Towards the end of last winter, this hazel bush was pruned hard and the older stems carefully removed. The treatment appears to have been beneficial, and the show of catkins now is like none it has produced before. The benefits of the right intervention at the right time!
On the afternoon of Hogmanay, the sun appeared briefly and a gentle breeze blew through the garden. Perfect conditions to spread the catkin pollen through the monoecious shrub.
I spent some time watching the catkins shimmer brightly in a beautifully choreographed aeolian dance. Delicate, soft green tails, each said to comprise over two hundred flowers.
So there’s every prospect of a good crop of cobnuts from Avellana Corylus come the autumn. If, of course, our resident red squirrels don’t get there first!
Meanwhile, the catkins shine out, as they light our way with hope into a New Year in the Dumfriesshire garden – and in the world beyond it.
Quotidian 
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