THIS WEEK AT GLEBE COTTAGE
Let’s be thankful for those f lowers that add fragrance to the dull, dark days!
The latest from Carol's beautiful cottage garden... plus her diary for the week!
On my desk is a little bunch of snowdrops in a green vase. The vase is the same colour as their stems and the neat green horseshoes – or are they inverted hearts? – neatly decorate their inner petals. Every so often I stop to wonder at the perfection of every part of each flower. But when I’m writing away or scratching my head waiting for inspiration, it’s their soft perfume I sense. It comes directly without me even thinking of it – a less intentional act than deliberately studying and admiring them.
To have such perfume in the midst of winter is a bonus, yet it’s not rare. Many winter-flowering plants fill the air with fragrance, using it to lure in the few pollinators around at this bleak time of year. Unlike many summer flowerers, they cannot rely on showy blooms with gaudy petals to attract the insects they need, so scent is the enticement that works best.
Even on the coldest day, the perfume from these plants pervades the air.
Either side of our front door, two Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ are in full bloom now. This plant was raised more than 40 years ago at Hillier’s Nursery by Alan Postill and is named after his wife – what a compliment! The RHS awarded it its AGM, or Award of Garden Merit – the ultimate seal of approval that the plant does well in the UK.
