1st April 2011

It’s funny how every April 1st that comes around I regret not having planned some great hoax in the garden like the famous ‘Spaghettii harvest’ that once fooled some of the nation. I did once, much to the dismay of some of my staff. I climbed one of our Chusan Palm trees and tied in several bunches of Coconuts – then phoned the local press to come and see!! It did the trick, and it made the local press before all was revealed after 12pm.

Back to the garden, and how exiting it is to see some of our young Magnolias flowering in profusion for the first time. But in one case it does bring to mind how mistakes in nurseries can happen. Take for example the group of three fine Magnolia soulangeana ‘Sundew’ that I planted four years ago. Flowering this spring has reveal that a mix up in the nursery with wrong labelling on trees has left me with an odd colour in the group, a pink one that looks more like ‘Heaven Scent’. Well, it’s no real hardship as colours go, but every year from now on, around about April 1st, I get this sneaky feeling that a long term April Fools trick was played on me!