This week we're celebrating the fabulous mimosa tree. It's a ray of golden sunshine to brighten up our winters. Mimosa has a sweet fragrance and can be used as a beautiful and unusual cut flower. We're lucky enough to live on the South Coast which is one of the few parts of the country that is mild enough for the mimosa to thrive. Any mimosa you might find in a shop will have come from the Continent, typically from Italy. I haven't found a commercial British mimosa grower yet but, fortunately, I have some friendly local sources so the mimosa in this week's posy is locally grown. Mimosa is from the Acacia family and its foliage has a special, sensitive...
Today we're celebrating the Salix caprea, or pussy willow. These early-Spring catkins are flower clusters (with no petals). Only the male plants have them and the fluffy hairs are a way to insulate the flowers from cold temperatures. The female trees also produce catkins, but these look more like green hairy caterpillars than fluffy cat's paws. If you find pussy willow at a supermarket or florist shop it's likely to have come from China and is dried at peak fluffiness. The pussy willow in this week's posy comes from Lincolnshire and Surrey and is fully alive! Watch carefully, and you will see them cast off their brown cases and turn fluffy. Yellow stamens show as the flower matures and leaves...
We're so lucky to have a British cut flower hellebore grower! These hellebores are the first of the season and have been grown under glass in Norfolk. Our garden hellebores are just starting to come out now too which is nice. In a month of low light levels and what seems like endless rain, the beauty of these hellebores can give us all a little hope for the Springtime. As you may know, the main hellebore flower is made up from sepals rather than petals - a bit like a hydrangea. Typically the 'petals' are found in the centre of the flower and are actually vessel-shaped and called 'nectaries'. However, with these double hellebores, the extra inner flowers are achieved...
The true blue of the lovely hyacinth is a welcome sight as we look forward to the Springtime. This spectacular showy bulb has been grown under glass and has a rich, familiar fragrance. Outdoors it flowers around March-time and it's a popular choice for a flower bed. As well as blue, hyacinths come in a wide range of colours including white, peach, orange, yellow, pink, red and purple. In Greek mythology, two gods, Apollo and Zephyr, both fell for a handsome young prince called Hyakinthos (or Hyacinthus). Apollo was teaching Hyakinthos how to throw a discus and Zephyr looked on jealously. Hyakinthos threw the discus and Zephyr, who was a wind god, blew it back hitting Hyakinthos on the head and...
Happy New Year! This posy includes the beautiful fragrance of winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima). At this time of year, it's lost its leaves and its small creamy flowers are displayed in pairs along its stem. This bush is often planted in public parks and winter gardens for its winter interest and fantastic scent and is great in a larger garden too. Its common names include 'sweet breath of spring' and 'kiss me at the gate'. In the book The Great Gatsby there's mention of the pale gold odour of kiss-me-at-the-gate planted either side of the front entrance. As one of the most fragrant of our garden flowers, it's not a bad idea to plant it somewhere where you will enjoy...
