Rosemary beetle

After considering various options, we opted for a familiar and easy day out to celebrate Ben's birthday, starting in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, where we found this rather splendid rosemary beetle. This eats the foliage and flowers of various aromatic plants, such as rosemary, lavender, sage, thyme and some other related plants.

Initially rosemary beetle was found mainly in London gardens, having colonised Britain from Southern Europe in 1994. It spread rapidly and is now widespread throughout England and Wales, with more scattered records in the rest of the UK. It is established in Scotland, present on Northern Ireland and may be established in parts of the Republic of Ireland.

Both the adult beetles and the larvae feed on the foliage and flowers of host plants, with most of the damage occurring between late summer and the spring. Heavily infested plants can look very shabby by spring. The plants' appearance will usually improve as new growth develops in late spring-summer. 

We all decided that we really need a much bigger garden, as the ideas that we'd like to incorporate in our garden included an annual meadow, a bee border, a desert bed, a bamboo forest and a wild swimming pond! I think we'd really need to win the lottery and buy a small-holding to fit all those in! I did spot a few species of plants that could be incorporated, including the smoky-mauve flowers of Delphinium requenii (see extra) - a species that's sufficiently bristly not to be eaten by slugs!

After the Botanical Gardens we walked into the city centre and had traditional Sicilian ice-creams from Amori - decadent and delicious. We then wandered round the shops, but most were either the same as in Peterborough, or immensely expensive, so all we bought was a pair of sunglasses for Ben. By this time it was hot and sticky, so we retreated to the pub for a couple of drinks (water for me) before driving home to collect Pete and Chris from the station. As none of us had the energy to cook we finished the day with a celebratory Chinese meal.