Garden Centre

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Capital Pleasures

I went to London today, which is something that I try not to do if at all possible, and never near Christmas when the city becomes completely insane with tense shoppers and inebriated work parties in silly hats throwing up in doorways. But there are a few (very few) compensations for visiting the capital at this time of year.

The picture shows one of them – the really stylish way that certain London squares celebrate the festive season. Forget the lights of Oxford Street - the entire contents of this particular window box probably didn’t cost more than a tenner, but somebody has made a real effort to keep the contents in good condition, feeding and watering the cyclamen (which can thrive even when dry, as long as it’s not too windy) and the feeding ivy (which copes with anything but makes the best lush growth with a little slow release granular feed and a not too windy corner because wind strips the tender bottom leaves from the stems and makes the aerial roots very pronounced).

The colours are great, not gaudy but bright and somehow seasonal, and the combination of height and structure provided by the conifers is balanced almost perfectly by the descending column shapes made by the creeping ivy – in fact it’s a miniature masterpiece, on an office windowsill, in a quiet corner of academic Bloomsbury - and it makes me rather proud to be British.

Labels: cyclamen, ivy, window box, winter colour, winter interest

The All Seasons Gardener at 11:33 AM

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