Goodbye Rocket my darling

Mid-Winter 18 June 2025

We are a few days away from the shortest day and it is frosty most mornings. The Tidy Gardener purchased some seven-week Hy-Line Brown pullets yesterday and they have spent a very cold night huddled under their heat lamp in the glasshouse - a bitter welcome. Nature is amazing in all its adaptations for the different weather that both plants and animals are able to endure. Viburnum tinus is the only shrub flowering at present at Holt Cottage in a couple of spots. It layers easily so I need to assess which spot might benefit from an additional spot of flowering winter cheer; the garden is getting full, so planting places are at a premium.

Floral art monthly meeting has just been and gone; the completion title was Whimsical Design. I love this kind of challenge. I used just four plants, all of which had been propagated from other people’s gardens. Aucuba japonica, variegated buxus, Fatsia japonica and variegated periwinkle (Vinca major). The later, lives contained - I give it a place as I love coloured leaves and its vines, stripped of leaves are very useful in floral design.