Ivy League

At Christmas, hearing ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ transports me straight back to junior school, the smell of floor polish and school dinners hanging heavy in the air. While both woodlanders are mentioned in the first line of the carol, the other verses are all about holly; poor old ivy doesn’t get much of a look in.

Holly is a respectable garden tree nowadays too, whereas ivy, by contrast, is seen as something of a pest if the shelves of ivy killer in garden centres are anything to go by. Granted, which can get out of control if you don’t show it who’s boss, but even that can make a wonderfully useful garden plant. It’s great for wildlife, evergreen, resistant to pests and diseases, will thrive where just about any other plant will wither and die – including the dreaded ‘dry shade’ – and is ideal for clipping and shaping.