My birthday, in case you're interested, is 13 February. And this was the first year I was able to ask for gardening-related birthday presents. So Hubster bought me a Metasequoia glyptostroboides and RHS membership, his parents bought me a load of stuff from Crocus, and a couple of my girlfriends bought me more Crocus vouchers.
My birthday present from the in-laws arrived yesterday, in a mahoosive box (I'm going to get home from my conference tomorrow night to find that Hubster's been pretending it's a car and scooting around the lounge in it). So, I have a myrtle (Myrtus communis), a Chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), a shuttlecock or ostrich fern (Matteucia struthiopteris) and a monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana). And you know how I sometimes name the plants? For example, Bastard is my Cycas revoluta, Sideshow Bob is my Nephrolepis exaltata, Matildus is my Wollemia nobilis and Karma is my Camellia x williamsii. Well, I picked up the monkey puzzle, and saw how it was tied to the cane, with its branches sticking straight out at right angles and said "It looks like it's being crucified!". So Jesus it is. My Catholic husband has approved, saying "It's not blasphemous. It's irreverent, but not blasphemous". Then I threatened to name the Chusan palm Mohammad, but apparently that is blasphemous...!
A couple of the leaves of the monkey puzzle are a bit brown, but I'll keep an eye on them to make sure it's nothing that's spreading. I'm really looking forward to the first encounter Bubba the Squirrel has with it. I hope I'm there to witness it. The myrtle smells gorgeous - almost the same sort of smell as a box hedge. Can't wait to see it flower (see, Sarah, I DO sometimes get flowering plants in my garden, they just have to be basal angiosperms!).
And as I mentioned on Monday, the Metasequoia arrived. Somehow I got it home, although it seemed every twat on the delayed South West Trains service to darkest Surrey wanted to stamp on the root ball (except the twat who decided that being crammed onto a train meant he could grope my arse and pass it off as an accident). But anyway, this is it yesterday morning:
It's the straggly twig to the left of the Wollemia nobilis. I've been advised to cut it back by about half, which is a terrifying prospect, but will help thicken it out. To quote Granny Weatherwax, it aten't dead - there are little green buds all the way up the stem (I hesitate to call it a trunk!). This will be a challenge, but one I'm looking forward to.
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