22/09/2026
Benedict's notes from the garden this week. The maple's turned first, as it always does, usually a fortnight ahead of everything else. The red hot pokers are still holding their colour against it. Over by the pond, the Harlequin Glorybower has swapped its white star-shaped flowers for deep purple ones, now setting berries that shift from white to bright blue to a dark, almost metallic blue as they ripen, striking to look at, though not to eat; extracts from them do turn up in both Chinese and Western medicine. And low down near the borders, the thimbleweed's still flowering, in Chinese its name translates to "broken bowl flower," for the way the petals catch the light like little shards of white pottery. Its petals are used in oriental medicine as an anti-inflammatory.
What's turning in your garden this week?
