Corkscrew

In his garden at Myddleton House, near Enfield, the late E A Bowles, noted plantsman and breeder, cultivated a collection of what he called 'lunatic plants'. Many can be seen at Wisley but now are often seen in normal gardens - what ever normal is. One such plant is the corkscrew hazel or 'Harry Lauder's Walking Stick'.

Appropriately it was first found in Gloucestershire in 1863 in a hedgerow.

I just love the spiraled and twisted stems which seem just like old fashioned barley sugar and the oddly crumpled leaves are very strange but are beautiful colours. It produces superb cob nuts if you can manage to beat an errant squirrel to them - which strangely I never see but find all the husks in a pile on the bench. However it comes into it's own when cut and brought inside giving hours of pleasure by being dried and spray painted, lighted up, snowed on, baubled and glittered, draped from the table or dropped from the ceiling for numerous parties to add that massive and fabulously colourful display inside. It really is a winner!

Right off to yoga with very sore eyes as I have bitten the bullet and gone for contact lenses - only been practising today taking them in and out! Hope it wasn't a big mistake!!!