These musing are inspired partly by a walk in my local woods, it is always good to find nature moving in a time of year a lot of people consider to be the heart of Winter. On a south-facing slope I came across a hazel almost in flower but close enough to cheer me up! There are cultivated varieties to be had for the garden such as Corylus avellana contorta some times known as Harry Lauder’s Walking stick. Another variety to consider is Corylus avellana aurea which has soft yellow leaves, heavier cropping varieties have been selected such as Cosford cob and Hall’s Giant and are available if you want to grow your own nuts for Christmas. There are some close relatives like The red filbert Corylus maxima and the Turkish hazel Corylus colerna that makes an imposing tree. Further along on the walk I noticed that the Lords and Ladies are beginning to push up lush green leaves, this made me wonder how the Arum italicum pictum was doing in my garden so on my return home I had a look and they are looking in the pink so to speak!


Back at work on a pleasant February morning there is time for a quick look around the nursery, out on the beds there is not much sign of life just what looks like empty pots. But do not be fooled in a few weeks there will be new growth! One of the beds that caught my eye is the one that has an experimental group of plants with a topping of bark chips to suppress weeds and save on herbicides (This will make the nursery more environmentally friendly than ever.) So can the hawk eyed amongst you tell what the plants are ? If we look into the tunnels there are a number of plants that are showing signs of growth such as the Sedum Herbsfreude used to be Autumn Glory and as my dad would call it an Ice plant (If some one could tell me why its called that I would love to know!) the new leaves always look new and clean in the spring resembling baby cabbages Last but not least I was arrested by a scent wafting from one of tunnels and on investigation the origin turned out to be Sarcococca hookeriana humilis, what a mouthful of a name great for impressing non-gardeners. It is a very useful plant growing happily in the shade and giving a lift to the late winter with its highly fragrant flowers even if rather small! The fragrance gives it one common name of Sweet box and its habit of flowering around Christmas gives it another common name Christmas box.