Today 
RSSGardeners' musings
Barking mad
Posted by: James Alexander-Sinclair, 08 January 2008, 10.00AM
It's January. The weather outside is pretty ghastly. There is not an enormous amount in the garden worth looking at so we must be more imaginative when seeking out our horticultural pleasures.
Often the mundane can be very beautiful if you look hard enough. The trees are (mostly) devoid of leaves so all we have left is bark. Not something we think about that much but something that can still be extraordinarily lovely. Think of the slightly stubbled beech, deeply furrowed walnut, or a smooth, lichen dappled ash. So in order to sharpen your winter brains I thought that a short quiz would be interesting. Can you identify the following trees from their bark? I have given hints for some...
A simple tree to start with.
This tree bark looks quite like an elephant's shin and is equally exotic.
This tree contains a mixture of London and Spain.
This tree is another easy one, no hint required.
Here is the evergreen version.
That old...
To save this becoming a rather long quiz I will stop there. If I could go on I would include so many more...what about a pomegranate? (I photographed this one growing in a huge pot in the Jardins de Luxembourg in Paris). Go out there and hug a tree: the neighbours may stare, your children will undoubtedly be completely mortified but you may feel a small part of the January blues fall away.
If anybody should get them all right then I will award them a loud and prolonged round of virtual applause - and a huge bunch of heavily scented imaginary flowers. Answers in a couple of weeks.
Comments
Yakram
08 January 2008, 08.33PM
James A-S
09 January 2008, 12.39PM
William
09 January 2008, 05.26PM
morning glory
09 January 2008, 11.01PM
Yakram
16 January 2008, 10.48PM
James A-S
17 January 2008, 04.21PM
Yakram
19 January 2008, 01.15PM
James A-S
04 February 2008, 05.49PM
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