Evergreen

Sometimes it is only when I start writing about something that I remember something else totally different.  This happened when I sat down to write this post, I was going to call it Evergreens, but then I remember Evergreen, which is not just some lame excuse to add a Barbra Streisand song to the blog at all (yes it is, shush).
This is not actually my favourtie Streisand song, that is definitely 'The Way We Were', which is also probably my favourite film with her in too.  Anyway, as usual, I have digressed before even reaching the point of this post.

Evergreens and I have an uncomplicated relationship in that in general I dislike them.  I find them dull and uninteresting.  The majority of them just sit there looking green at you, all the time, like they are for ever green or something similar.  You can tell me they give all year colour and  I will tell you that is no excuse for sitting there looking green all the time.  Dull, dull, dull.

Except

of course there is an except, it would be a shorty ranty blog without an except now wouldn't it?

Except for the evergreens that I like and grow.  Such as:
my Magnolia 'Fairy Blush', which these days is looking positively healthy after a moment of relocation.
There is also the Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem', which I am hoping turns out to be quite a gem.
Camellias in general are great love of mine, to the point I try and pretend they are not evergreens at all.  This is a new one to me, I am trialling it for Thompson and Morgan, it is rosthorniana 'Cupido'.  I had lusted over this plant when I first saw it so when I was offered it to trial it was more than churlish to refuse.  I am waiting for it to flower and it is covered in buds so I have high hopes for it.

Then there is the Griselinia littoralis, the Kapuka.  You may look at this and see a small, underwhelming hedging plant.
I, however, look at it and see the Dancing Tree in the Gwyllt at Portmeirion.  A magnificent huge specimen that can only make you look at it in awe.  I do not have the microclimate that the Gwyllt has, my Griselinia may never dance, but in its heart I know that it wants to.

But I end on the example of everything I dislike about evergreens embodied in one plant
I present to you the laurel.  This flipping plant took up the whole top corner of the garden when I moved in.  I swiftly had it cut down and the tree man said he had killed the roots so they did not need grubbing out.  Either he was playing fast and loose with the truth or the laurel was refusing to die, either way seven years on there it is, springing up whenever and where-ever it can.  It just sits there, being green.  It is dull.

Comments

  1. I did not know that you could get evergreen magnolias. Mmmmmm. I'm with you on the laurel, it's quite sarky about sitting there being green.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I did not know that you could get evergreen magnolias. Mmmmmm. I'm with you on the laurel, it's quite sarky about sitting there being green.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I remember now how it supposed to have taken over large sections of Heligan when it was left to its own devices for awhile. Looks innocent but only when kept an eye on regularly...

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