The View from my Window

After over 30 years of living in our house and years of neglect, the monkey puzzle tree which was in the garden when we arrived, has decided to seed. Well, at least that’s what we think the cone shaped piece of greenery in the left hand side of the photo shows.

Monkey puzzle trees are native to Chile and Argentina. It is thought that the tree gained its name in the mid 1880s when a tree was planted in Pencarrow, Cornwall. In seeing the tree for the first time, a guest touched the spine and commented that climbing the spiny, spiralling branches would be a puzzle even for a monkey. Ouch!

There is also an old English belief that the devil lives inside monkey puzzle trees and that walking by one will bring you bad luck and might even make you grow a monkey’s tail!  Rest assured I do not have a monkey’s tail or not at least the last time I looked.

Our tree may or may not be a descendant from the one planted in Cornwall but it has added to our own garden’s character and folklore.

Happy gardening

Sue B