Alison Johnstone* is in Full Flower

The good news is that Alison Johnstone* is in full flower. The bad news is that all her leaves are worryingly brown.

I’m trying not to take this to heart. I’m writing this off to that extra blast of snow we got at the start of April. I’m hoping it isn’t due to the fact that I removed her too soon from the shelter of her little pot and stuffed her into the infinite dangers of couch grass, dandelions, buttercups, moss, poor soil, rocks, sunstroke and wind exposure in the middle of the lawn with only the most basic preliminary weeding and cursory sprinkle of compost.

I never water her either.

And, although I do look across the garden at all those other plants that also appear to have burnt leaves, and are only now risking releasing their own buds, I’m still just a little nervous that her current flourishing isn’t in fact full-on bona fide death throes. Maybe once those flowers drop, the leaves will follow and she will be just a bare scattering of grey branches and empty hopes.

But, hey ho, in the meantime, isn’t she gorgeous?

*Yes, some rhododendron specialist did see fit to name one of his hybrids, Alison Johnstone. Not the most glamorous choice, and he spelled it wrong, of course. My mum likes to say, it’s a very unprepossessing plant, isn’t it? (But then she does like to wind me up.)

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.