Garden Surprise

Several years ago we went on holiday to my childhood home of Alderney in the Channel Islands.  When I was a teenager, I can't honestly say I remember seeing swathes of flowers everywhere although they must have been there.  This time however, we were very taken with a kind of mombretia that was growing wild all over the place which was a deep vibrant fuchsia pink.  On the last day of our holiday, we climbed a steep hill to look at a fort and found what we thought was the seed pods of this plant, so risking life and limb as well as getting scratched by brambles and a large lump of grit in one eye, I gathered a handful.  We also pulled out a root for good measure, and when we got home, planted the lot.  Quite a few seedlings came up and I was very excited thinking I was going to have a garden full of these colourful blooms.

Oops....  It turned out that the seeds were for a wild iris that must have been growing amongst the mombretia.  Quite sweet in it's own way, but not what I was after.  This one surviving plant has bloomed year in, year out and I am always pleased to see it. 

But the root was from the plant I was after, and the first year we did get a lone stem of flowers.  Then we had several harsh winters one after the other and whilst the iris came up manfully, the mombretia appeared to be dead and gone.....until this year!

It must have been either lying dormant all this time or come up without a flower and I never noticed.  I do hope that it's appearance this year means it will get bigger and stronger and eventually spread throughout my garden.  It's little things like this that make my day!

It rained ALOT today and walking the dog was not much fun for either of us.Today my daughter's new wellies arrived in the post - aren't they just the most cheerful boots ever?  We'll admire them now before they get covered in mud and worse!