The way she portrayed the Flapper Generation of the Roaring Twenties was a bit different than the portraits in more known novels like: "The Great Gatsby" or "The Sun Also Rises". And it was very interesting. These last two have also won the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, despite their diminutive size. In mid to late spring, they will fill with lots of small but highly scented flowers, in tonalities of greenish to yellowish, with a sudden change of mood and personality. Japanese Quince is a thorny deciduous flowering plant native to Eastern Asia. The plant matures to six feet tall and produces edible fruits.

Typical of Mediterranean gardens and in containers or yards in hot places, crown of thorns is a very evocative spiny plant, which gives you a great spectacle all year round. Growing on a 15 feet tall quiote, or stalk (4.5 meters) the flowers are large and greenish yellow, very attractive indeed. But it can break and fall on your head. Actually, it will at some stage, because it is a monocarpic plant, which means that it only flowers once, at the end of its life. However, it will also produce offsets at the base that you can use to propagate it… The Flowering Thorn begins in 1929, and follows Lesley from her fateful decision - she 'had little doubt that the Problem, as raw material, was of exceptional quality' - all the way through to her becoming settled in her countryside home after a number of years have passed. In this time, Lesley grows from an highly irresponsible figure, to a far more acceptable one, treasured by those around her. Discovery is at the heart of this novel. Sharp writes: 'In fact, it might almost be said that she was never bored at all. There was a constant intercourse, a continual deepening of acquaintance; instead of knowing a hundred people by sight she would soon know half a dozen by heart. An eventual return to Town was still, so to speak, the vanishing point of her perspective; but the lines were four years long, and in the meantime, for her consolation, there was this new and startling discovery: that the country is populated by really quite interesting persons.'Whichever specific Crab apple you opt for, you’ll be richly rewarded with a sturdy tree that offers an intriguing triangular shape and a strong blooming habit. But in this case, we are talking about real thorns, which grow on the grayish branches, and they look very threatening indeed. But they really, really hurt and they are very difficult to remove! They also fall off freely un the wind! Getting to the sweet figs is a dangerous affair, best done in the morning, and you can have them in yellow, orange and red! A favorite in exotic gardens, giant rhubarb is simply a spectacular spiny plant, with no equals, and if you have seen it in gardens, you will know that it likes to grow next to water, on pond banks, in boggy places, where it always and invariably steals the show. And we cone to a classic thorny shrubby tree of temperate and woodland areas, so widespread along the edges of mountain pastures: common hawthorn… Cold hardy and very vigorous, it is native to north Africa, western Asia and Europe, and it has not been misnamed…

These splashes of colour, alongside the fact that the foliage on a Hawthorn tree often begins life as a reddish-brown before maturing to green, make it ideal for adding extra tones to your garden’s palette. I like Margery Sharp’s writing. She’s observant, witty, and sets a scene well. Her surname fits her well. I’ve read several of her books for adults and enjoyed them all. This one was problematic for me though. Trees survive from earlier grafts to perpetuate the Glastonbury legend, among them two other holy thorns in the grounds of St John's. The blossom sent to the Queen now comes from one of these. At the end of term, the pupils of St John's Infants School gather round the tree in St John's parish churchyard on the High Street. They sing carols, including one specially written for the occasion, and the oldest pupil has the privilege of cutting the branch of the Glastonbury thorn that is then taken to London and presented to Her Majesty The Queen. The Thorn's symbolic fortunes revived when the Stuart dynasty came to power in 1603. James I and Charles I took a much more relaxed view of Catholicism than Queen Elizabeth had done, and both were intrigued by its Christmas-flowering properties. James Montague, Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1608 to 1616, produced a 'Panegiricall entertainement' for Anne of Denmark, King James I's consort, in which the character of Joseph of Arimathea presented the Queen with boughs from both the Thorn and the Walnut, in memory of 'ruinated Glastonbury'. Royal interest in the Thorn, however, made it a very suspect symbol to the growing number of Puritans who saw Christmas as a Catholic survival, and some feared that the Stuarts were intending to restore the Catholic faith. The Puritan cause was strong in Somerset, and when civil war broke out the royal reaction was particularly severe. The Thorn was chopped down by a zealous Parliamentary soldier, probably in 1647. [7] These then become berries on female specimens, and they ripen slowly till they reach the most vibrant notes of scarlet to carmine red in winter, where they literally seem to shine.The European crabapple also produces fragrant, five-petaled, pale-pink to white flowers. The flowers are rich in nectar, attracting various pollinators such as bees and butterflies. For optimal growth, plant this tree in organically fertile, well-drained, moist soil. Thorny tree identification So, having this tree in your home garden may turn out to be a sound economic investment in the long run. And with over 800 species to choose from, you’ll be literally spoilt for choice.