They were tall, bronzed and Australian. The pair of them graced our front garden for many a year.

They would wave to me every morning when I opened the front curtains.

had put in them in the foolish hopes it would make them too heavy to steal.

If you see two six-foot, bronzed Australian cordylines on sale at a boot fair, they belong to me and my mum.

-Julie Sansford, Hove