Gloriousness

I went round the garden after work, whatever that is, to find something to Blip, Susie the cat following on behind. Unfortunately there was a large group of visitors still going round so I got no peace to take pictures!

So on the way up to the house I took this picture of Eucryphia glutinosa, a shrub - or tree really - which Hillier's Manual of Trees & Shrubs describes as 'one of the most glorious of woody plants'. A native of Chile, it's one of the few Chilean plants we grow that I didn't see on my visit there in 2005 - always deciduous here, it's said to be evergreen at home. All the other species are evergreen here and are more upright - this is a round-headed tree.

This specimen must be thirty or so feet high and wide, maybe more, with thousands of flowers just now, so quite an old plant. We have two. Last year for the first time I found a rotten branch and some fungi, so it may be beginning the long, slow slide to the bonfire. Not in my time, I hope, but I ought to plant another for the next generation! The beautiful white flowers are rather like those of a hypericum, and the yellow autumn colour is superb!