A flower by any other name ...

We were somewhat bamboozled by the bizarre onion art going on in Gardeners' World last night - goodness knows why anyone would want to store onions in great bundles tied to string in a very tenuous fashion which are bound to injure the first child that plays underneath them - all very strange, but someone must like it ...

Anyway, the heuchera are doing well, you'll be pleased to hear, and the odd stick-like plants appear to have more leaves on them. Not only that but there are one or two white flowers on the choisya (ten points to anyone who can tell us how we should be pronouncing that - as we have already humiliated ourselves in a garden centre by saying "cotoneaster" as it looks, which prompted a sigh from a nearby really rather rude assistant who said with a grimace: cot-own-ee-aster. Well, now we know then, thanks, but some customer skills here and there wouldn't go amiss, madam ...). Anyway, this is a choisya ("k" or "ch"?)

And the potentilla also has some nice yellow flowers coming out:

Today, K and I have had great fun wandering around Hinton Ampner, which is really very stunning and the cakes are scrumptious, hurrah. So I have now decided that I would love a lily pond, a sand-pit and a summer house with columns, but K continues to look dubious ... I fear that the chickens in the garden option is a no-no too! Ah well.

Anne Brooke