Christmas is coming

 and the geese are getting fat, but when we went to buy one yesterday they
 were sold out and we will have to make do with a turkey. I used to keep
 turkeys when I was in Africa: they lived more or less free-range (except
 at night, when they had to be shut up against the threat of leopards etc)
 and foraged in the forest for grubs, berries etc. As a result they tasted
 superb and a farm-reared one now is a sad let-down. Rather like growing
 an inferior clone of a good plant.

 The prospects for the garden at Christmas are not good this year, and I
 don't think that in the open ground there will be more than about two and
 a half crocuses (flowers, not clones!). One will be the beautiful C.
 laevigatus 'Fontenayi', a pale purple one with good stripes externally,
 and a very cheerful disposition. The other will be C. ochroleucus, a
 frail-looking white species, which in some gardens becomes a weed but in
 others disappears - compared with other autumnal whites it is very
 squinny, but the late flowers are very welcome.

 The rock garden can boast a few flowers of Narcissus cantabricus, their
 white hoop-petticoat trumpets flaring out in defiance of the weather, and
 a pot in a trough has a magnificent display. This species always precedes
 N. romieuxii in our garden, and in fact there is a succession in the hoop
 petticoats from white to deep yellow with the season - something
 interesting must be going on with the pollinators. A stem of Helleborus
 cyclophyllus has opened a flower, but it will be killed by hard frost;
 the usually infallible Christmas flowerer H. orientalis 'Early Purple'
 (syn 'Atrorubens') is showing no more than purple tinged buds at the
 crown, and I have heard of others' plants doing the same. There may be a
 snowdrop, but it will be a belated G. reginae-olgae 'Cambridge', not an
 early anything else; although there are some lovely shoots pushing up,
 they will not be out for some time. Any hopes of a few Iris unguicularis
 flowers for the Christmas table have been dashed by the cold weather that
  has come out of the east.

 Things are a bit better in the alpine house, where a Cyclamen persicum
 of the autumn flowering Duma strain (collected in Israel by the Cyclamen
 Society's expedition) has unexpectedly come into bloom, and is kept
 company by the beautiful 'Elegans' race of Cyclamen coum ssp. caucasicum.
 This comes from Iran and has long, pointed corolla lobes in the usual
 bright pink, but the 'nose' is also pink, not white. It certainly is
 elegant, but I don't scoff at the dumpiness of the ordinary ones. In
 addition to the cyclamen are a few Narcissus and Crocus, but best of all
 is the promise of buds for the New Year.

 My main Christmas present this year is a book for garden visitors to sign
 their name in: I hate the usual format of cells for Name, Address,
 Comments (which seems so impertinent, and very awkward if you haven't
 enjoyed yourself), so I have just had a pile of paper bound into a
 hard-backed green buckram cover, with gold lettering; people can then
 write an essay or just their name. I would like to take this opportunity
 to invite any Alpine-L or Medit-Plants person with nothing better to do,
 to visit the garden and thus get the chance to inscribe their name in
 said book!

 It is almost certain that my e-mail account will be axed on 1st January,
 but I am fairly sure that I will be able to get reconnected fairly
 quickly - there will, however, be a hiatus at the beginning of next
 month.

 All good wishes for the festive season.

 John Grimshaw

 35 Wessex Way
 Cox Green
 Maidenhead
 Berks SL6 3BP
 UK

 Tel +1628 778491
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