 
The Root of the ProblemThursday 9th March 2000
  
SMALL GARDEN TREES and shrubs, that you'd never give a second glance at other times of the year, are now ablaze with blossom. The yellow Forsythia has come into full flower over the past few days. Different types of flowering cherry come into their own in sequence. It started a few weeks ago with the white flowering almond, we've now got white and pink-washed cherry blossom and the sequence will soon end with a magenta pink variety, which was often planted in the 1960s when parts of the city were re-built. It scatters it's blossom like confetti on the city's roadside verges.Forsythia, which originated in China, is named after William Forsyth (1737 - 1804), a Scotsman, who became superintendent of the gardens at Kensington Palace.
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Although it's just a weed, the flowers of Coltsfoot at the edge of the drive are as attractive as any cherry, but in a less showy way. I remember the barrow load of creeping 'roots' (actually underground stems) of coltsfoot that I dug out of a flower bed last year and decide that I had better make sure that this patch in the driveway doesn't spread too far.
