I beg your pardon . . . .

. . . . I never promised you a rose garden! Not a rose in sight, only a hotchpotch of rather different shrubs which I hope will one day be interesting!

Spent several hours today trying not to slide down the bank while taking off dead fern fronds and pulling out brambles, or trying to, in the garden. Crawling along in full waterproof gear - no, for once it wasn't raining though it had earlier, after a frost in the early part of the night - but I was on my hands and knees on wet soil down below the house which is just visible top right.

My extra today is a young plant, one of a group of three, of Schefflera rhododendrifolia, a wonderful digitate-leaved shrub from NE Asia. I have three of this genus on my bank - this one, Schefflera macrophylla and Schefflera delavayi. One day passers-by will be amazed!!