Memory: Waxy green hedges
Pretty much every garden in our estate back the early 90s had these same green waxy hedges. Most houses also had sliding door in the porch and a palm tree that shed brown leaves we would use as whips. We didn’t have a sliding door in our porch. They were very aspirational to a six-year-old.
These bushes I’m thinking of had a waxy green leaf - the colour of a granny smith apple. We would fold them over and pinch out bits with our fingernails so that when you unfolded it again there would be a face.
You still see blocks of these hedges on the occasional house but I think the craze for them is over.
What a mostly remember when I think of them is an upsetting memory. It doesn’t seem a big deal now but as I was small it felt a very big at the time.
I was playing with my brother in the Saunders back garden. There were loads of other boys there who I didn’t know and I was always shy around new people. They were hiding toys and then testing each other to find them. I was mostly hanging back and running around in the shadow of others, laughing when they did. When it came to my go I hid a Mr Happy plastic toy in the giant block of green waxy leaves at the back of the garden. I put my hand into the wall of leaves and dropped it where, I imagined, it would be nestled on the branches. But then nobody could find it - I showed them where I put it but it was gone. The others all turned on me and were angry I had lost their toy. I remember they were shouting.
Mrs Saunders brought me home - likely because I was upset but at the time I felt it was for my own protection.
I still think about that missing Mr Happy toy sometimes and wonder if it ever turned up.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on green waxy bushes.
FACT CHECK
I’ve had trickier search than I expected to find the hedge I’m talking about (perhaps a sign they have fallen out of fashion a bit?) but I believe i’ve found the one, and it’s called the Griselinia. Was there a lot of these where you grew up?
