In the new book In the Garden: Essays on Nature and Growing, published by Daunt Books, author Penelope Lively relates how she was entranced by Mona’s garden – and discusses her own passion for corokia.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

Time was, we were part of the Yellow Book garden openings – people whose gardens are open to visitors under the National Gardens Scheme. We did a great deal of Yellow Book garden visiting ourselves. There is no better way to discover how other people garden, to get ideas, admire, fail to admire.

I can remember some revelations: the National Collection of corokias in a north London garden, an amazing assembly of auriculas in someone’s tiny backyard.

The corokias interested me particularly because I have one myself – and my respects here to any reader who knows what a corokia is. They are shrubs or small trees, a species native to New Zealand, and attractive for their twisting grey stems and light foliage – mine has been living in a large pot in the middle of the London back garden for nearly 30 years, and I like it for its see-through quality, and, now, its longevity. It gives height in the centre, but does not block the view of the Japanese tassel ferns in two white pots at the back of the garden.

Photograph by Sarah Cuttle, published in the Daily Telegraph. Penelope’s corokia is the large shrub on the right.