Clianthus.....Thanks Toto...

So glad that it survived.

Mr too...Toto thankyou....

Ours did too Toto !

If your garden is anything like mine, you will need to protect the early new growth of this against snails. If you can get a copper ring and place it around the stem, this will do the trick. Failing that, get an old plastic flower pot and cut off the bottom. Thread it down over the plant so that the bottom is in the soil and put sticky-backed copper tape (available in Garden Centres) around the rim. I have found snails love the new growth on this as much as hostas and delphiniums

They are very hardy. Mine even flowered during the snow.
Thanks for the tip Andrew although I shouldn't think that mine will need it as it's a good few years old now and woody at the base.

Yes thanks for that tip Andrew....will get that sorted out.....Wouldnt want to loose it to snail after it survived all that snow

Snails? Just think escargot. Bits of rubber with garlic butter.

Ugh !

Don't knock it until you've tried it Louise. Then knock it as rubbery bits of garlic flavoured nothing is exactly what you will get.

Have tried it Toto .... and ...... ugh, puke :-(

It was the texture that made me heave ....... :-(((((

Can I take it that you didn't like it then?

How did you guess ? !!!
Having its rubbery-ness bounce around my mouth was just the worst thing i've ever experienced :-(

I couldnt think of anything worse Louise.....My Dad used to love Welks and I should imagine they are probab;ly about the same texture.....

I once had sea slug in Singapore - it was like trying to eat a small piece of car tyre :-(

You should have had a slug of something else to was it down with Andrew.
I've eaten whelks ever since I was very young (a couple of years ago) Milky. The ones you get in this country are generall tough and are very good excercise for the jaw muscles. I had some in a fish restaurant in France that were "melt in the mouth" so don't know how they do it and we can't.

I think thats because the French barely cook them Toto...over here we tend to cook them far too long and it toughens them I love Calamari and on the Greek Islands, they are melt in the mouth, but over here.....tough as old boots....Something else we ar renowned for cooking too long......

I never liked liver as a kid but now I quite enjoy it. I've realised my mother cooked it until it resembled shoe leather :-(

Oh same here Andrew ..... liver that was like my power-ball (kiddies smallish, very bouncy rubber ball). Ugh.
Like you, these days i love it :-))))

It should 'actually' be only-just cooked though - 'never' cooked to death and as Milky says, over here we do 'exactly' that :-(

I agree totally Milky.
Liver which is still pink in the middle is delicious Andrew.
It's only around the last 30 years or so that you could pick up any form of greens with a fork. Before then it was poured onto a plate and lapped up with a spoon and that was only if you were rich otherwise you had to pour it off the plate or piece of old tin sheet directly into ones gob.

Where I used to work, you could tell when there was cabbage on the menu - you could smell it cooking at 9am. Come lunchtime, it was somewhat overcooked!

Ugh!
Another horror ..... overcooked cabbage :-((((

My mother was good at that....and to expect her to serve a crunchy brussel sprout.....well....she cooked them so much and then used the back of the draining/serving spoon to crush whatever life was left in them, out. Ever had wrung out sprouts yuk.....I like my veg crunchy.......

My mother always cooked too many sprouts because she liked to eat them cold after Xmas lunch

Overcooked cabbage..school dinners..served in long aluminium trays ! Remember it well ! Milky ..Lol..thats exactly how I remember them as a child !

Me too Bonkers......lol