Lomatia ferruginea – Fuinque

I had an inkling that today would be a wild one when first thing this morning I looked out of my window to see the wheelie bin proceeding down the road in a disorderly manner, unassisted by man or beast.  After apprehending said wayward bin and securing it in place, my journey to work was one of roads strewn with greenery and the odd fallen bough.  This doesn’t look optimistic, thinks I.  Seeing today was Last Chance Salon to have everything spick and span for a garden visit on Sunday (weather forecast “dire with occasional monsoon”) and my last words to Hero had been “it will be much better tomorrow”, it was slightly disappointing.  Then I remembered the 30 bags of mushroom compost that had to be deposited around the garden (extreme wheelbarrowing skills yet again implemented).  Darn!  Never mind, all done, strimming strimmed, some weeding weeded and the rest will be our wild flower area.  As someone very close to my heart would say “They can like it or lump it”.

This Lomatia ferruginea has been planted in the garden for the last 5 years.  It is an evergreen Chilean plant where it grows in the rain forests (now growing in North Devon rain forest) .  It is a member of the Proteaceae family which are always tricky as they love poor soils which are low in phosphates.  So whilst we are trying to improve both the structure and nutritional quality of the soil in the Road Bank this particular shrub wants anything but this pampering.  We have been awaiting its flowering with anticipation.  Whilst weeding (cosmetic only, not to be encouraged, weeding) I noticed these seed pods.  The flowers, allegedly are cerise and yellow and are lightly scented.  I think we may have missed them. Darn!