These are the encouraging words for people in temporary accommodation who wish to do their bit for the environment. A list features in the March 2022 RHS magazine and we have inherited one of them: slow growing star magnolia (Magnolia stellata).
Our tree came from V, who, while waiting to relocate, passed on to us several of her plants in pots. Her rose, a lovely scented old-fashioned type went straight into the ground and bloomed twice. My husband has just given it a first spring feed and prune. (It does look a little drastic but will repay the attention).
V's Christmas tree, repotted, lasted for two seasons, but this year the needles began to drop and it was beginning to look rather ragged and worn. We considered insinuating it into our wildlife boundary but then did what we very rarely do with any plant; chopped it up and consigned it to the brown garden waste recycling bin.
The lilac Syringa microphylla is going with V. So while we are 'caretaking' we have pruned out 'dead, damaged or diseased' twigs and fed and top dressed it. It should bear some pretty little clusters of pink flowers.
To conclude with Magnolia stellata. This lives on our back patio, situated a little on the shady side but we are running out of space. It went straight away to a larger pot size with more well rotted compost. We underplanted as suggested, in this case with winter pansies. V praises its fragrant flowers and we will soon see them for ourselves.
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