A touch of the blues

At the Sheen Falls Hotel in Kenmare, a fine powder-blue Ceanothus grows in a sheltered courtyard.

It would have grown in a neater fashion had the plant been pruned lightly after flowering each year, but even so, it draws favourable comment when it blooms.

An exciting aspect of gardening is that affections are never constant! Look at this way — in February, out come the daffodils and early snowdrops to positively vamp you and you’ll have eyes just for them and no other flower. Some weeks later you’ll be positively drooling over an early-flowering camellia or choice hellebore (whilst the daffs fade away) and when these have finished, the azaleas, rhododendrons, and exciting cut-leafed maples will vie for that pride of place in your heart. Secretly we acknowledge that whichever plant takes our fancy (in whatever season it may reveal its blooms) they will capture our hearts all over again. If this kind of happening sounds familiar, you are in very good company!