When I first moved into this house way back in 2007, I looked at the front of the house and the space underneath the lounge window and thought 'ornamental quince hedge'. This gap had flowery hedge written all over it and I knew it just had be done. I have over the years charted the development of the hedge, from its early days when still a handful of leafy twigs to getting mature enough to cut with hedge trimmers.
The hedge is made up of Chaenomeles superba 'Crimson and Gold'. I planted them in Autumn 2007 and it took them a few years to really put their roots out and establish. Those first few years were not as rain-filled as recent years have been and I think this did not suit them. Once we started having wetter years they seemed to develop at a pace.
Now I look at them and I am so pleased with what they have become. They are a hedge, the more I trim them into the shape, the more they thicken up further and flex their hedginess even more. I love the ripple of red running through the hedge at the moment. It is a bee-magnet, especially good in these early weeks of the year when pollinators can struggle to find food. It also reminds me of the one I had at a previous house, when I did not know what it was but I knew I loved it. I used to walk past it in the front garden and be amazed at the sound of buzzing come from it. It is a plant that connects me to both gardens, to different times in my life. Such plants are treasured.