... out in the garden.

28th December 2025

Woodland walk .	Camellia 'Winter's Interlude' .	Narsissus meadow .
The week has been dry and there is a lull after Christmas when I get the chance to do something useful in the garden. I have been cutting back hydrangeas that had overgrown. It's a slow process but it's good to get a chance to settle down and do it. In a few weeks spring will arrive with all its clamouring insistence. Some things will get done in the brief lull, some will not. Some will stand waiting for another year, others will not. Camellia 'Winter's Interlude' captures the feeling exactly. It started flowering three or four weeks ago and the garden has stood still for a moment, but now it is shedding petals in drifts on the ground. Snowdrops are coming up nearby. The interlude is nearly over. In autumn I killed the grass in the narcissus meadow. I am hoping that the bulbs will have more vigour without competition. Already I think I prefer it this way.

Camellia border	Cantua buxifolia 'Dancing Oaks'	View down the hill
The garden has a marvellously empty look about it as though there was no limit to the space and possibility. Last week I finally planted the last things waiting in pots by the back door. It is a relief to see them gone. I was amazed that I found room for them but it is winter in the garden. Deceptive spaces appear. They will not be real spaces by the time spring gets here but they are real enough for now. In August, after the first heavy rains, I planted Camellia 'Bonanza'. Three weeks ago I dug it up again and moved it to a real space. I don't know what I was thinking of, it was never going to prosper in 60cm of dull ground that a young Crinodendron will gobble up next year. In the greenhouse border I had three Cantua. I have removed two, there is only space for 'Dancing Oaks' if I want it to prosper.

.Herbaceous border	Grevillea victoriae	Path to the Hedychium border
The old herbaceous border is looking tired. I had problems finding time to control the weeds and it has become a project to be dealt with. In the last couple of years I have added more shrubs and big perennials and that may be the way ahead. There are day lilies and crocosmias in there but they will be allowed to fade away slowly if they choose. Both the garden and the gardener are maturing, it's time to let the complex detail fade away. Outside the Agave house, Grevillea victoriae is indulging in a winter show. It is on the list of things that I really must propagate this year. The original is getting old, flowering is reduced this year and it could give up on me at any time. I would like to ensure that I have a replacement to celebrate Christmas in Australia.

Hedychium border .	Mahonia siamensis .	Musa 'Tibet'.
The Hedychium border has burgeoned. We hardly had a frost last year and the stems remained green into early summer. In consequence there was no chance to go through it in spring with a herbicide and destroy the perennial weeds. It will have to be done this year, even if it means cutting the Hedychium down. I do not want a sharp frost in January, it would be very tiresome, but there would also be a silver lining. The row of Musa 'Tibet' have stood up well this year. They have been a bit shredded in the last couple of weeks but they are still looking like bananas. The same frost that might hit the Hedychium will turn them black and dejected until the summer heat returns. I am slowly extending the line of the bananas and hoping that this year some of the new plantings will start to match the originals. In the Agave house I have an end-of-year surprise in the shape of Mahonia siamensis. It is far too shaded in there for it to show its full potential, but it survives. I planted one in the garden that grew magnificently for a few years but it died. The jury is out on whether it was cold, shade or drought that finished it off. And so the year ends in the garden, cold, dark, windy and surprisingly restful. The chaos of spring is about to be unleashed.

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