Property News · November 27, 2022

The marvels of myrtles


It’s a mystery why we don’t love myrtles more than we doThere are plant families that for some mysterious reason have remained underused in horticulture, despite appearing to have it all – beautiful flowers, evergreen foliage, wonderful scent, tasty fruit and all while being resilient and easy to grow. While I was picking Chilean guavas this weekend, long after most of the more common berries had gone over, it set me wondering: why isn’t the myrtle family more widely grown in Britain?With an enormously wide distribution that stretches from the Mediterranean, right through to South America and New Zealand, what these all have in common are glossy, evergreen leaves packed with fragrant oils. This makes many of them wonderful hedging plants, with dense, dark foliage that is resistant to the dreaded box blight and box-tree caterpillar. They fill the air with fragrance when trimmed. I remember walking through Madrid’s botanic gardens when, even on a cool autumn day, every corner was spritzed with the resinous, uplifting, blueberry-meets-bayleaf scent of the common myrtle, Myrtus communis, that had been grown in low hedges to fringe the borders. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…The marvels of myrtles

You may also like...