Hello With Easter out of the way and spring very definitely here, thoughts naturally turn to gardening – handson, not armchair. On a stroll round my garden it was good to reacquaint myself with some old friends, now showing signs of life. Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ has actually finished flowering now, but with the new leaves emerging, I can appreciate what a good shape this particular specimen is now making. Young ones can be rather awkward, with vigorous stems shooting in random directions, making no pleasing outline at all. Rather like your adolescent children, they are very much a presence without actually contributing very much. But after a few years, the shrub fills out, usually vaselike, though mine is spreading. I’m always faintly relieved to see new leaves on my hybrid honeysuckle, Lonicera tellmanniana, as its roots are rather starved among those of the apple tree which is its host. This will be sending out its lustrous orange trumpets in June, and, despite its absence of scent, it remains one of the most desirable of all. Nearby, I spotted – surprisingly lengthy already – the leaves of another favourite plant, Nectaroscordum siculum. If only this too were scentless! I checked its identity by gently bruising the leaves and sniffing its unmistakeable rancid onion smell. This rather quiet plant no doubt would be better known if it had a familiar common name. At Lamport Hall, it has colonised the banks that edge two sides of the garden, following the spring daffodils. I’ll post some pictures on my blog. For anyone with a living to earn, time to spend in your own garden is always in short supply, so it’s worth keeping your eyes open whenever you are away from home – you never know what you might spot. I found myself in the middle of Birmingham the other week, to be precise St Paul’s Square in the Jewellery Quarter. It’s a fascinating area, with its period frontages surrounding the delightful Georgian church set in a large green square. A whole bed planted with the exoticlooking, though perfectly hardy, Chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) caught my eye. They rather jarred with the architecture thereabouts, but it’s intriguing to see a massed planting of a shrub (eventually tree) that’s normally used in isolation as a dramatic specimen. Along with some predictable daffodils, I also noted some grape hyacinths – not the usual Muscari armeniacum – something of a weed – but Muscari latifolium, with larger darker flowers with a distinctly paler crown. Elsewhere was what looked at a distance to be some almost tropicallooking ground cover. Closer inspection revealed this to be a largeleaved ivy (either Hedera canariensis or colchica). Smallleaved ivies (H. helix) are often recommended for this purpose, but to fill a large area the bigger ones are equally effective. It’s the variegated forms (such as ‘Paddy’s Pride’) that are usually grown, but the plain ones are just as recommendable. Not quite hardy, they often take on a bronze flush in cold weather. Have a great month Andrew andrewmikolajski.com
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