Pieris Japonica 'Valley Valentine'

Glad it is ok. Saw it for a first time today at work and love it! The colour is fantastic!!! will add it to favs to remember the name:) lol

I prefer it to the red-tinged ones Kasy...more 'elegant' i think! :))

Wonderful colour. The wind is such a menace. I found one of my new hardy fuchsias had been torn out of the ground and sent spinning over the garden. DK if it will survive but I have replanted it and am keeping my fingers crossed. We are considering putting up a 10' high wind net to break the wind up before it kills off the back garden completely.

I saw this in the garden centre after work yesterday, the flower tassels are beautiful. Both Marie and I were very tempted Lol

Oh groan SG..that sounds like you have quite a wind tunnel there. I find this garden much windier than my old one, but being coastal there is always some air movement!

Its a wind tunnel alright. Caused by next door cutting down a tree and a hedge which they had a perfect right to do. My beef is with them replacing a single storey bungalow with an 8.6m high one and a half storey house. We complained to the planning committee but to no avail. We then complained to the Ombudsman and were told that the only way to safeguard your property was to buy up everything round about. It never came on the open market so there was no hope of us being able to do that. Our two storey but capable of being three storeys is 9.6m high and the wind hurtles down passing their house then hitting ours before bouncing back on to the back of theirs. It has meant a lot of work to have any sort of garden in such a situation.

I'm afraid, Scotsgran, that some people do not care a jot what effect their building activities have on others living around them. As long as they can make money or show off with an enlarged property. Formerly we had an open sky to the west. A covenant that lasted 25 years expired and the housing association with property next door to us started pushing to build a row of houses and a block of flats on what had been a spare bit of land that children could play informally on. We have 2 hours less sunshine in late afternoon and the kids playground is locked up most of the time. The cage ball court looks more fit for tigers, and is right next to sheltered housing!

It's all about money ladies...nothing more. :(( I sympathise.

I really like the colour of these blooms......