HansHolt
infinite contortions
Canon EOS 6D - f/4.5 - 1/200sec - 100mm - ISO 100
- for challenge Flickr group Macro Mondays,
theme Made of Wood
- Small part branch of an Easter branch
In some parts of Europe, the corkscrew hazel is used in Easter celebrations: branches are brought into the house and decorated, much like a Christmas tree! I keep 5 branches already many years and decorate them at Easter with Easter eggs and other Easter symbols (see the pictures in the first comment).
- ONE of the winter highlights in my garden is the gnarled silhouette of the "corkscrew hazel" - Corylus avellana 'Contorta'.
In low sunshine, the pale sky provides the perfect backdrop for its dark and tortuously twisted branches.
On dull, damp days raindrops collect in every nook and cranny - glistening along each stem.
And, as January days lengthen, the plump catkins gently unfurl into long, wavy tassels - just in time to float above the first crocuses, snowdrops and aconites.
This intricate form of our native hazel appeared spontaneously in a Gloucestershire hedgerow in the early 1860s. An eminent Victorian gardener, Canon Ellacombe of Bitton, spotted the tangled stems and propagated the plant to amuse his friend Edward Augustus Bowles.
Bowles loved plant curiosities and aberrations enough to dedicate part of his large garden near Enfield, Middlesex, to his oddities. His original plant - the first contorted hazel in cultivation - still grows in the 'Lunatic Asylum' (as Bowles named it) at Myddelton House today.
Once established in Bowles's garden, other famous gardeners admired its sculptural, bonsai-like charms. In the early years of the 20th century it acquired another name - Harry Lauder's Walking Stick - after the popular Scottish entertainer. Yet this slow-growing bush (which rarely reaches 15ft in height) has a Jekyll and Hyde personality. Though handsome in winter finery, its summer "plumage" is a tangle of green leaves.
infinite contortions
Canon EOS 6D - f/4.5 - 1/200sec - 100mm - ISO 100
- for challenge Flickr group Macro Mondays,
theme Made of Wood
- Small part branch of an Easter branch
In some parts of Europe, the corkscrew hazel is used in Easter celebrations: branches are brought into the house and decorated, much like a Christmas tree! I keep 5 branches already many years and decorate them at Easter with Easter eggs and other Easter symbols (see the pictures in the first comment).
- ONE of the winter highlights in my garden is the gnarled silhouette of the "corkscrew hazel" - Corylus avellana 'Contorta'.
In low sunshine, the pale sky provides the perfect backdrop for its dark and tortuously twisted branches.
On dull, damp days raindrops collect in every nook and cranny - glistening along each stem.
And, as January days lengthen, the plump catkins gently unfurl into long, wavy tassels - just in time to float above the first crocuses, snowdrops and aconites.
This intricate form of our native hazel appeared spontaneously in a Gloucestershire hedgerow in the early 1860s. An eminent Victorian gardener, Canon Ellacombe of Bitton, spotted the tangled stems and propagated the plant to amuse his friend Edward Augustus Bowles.
Bowles loved plant curiosities and aberrations enough to dedicate part of his large garden near Enfield, Middlesex, to his oddities. His original plant - the first contorted hazel in cultivation - still grows in the 'Lunatic Asylum' (as Bowles named it) at Myddelton House today.
Once established in Bowles's garden, other famous gardeners admired its sculptural, bonsai-like charms. In the early years of the 20th century it acquired another name - Harry Lauder's Walking Stick - after the popular Scottish entertainer. Yet this slow-growing bush (which rarely reaches 15ft in height) has a Jekyll and Hyde personality. Though handsome in winter finery, its summer "plumage" is a tangle of green leaves.