Gardening Page

A garden we are currently building in north London (if it ever stops raining) needs a large Olive tree in a warm corner. I have only limited experience of growing Olives in the UK: we have a small potted plant that spends most of the year in the vegetable garden but is currently in the greenhouse. Chantal and I went off to visit nurseries to find a specimen and the one in the photograph caught our fancy. We will send the picture to the client and see what he thinks but in the mean time we could not resist these white Hellebores.

At home, most of the action is in the conservatory. There are loads of orchids in flower and we bought a few more: £2.00 from Wyevale, reduced from £14 and £15 because they were no longer in flower. We mostly buy our orchids this way and are often rewarded by new flowers soon after we bring them home. We have quite a collection now, after being tempted by such discounts years ago.

Two other houseplants are looking great: the Poinsetya from Christmas has been joined by an orange-red Amarylis. While the Poinsetya will be thrown out after it has gone passed its best (no sign of that yet) I will try to get the Amarylis bulb to flower again next year.

If these logs are getting a bit thin on the ground I do have excuses: we are moving house very soon and our office even sooner. In the UK we are downsizing and moving a few miles East to the village of Stotfold. This frees up cash to begin serious work on our property in France, where we will spend much of our time as soon as we are sorted.

Oh, and I need operations on both eyes. As I say, a busy time!

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