Work for the week

Late March through to mid April is a wonderful time to go walking in beech and broadleaf woodland for it is still pellucid and mysterious.

Later, when the leaves are fully expanded it will become enclosed, curtained off and darkened from the outside world. Until then, we can admire wood anemones and bluebells, essential constituents (along with primroses) of the spring tapestry now showing in all shady places. Those anemones in white and pink move and wander about at will, sometimes emerging between massed tree trunks where little else seems to grow while others move further to where the light catches their nodding blooms. In light or shade they love to dance in the March wind, harmonising with everything, and clashing with nothing. Take a walk on the wild side this weekend.

MAGNOLIAS: It surprises me every year that I do not have a magnolia tree. Gardening is like that though. I write about the best varieties and admire them from afar, but because of perceived space limitations the acquisition, the dream; the expectation, is never fulfilled. Am I too content to watch spring after spring pass from youthfulness to maturity without the delight of purple chalices under-planted with blue Muscari outside the bedroom window? Perhaps, before my weekly writing and very active gardening ceases I should invest in that tidy-sized variety called liliiflora nigra, for in a nearby garden it blooms stunningly. The effect is breathtaking. Then again it may be the case that one admires more what one does not have. What a funny lot we gardeners are.