.

 

Triffid #4 from Jon (& Madam A) : "[-] that "blob eye" (Cymbidium orchid) freaked me when viewed in close-up!"

Maddie correctly guessed that this particular triffid "MIGHT be from the back passage of Jon and the Madame" (although, I believe it resides in their parlour?).

 

Triffid #5 from me, IDV : This is the bat flower (Tacca chantrieri) nearly a week after I bought it from RHS Sandringham at the end of July (the flower had already gone over at the time). 

Herr Mago was the only one to guess this one, too!

 

Triffid #6 from Ms Scarlet : "WAIT!!!! I Found a Triffid!!!!!! I found a triffid that I made in May!!!" 

Ms Scarlet sent her foxglove triffid in just after the midday Friday deadline which may explain the urgency - and excess of exclamation marks.

This was a popular one with Jon, 'Petra and Mago all guessing correctly.  Dinah thought it might be her own foxglove, but I suspect her guess was brought on by either too much or too little wine... 

 

Triffid #7 from Savvy (yes, she made it in before the deadline!) : "[one of] 3 sad photos." 

There were a couple of guesses as to the cultivator of these sad, shrivelled succulents, but neither hit the mark.

 

Triffid #8 from Dinah : "One more if you want to use it, though it's not really mine!" 

Dinah's neighbour's encroaching abutilon stumped everyone - no one guessed what it was or who it was from.

 

Triffid #9 from Jon : "[One of] the Hallowe'en ones... [-] Salvia Amistad, [-].  Of course." 

I was surprised that no one got this - I thought the forked serpent tongue was unmistakably Salvia and, therefore, must have come from Jon.

 

Triffid #10 from me : This 'happy trail' was the beard of Iris "Black Tie Affair".

Two of the guessers thought this happy trail might have been something Maddie frequented (I can't imagine why?), but no one suspected it was from me.

 

Triffid #11 from me again : There were 12 Triffids as of close-of-business, so I added this one of a shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus) to up the count to a fitting 13.

Ms Scarlet correctly guessed this was from me.

 

Triffid #12 from Cyberpete : "A flower’s broken" 

This is what happens when you give 'Petra a living plant (in this case, a Phalaenopsis orchid).  Be warned!

Despite a few guesses, no one managed to pin this crime on 'Petra.

 

Triffid #13 from Ms Scarlet : "A bit lack lustre this year, but I am being constantly hassled by a herding dog." 

Another triffid that no one managed to identify or match up to a gardener.  Ms Scarlet's two fingered salute was, of course, immature.

Apologies, I didn't mean to stop there. That was supposed to end "immature, upside-down hazel catkins" (at least, I think they're hazel?).

 

 If the Garden Photos Event or any of its sideshows and associated attractions were contests or competitions, we'd have a clear winner of Terrifying Triffidery:  Herr Mago!  But they're not, which is a good thing as I don't have to sort out prizes, for one.

 

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 Oh, one final announcement before we get on with the show, someone distracted my woodsman, didn't they?!  It took him ages to get all that... excitement out of his hair and beard.  While he was doing that, some of the triffids escaped, so watch yourselves out there!

 

 

 In a couple of days time the first garden of the tour, Dinah's, will be open, so we'll see you all in New Zealand on the 4th!