If we lived in France around 1800 we would not be talking about “We Love December”. Instead it would be “Nous Aimons Nivôse” because in a fit of revolutionary fervour all the months had been temporarily renamed to reflect the new society. Each week was ten days long and every day was named after something stirring and agricultural. For example, depending on the timing of the autumn equinox in Paris, 25 December could be called Bitumen Day, while 30 December that same year would be Manure Day. Not a lot of tinsel and tidings of great joy there but I suppose it made a change from all that guillotining. Happy Christmas.
WORDS JAMES ALEXANDER-SINCLAIR
STAR OF THE MONTH
Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Dark Desire’
What a truly remarkable grass this is: even though a lot of her much vaunted ‘dark desire’ is spent by this time of year. The winds and frosts of winter have beaten her back but she is still undefeated. In her youth (way back in the balmy months of summer) the bottlebrush flowers in shades of purplish black and deep, dark red added a bit of sultry sass to our borders. They are now just ghostly shadows rising above the frosty ground: still beautiful but with a gaunt and exhausted fragility. Comes to us all in time, I’m afraid!
Needs lots of sunshine to colour up well. Propagate by division in the springtime.
Height x Spread 80cm x 50cm
FOR THE BIRDS
You cannot fail to love a rowan: a froth of white flowers in spring, fabulous colour in autumn and these glorious berries. And it’s not just about you – a fortune can be saved in birdseed if you have a sorbus in your garden. Keep on feeding our garden birds through the year but take some comfort in that, for a short time at least, they will be stuffing themselves with highly nutritious berries.
Sorbus ‘Eastern Promise’
Good for most garden sizes. Tolerant of pollution. Full sun or light shade. H x S 5m x 3m
LOOK SHARP
Ah. Holly. A very useful, architectural evergreen shrub: perfect for most gardens. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without holly. We need it for door wreaths, the decoration on puddings and for general festivity. Holly with spray-on snow, holly with tinsel, holly with mince pies and holly branches on nativity scenes. The only disadvantage is the extreme prickliness: a casually dropped holly leaf is not something upon which you will want to tread!
Ilex aquifolium
Evergreen. Very hardy – except in wet ground.
