Gardeners Friends

When in doubt plant Cosmos.  It is particularly good advice for someone like myself still at the pygmy stage: seemingly acres of bare ground all set for the weeds to colonize, so get in first with the Cosmos. I do not know why it is so acceptable. One could call it a weed, and it can certainly be invasive. Moreover now that Gersois farmers are planting fields of it, it may become rather too much of a good thing. But for me it is saved from almost all criticism by its delicacy of leaf and indeed of flower. It is an annual, but normally it reseeds freely, though our heavy ground is not ideal for any reseeding, and a late frost might do for it.

Another very generous reseeder is Verbena bonariensis. It was Christopher Lloyd who first sang its praises for me, I think in what for many years was my gardening bible, his 'The Well-tempered Garden'. Maddeningly I cannot put my hands on my copy to confirm that, and this may be indicative of the fact that I now have a new bible which many of you may not have come across: Pamela J. Harper's, 'Time-tested Plants', tested over thirty years in her garden in Virginia. Her soil is acid, which most of ours is not, but curiously the weather she describes seems very similar - hot summers with possibilities of drought, winter frosts but not enough to do great damage. Most of the plants she writes about grow very happily here, and how well she writes about them. I do not know of any other gardening book which has provided me with so much useful information, let alone inspiration. If Pamela J. Harper approves of a plant I am sure that I will!

But back to Verbena bonariensis. Its great virtue, as Christopher Lloyd pointed out, is that it is a see-through plant, that is to say that it does not block out from sight what is behind it, so that though tallish it can be planted anywhere in a border, and provide colur and interest over a very long period. Like Cosmos it is easy from seed, and a generous, sometimes too generous reseeder, but easy enough to pull out if not wanted. In fact in theory it is a short-lived perennial, but an old plant soon gets rather tatty, and one might as well consider it as an annual.

The same might be said of Salvia turkestanica. The purplish blue haze that it creates in early summer always gives me a thrill, and even though the bluish petals fall quite quickly the bracts continue to provide colour for a long time, provided that the heat is not too intense. Some people do not like the smell. This only emerges if you make contact with the plant, but if you do it is strong, and for me rather Proustian, evocative of happy hours weeding in a Guildford garden of close friends, now some thirty years ago.

Another bible for me is Graham Stuart Thomas'   'Perennial Garden Plants', the most satisfactory descriptive list of plants with advice on cultivation that I have ever come across. He gives Gaura lindheimeri  only medium marks - 'not in the first flight' - and I have just seen that Christopher Lloyd in his 'Garden Flowers' is a bit sniffy as well. But it does exceptionally well in our climate providing in this case a whitish haze of flower which like the grasses moves in the wind, over a long period.  Some time ago a pink version was produced, and like so many novelties, rather took over from its predecessor.  But as time passes my choice turns back to the white, though in fact I have both in the garden. The more dumpy varieties which you can also find, especially in pink seem to me to be an 'erreur' since the great attraction of the plant rests in its gracefulness.  Again I would call it a short-lived perennial, but again also it reseeds itself freely, so once you have got it you should never be without, and apart from pulling out the unwanted ones, it should never cause you problems.

There are other 'gardeners friends' that I shall return to no doubt - the common Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, especially for me the purple leaved variety, comes to mind, though its propensity to reseed can be a bit more of a nuisance than with the above. But for the moment I want to mention what might be called my 'new best friend', Viola bertolonii.  I have always been an admirer of the violas, and in England at one moment considered myself almost a collector. Since living in France I have not had nearly so much success despite the fact that Viola cornuta is a Pyrenean plant, I assume because the conditions have been too hot and dry.  Looking through the Chilterns seed catalogue - another 'bible', though some may find its descriptions a bit OTT - I came across the aforesaid V. bertolonni. What caught my attention was the fact that it welcomed ' a sunny position', and came from Italy, so I felt that it ought to be able to put up with our summers, and somewhat to my surprise it has. It is a good blue with a well-whiskered face, and a reasonably long stem. It seems to be in flower from February to October, and it reseeds. What more could you wants? Perhaps smell, but then you can't have everything!