Somewhere lurking beneath the mahonia and fatsia jumble is an odd little tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) that’s in decidedly the wrong place. The three were planted together fifteen years or so ago, after a trip to a local nursery specialising in shrubs and rather before I had much of an idea what I was doing in the garden.
Read moreDay 4: Winter warmers
Snow is falling, everywhere but here. At least, that’s how it seems, the best we can muster in this part of the world apparently being a fleeting filigree edge to the leaves of Salvia uliginosa (the bog sage).
Read moreDay 3: Belonging
Winter presents the ideal opportunity for getting to grips with the brambles, but who really belongs more in the garden – the weeds, or the gardener?
Read moreDay 2: Vivipary
The antics of my artichokes have become a talking point. Beneath a similar picture to the above, posted to my Instagram account a few days ago, a friendly discussion ensued as to whether or not what’s going on here is vivipary in its truest sense.
Read moreDay 1: Betwixtmas
Back in your inboxes and the blog after the year we won’t mention, and belatedly shovelling tulip bulbs into the ground like some kind of demented squirrel. It’s what Betwixtmas is all about.
Read moreDay 365: gardening into the new year
I catch myself in the ridiculous position of wishing time away, urging my garden to catch up with the images of other people’s snowdrops appearing day by day on my phone. It’s not a race. It’s not a competition of any sort…
Read moreDay 364: prayer plant
In the world of the houseplant enthusiast, a bicolour leaf seems to be far more greatly prized than such a thing would be in the parallel realm of the outdoor gardener, where variegation is often met with less than universal affection…
Read moreDay 363: poinsettia
Spurges generally don’t get to come into the house. They’re great in the garden – the architectural form of Euphorbia characias with its wonderful glaucous foliage…
Read moreDay 362: a mystery begonia
I love a Christmas mystery as much as the next person, but today’s has less to do with a body in the library and footsteps in the snow than it does the identity of one particular begonia…
Read moreDay 361: Betwixtmas
Christmas is wonderful, of course it is, but when the frenzy is done and the motorway miles have been reeled in, a kind of peace descends until the new year…
Read moreDay 360: a morning cup of camellia
The camellias bask in the pale golden light of the morning sun, dew beginning to gather and run along the surface of each leathery leaf…
Read moreDay 359: the tree
I used to feel a bit sorry for the tree on Christmas day. Uprooted, stuck in a pot, shoved in a corner of a room and bedecked with lights and tinsel and all manner of wotnot while odd human creatures rush about displaying behaviours characteristic of varying levels of stress…
Read moreDay 358: Mother Nature’s baubles
Mild winters make the birds less eager to strip every twig and branch of their convenient energy snacks, and so the sodden late December garden is still punctuated with tiny blobs of deep red…
Read moreDay 357: in the absence of frost
I’ve been holding out for a frosty end to the year. It looks like I’m going to be disappointed. And yet, now that it comes to it, I’ll happily settle for the festive season that’s just not sodden…
Read moreDay 356: winter solstice
Solstice. The year turns once again and, ever so tentatively at first, we begin to leave the darkness behind. With an impeccable sense of timing the incessant mild, wet weather enters its last throes…
Read moreDay 355: cushion bush
Calocephalus, or cushion bush, or Leucophyta brownii, is a strange and enchanting plant, one whose icy vibes are perfectly suited to a winter window box and wouldn’t look out of place in the landscape of Frozen…
Read moreDay 354: December rain
By all that’s good and right and holy, December in this part of the world should be cold and crisp and clear. In my experience, December rarely pays any notice to this doctrine…
Read moreDay 353: Pelargonium tomentosum
I’m a bit of a sucker for a furry plant. I’m also a fan of scented-leaved pelargoniums. A pelargonium with soft, furry stems and leaves and a strong peppermint scent was always going to grab my attention…
Read moreDay 352: Edgeworthia chrysantha
For all the work there is yet to do outside, it really does feel as though in early December the garden decides to reward itself with a few weeks off…
Read moreDay 351: fire in the dogwood
There are two or three varieties of the European, or bloodtwig dogwood Cornus sanguinea that pack a considerable punch in the garden on a soggy December day…
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