Garden Centre

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Blatant beauty

Okay, after all that subtlety of my last post, here’s the absolute antithesis of subtle – my new mahonia. I bought this statuesque plant two years ago, when it was a measly two feet tall. It’s now peering over the top of an eight foot wall, and, for the first time, has blossomed.

I do have one little quibble about it – mahonia smells so wonderful that having the flowers eight and a half feet in the air is a bit of a waste; perhaps the crows and seagulls are getting the benefit, but I’m not!

On the plus side, the colour is astonishing, it’s like having a personal sun shining out of the darkest and mankiest corner of the garden, and for next year I have a plan (don’t tell himself – I’m not supposed to be buying any more plants) to invest in a cornus so that the bright red winter stems can make a crimson hem around the bottom of this golden flowering giant.

I should, perhaps, cut some of the blossom for the house, but I find it difficult to cut mahonia, for two reasons – the practical one is that mahonia (aka Oregon Grape) is very prickly and the stems are like wire, you need really sharp snippers and good gloves and the sentimental one is that it seems so cruel to cut any part of the plant when it’s being so brave in the garden.

Labels: mahonia, winter colour, winter interest

The All Seasons Gardener at 3:06 AM

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