Bottle brush (minus bristles)

The garden is looking sad just now, neglected because its been too cold to get out into it and waiting for Spring to put some life into the borders.

One thing that I do miss from Scotland is the appearance of the spring bulbs and flowers. I have tried to plant tulips and daffs but the bulbs appear to go "blind" and whilst we get a few leaves we rarely see a flower.

So compelled to find something amongst the drear when stuck at home waiting for telephone engineer (hasn't appeared), and thus came upon this branch of the bottle brush, Callistemon, which apparently is of Australian origin. They are at least a cheerful bright green and in the summer very colourful with red "brushes" which eventually drop off and leave these interestingly shaped mini pods.

Wow I can bore for Britain sometimes !