Trees encore!

Given that the rain continues to fall, and no gardening is possible it seems a good moment to return to the subject of trees, especially as someone has written to me giving the thumbs down to oaks - too big and too slow - and suggesting instead Liquidambers, Planes and Tulip trees. All three  are lovely, but all  are pretty big, especially the last two.Plane trees (usually Platanus orientalis) often to be seen lining are roads, are not only majestic, have reasonably good autumn colour, attractive bark, and as far as I know are trouble free, putting up with most conditions including drought. What they need is space. This is less true of the tulip tree (Liriodendron); L. tulipifera is large but tall rather than broad, so to that extent it takes up less space, but it is not for a small garden.  The flowers that give it its common name I find curious rather than atttractive, and you have to wait for them, but the autumn colour - butter yellow - is much to desired. The reason that it does not so-to-speak get into my top ten is that it likes both humidity and shelter from winds which makes it a difficult tree for me and no doubt many others. I have planted one, since I could not resist a Gamm Vert promo - these very much to be looked out for. It was immediately attacked by rabbits, so for the moment it is multi-stemmed, and I have given it as protected and as damp a site as I can find, but I am not too hopeful.  Meanwhile there is everything to be said for Liquidambers. With its smart maple like leaves and at least when young, regular almost triangular growth, its moment of gory is the autumn when its leaves turn a dazzlingly mix of reds and yellows, depending on your variety and cultivar. There is now a good deal of choice. I suspect all are good. Many of them can be seen at La Cousiana,  an absolutely must of a garden, roughly between Lectoure and Condom. It started life as private arboretum in which the collecting bug overrode more aesthetic considerations, but in recent years it has been turned by the Delannoys into an outstanding garden, with particularly around the house a very English feel. Meanwhile,Adeline,mentioned in my last blog, have a national collection, and if you want special Liquidambers consult their catalogue.

My daily walk usually takes me alongside our local 'rivière', stream would be the English term for it. It is attractive at all times, but especially so at this time of year when the catkins of the alders begin to colour. Alders are big and they lack autumn colour, which for me is a big minus. They also like damp, less so Alnus cordata, the so-called Italian alder, which is a tree well worth knowing about. It seems to put up with most conditions, grows quickly, and is always smart, but particularly so in Winter and early Spring. I have planted A.rubra, which gets a good right up in Hilliers. Unfortunately it was strimmed, so it is now smaller than when I bought it. It is also multi-stemmed, but that with an alder can be an advantage. On verra.

For something much more showy what about a magnolia?  I have a bee in my bonnet about them though I am not referring here to the evergreen Magnolia grandifloras, which are not amongst my favourites - overpowering in their evergreenness, and though having lots of flowers, somehow lacking in flower power, since often too high to be seen, and flowering in dribs and drabs. They are also fragrant, but you tend to have to put your nose quite near to the flower to appreciate this, and since they are often rather high, this is usually impossible.  But I love the deciduous variety, of which there are many hundreds, and increasingly so, as new cultivars appear every year. I also think that they do well in this region, but are underused. People seem frightened by them, perhaps because they look so exotic, and at the same time fragile. Also do they demand acid soil which most of us have not got, though the nearer you are to the Atlantic the more likely you are to have it? My answer to the last question is on the whole not, though some species - M.salicifolia for example, probably do. I also think that they withstand drought much more readily than most people think. I first noticed this in England in the very hot summer of I think 1979. when all around azaleas, hydrangeas, magnolias, etc were clearly under great stress, the magnolias looked as fresh as ever, but I have noticed the same phenomenon here.  I have planted rather a mixed bunch here, including M. soulangeana Brozzoni, M.Peppermint Stick, M.Star Wars, a very good strong pink, which seems to grow fast, and M. soul. San Jose. I hope to plant more. Most of them are on a south facing bank, so my belief that they withstand drought will be truly tested, but so far so good.  In other gardens in the region I have planted M. Manchu Fan, with very large creammy white flowers which last a little longer than most, and M. Wada's Memory, whose flowers do not last any length of time, but a tree in full flower is a breath-taking sight. In fact magnolia flowers are often short lived, but then most intense experiences are brief.  Partial shade might help to prolong them, though I notice that Adeline do not recommend this.  There is also the threat of frosts which will not hurt the plant, but will spoil the look of the flowers, but this seems to be less of a problem here than in England, though of course we can have late frosts.

I shall now doubt return to magnolias, but meanwhile we have had the 'tempête', my second since I have been in France. Here not too much damage: a few tiles off the roof, and a great oak, which unfortunately has fallen into others, and how we disentangle them is going to be a problem.  But there are advantages in not having park land and cedars. Where I was in 1999 the devastation was enormous. More exciting for me was the discovery by chance in our local nursery at Lombez - for the moment his details escape me, but he is on the main Toulouse road, on the left going to Toulouse, just before you hit the long straight stretch - of Cornus officinalis. It appears to be an upmarket Cornus mas, with the very early yellow flowers, and not much else, though there are some pretty variegated ones. Indeed I think of Cornus mas as a being a poorman's witch hazel, above all lacking the smell, though in my view only Hamamelis Pallida has fragrance that really travels. Cornus officinalis is a rather bigger animal growing up 10 metres. The flowers may be bigger as well. They are certainly earlier, that is to say they are out now. It has attractive bark, good autumn colour, and is not fussy about where it lives. What more could you ask for.

Trees for a Gersois Garden

The good news is that I have never had such a good opportunity to plant trees. The bad is that I am of an age when it is impossible for me to live long enough fully to enjoy the choices that I have made, and continue to do so. What this also means is that I am not in a good position to say whether my choices have been successful, especially as I am a great believer in planting small. All I can do is to share some of my choices, and particularly for those who are new to the area indicate where these trees can be found.

For most of this area the oak is the dominant tree, and we are lucky to have half a dozen very fine examples, one of which has become the central focus of the garden. The only reservation I would make of this tree is that it lacks the spectacular autumn colour, which some oaks possess, especially those from North America. They also grow into very large trees, which can be a disadvantage, but then most oaks trees are large! One that apparently is not is Quercus schumardii, though having written that I see that one of my reference books mentions 35 m. - though only 20m. in France. I like it because it grows quickly, this true of many North American oaks, but especially the most common Q.rubra. Its young foliage is pink, its old foliage is red, and its middle aged foliage is a very healthy dark green.

Oaks are a subject I shall undoubtedly return to. The choice is vast and there are a number of very good suppliers of them in France. One of them is Les Pepinières Botaniques de La Preille, and I mention them in particular because the owners have produced one of the essential reference books for a Gersois gardener - Arbres et Arbustes by Myriam & Vincent Grellier (www.lapreille.fr). They specialize in oaks and acers, but their book in fact is a descriptive list of every tree and shrub that they think will grow well in West and South West France - their nursery is near Potiers, but they are faithful exhibitors at the Gaujacq twice yearly plant fairs. What I like about the book is that it gives very specific information about cultivation, especially concerning what I think is the most vital consideration for Gersois gardening, resistance to lack of water. Q.schumardii, for instance, according to them, does not require too much water. A lot of Red Oaks do, including Q.alba and Q.bicolor, both of which I have tried to grow without much success.

A problem arises when reference books give contrary advice. The Pepinières Adeline is I would guess the best nursery for trees and shrubs in France, and certainly it is as good as anything to be found in Great Britain, at least as regards it catalogue. This is probably not as complete as Hilliers, if for instance you compare their lists of magnolias, though Adeline mentions over fifty, but in other areas it is very strong. Moreover it attempts to give considerable detail concerning cultivation, something that Hillier's catalogue hardly does. But if you turn to Q.schumardii Adeline's suggests that it needs a lot of water. Whom to believe? In this case I believe La Preille, only because I know that Q. schumardii has come through some very dry summers with flying colours. Can I trust them as regards Ptelia trifoliata ? For a long time I have been tempted to try this, a smallish tree with not very conspicuous greenish yellow flowers, which are however are extremely fragrant, moreover with a fragrance that travels.  I have been put off doing so because most books suggest that it prefers a certain dampness, which I would find difficult to provide. No however La Preille who state that it resists the secheresse. I hope they are right,because I am going to give it a go.

I cannot say that Adeline is the easiest nursery to deal with; their pricing is complicated,and you can easily end up spending in my view rather too much, though to be fair to them they provide a devis before you have to make up your mind. Still probably the most important decision that I have made here concerns the choice of four trees that line the South South East facade of the house, one of their functions being to provide some much needed shade without growing too tall.  In the end I went for Malus coronaria Charlotte, smallish trees that in theory do everything - scented flowers, fruits and autumn colour. So far reasonably good, though one has decided to grow a little less well than the others, always a problem when you want regularity.  These in fact came from Adeline, as did Crataegus viridis Winter King,another tree that scores points in those three important areas.

The Crab Apple (Malus) and Hawthorn (Crataegus) families contain many species and cultivars that should do well in the Gers, and they are families that I will return to from time to time. My last suggestion on this occasion is Pistacia chinensis, a smallish tree or small bush with rather delicate ash-like (pinnate) leaves that go a marvellous colour and with luck have red, turning to blue berries in autumn. This I acquired from Florama, another very good source for trees, in this case not at all expensive, though rather small and no cultivars since the owner works entirely from seeds- but more about Florama and other trees on another occasion.

Winter thoughts

It snowed all morning, though as so often no sooner than it has fallen it begins to disappear. Still it is fair to say that we are having what one might call a proper winter: it is only the 6th of January and we have already had two falls of snow. Now they are promising us temperatures of -5 C., and it is at that temperatue that I begin to worry. I do not take up either cannas or dahlias, since in the past I have lost more from rotting off in the garage, than leaving them in the ground, but of course there comes a moment when one could lose them from freezing ground. Most sages are potentially under threat, pentstemons also, and no doubt other things that I have forgotten, so it is worrying times.Last year I succeeded in getting through the winter a plant that I have set my heart on growing for many years, without knowing quite why, and so far without great success.  It is an Isoplexis, in my case I. isabelliana, which one might describe as a shrubby foxglove, or even shrubby pentstemon, but  with orange/rusty flowers. According to Philips & Rix it can take down to -3 C., so -5 C. is serious worry. I do protect it, as I do the various hedychiums, about which more in a later blog. But there is a worry about protection, especially perhaps of a vegetable variety - this year I have used shredded bark. Slugs and snails find it an ideal wintering up place, and they are often up and about in the Spring before you. It can also enourage moulds of various kinds, so that the protected plant is killed by rot rather than frost. All the books stress that winter damp can be as dangerous as winter cold, and talk alot about good drainage, but in our heavy soil good drainage is difficult to provide. Moreover the plants I have mentioned including the dahlias and the cannas rather like our heavy soil, so as always in gardening you are confronted with a choice of evils, and can only hope for the best.

As regards winter colour there is little of it to be found for the moment in my garden. We are still so very much in what some one once said of a previous garden, the 'pygmy stage'; with nothing very much making an impact,so one has to use one's imagination.  Winter, or more accurately early spring flowering trees and shrubs already in include Hamamelis x intermedia Diane; Lonicera fragrantissima; Mahonia x media Lionel Fortescue; ditto Winter Sun; Prunus Hally Jolivette; P. Okame, and P. x subhirtella Autumnalis Rosea. I am not convinced that the Hamamelis will turn out to be a good choice. It is not so much the lack of acid soil, though the more westerly you are the more likely you are to have such  soil, but the dry summers.  They are essentially woodland shrubs, but dampish woodland, not our dry oak woods. Moreover my plant was a Gamm Vert 'promo', i.e. well past its sell by date,and therefore half the price - and very pricey they more usually are, but it has just about survived its first summer, and it is in a spot where I can easily get water to it, so on verra.  The 'Cherries' are getting away well, as they normally do in our area - my feeling s that local nurserymen do not think enough about them. Mahonia Winter Sun nearly died its first summer; it is no doubt wrongly placed on a south facing bank - but I failed to get round to moving it, and as a result at this very moment it is probably the star of the garden.  The Winter honeysuckle is a must in this region because though it is a rather dowdy shrub for most of the year, its flower power and therefore scent in the winter months is outstanding, and moreover it is trouble free. This reminds me to say that I find quite a lot of shrubs which in England I found a little boring, out here flower and/or fruit so intensely, that they go up in my estimation. Amongst these I would include Chaenomeles, or Ornamental quinces, which here flower very early, and Pyracanthas. 

Bulbs do their thing more or less immediately, or at any rate they flower immediately, so they in this sense avoid the pygmy stage. Of course, as with all things, they come with problems. The number of my snowdrops is  rapidly decreasing, even though planted on a north woodland slope. Crocus would flourish but for the mice and voles, tulips ditto, and this to my surprise since I thought they would not take to the heavy clay. Unfortunately for me the rabbits appear to like them, it seems to me more out of curiousity than any gastronomic pleasure. The good news is that they do not seem to like daffodils. I some times think that we are a bit dry for them, and they appear to hold their own rather than flourish, but I have planted a lot of them, mainly of the smaller varieties such N. February Gold, but more of this another time.  Of the even smaller bulbs, cyclamen are a must, including the winter flowering 'Coums'; also the small iris such as I. histriodes and reticulata.Unlike in England where they tended to die out, here they seem to multiply, though again alas for me the rabbits are quite interested in them. This is also true of my final recommendations, the Ipheions. My impression is that they are underrated, and admittedly the most common example, I. uniflorum, is a rather washy blue. But Wisley Blue is stronger, and Alberto Castillo a very good white. I. Rolf Fielder is a slightly different animal, with a smaller, ground hugging leaves, but with a flower of an almost flourescent blue. They disappear from view after early flowering, but do not seem to mind being accidently disturbed; in fact it is probably good for them, as they soon become very congested. But that is the good news. They appear to like us, and over quite a long period provide carefree colour.