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28 July 2020

 16/07/2020 / Liam Greene / Small Treasures

 24/07/2020 / Syd Harrod / Tale of Three Hollies

25 June 2020: The first Magnolia Grandiflora flower of the season opened this morning in my Courtyard and was low enough for me to bring it inside without having to use steps . The fragrance is exceptional - great to be able to grow this beauty.

22 cm across.   Liam

19 May 2020:  I am training this Azalea to look like Bonsai

Bonsai -  I will send you a photo of it without flower.

17 May 2020: This is a live Azalea plant trained like

I helped pollination on this Skimmia japonica with a pastry brush on one of our lovely sunny days this (2020) Spring.  I hope we will have a good crop of berries this Christmas - I use them as decoration every year - birds devour all my holly berries. Pollination seems to have worked all right.

 I took this photo today  (16th July) when it was warm,

 + 20 degrees.

A little more  of Italy in Derry !

This Azalea is the dwarf type from Japan.

It was built up years ago by buying and planting several of them together.

                        Ed.

When it’s out of flower the foliage is nearly as impressive !

Well actually, we have a fourth, but it is a healthy wild type fending for itself in the back hedge.  It appears to have a natural defence against Vine Weevil.  The most AGM-worthy, our favourite, is cornered between one end of a Cypress hedge and a standard Cotoneaster we rely on to keep Blackbirds happy after the first frosts.  

This Holly is code-named IlexSW because it is furthest south-west:  but it is lucky when it gets a couple of hours’ direct sunlight per day because our bungalow’s SW corner is only a paving slab away from the delicate-looking ivory-variegated foliage.  That pathway compels us to limit the Holly’s lateral advance to one leaf-joint per annum. I  do try to compensate  for such unladylike confinement by  making sure her upward space is not encroached by her taller neighbours.  May I introduce…?

Our other variegated Holly has its back to the Cypress hedge but has space in all other directions because we had stripped it ready for removal. We relented when we saw the new growth that developed, calling it IlexNW. It has a coarse style of growth with larger soft leathery leaves clumsily patterned with crude yellow edges.

These leaves are almost flat and not far from oval in outline, except for their several short prickles: -

The Cypress hedge behind has failed to recover from the damage caused by the Holly’s dense shade. But after the Scale-blackened Holly foliage was sawn away  the new growth looked strong enough to hide the damage.

 I’m hoping to spray against the Weevils and Scale insects effectively enough for IlexNW to conceal the harm it did.

Such optimism does sound crazy when you hear that our third Holly, code IlexNE,  is condemned because we have found it impossible to rid it of Cushion Scale insects. When this feature is continued, we will show some more differences between  the three Hollies, and you can decide whether you might share my optimism.     

      Syd        .