Myrtle has always seemed a very romantic plant to me.    I loved the way that Queen Elizabeth II and Kate Middleton had a spring of it in their wedding bouquets that were grown from the original myrtle in Queen Victoria’s wedding bouquet – a lovely way of showing the links across the generations.

About seven or eight years ago, I came across a plant for sale and decided that it would be just right for a space I wanted to fill.  Its lovely dark green leaves complement the other surrounding shrubs and provide a wonderful backdrop to the herbaceous perennials in front of it.  Now the plant is six feet tall and doing just the job I wanted it too.

The trouble is that when it was smaller, I never noticed it in flower as it was surrounded by all the other shrubs.  Thankfully now it is tall enough to be able to appreciate the lovely delicate white flowers.