More of the Same

I think that I was a bit unfair to our resident oaks in my last blog. They can indeed look a muddy yellow, but in certain lights they are very far from that, more golden or perhaps bronze, and certainly glistening. Here they provide a marvellous backdrop to what I hope in time will be a kaleidoscope of autumn colour, though at the moment only my two ornamental pears - Pyrus calleryana Chanticleer and Py. Call. Red Spire - are really making a serious contrbution. In years to come I hope that they will be joined by various ornamental cherries. These seem to have rather gone out of favour, and are fairly difficult to get hold of in France, which is a pity since they seem to grow well in our region. For the moment I will just mention one, Prunus x subhitella Autumnalis. I suppose it is the flowers, coming a they do when most flowers have packed up for the winter - mine is just beginning now, and I hope will continue on and off until April - that is its main feature. Still autumn colour is a definite bonus, and it grows fast. Another tree with significant flowers but also significant autumn colour, and it should be added attractive seed pods, are the Koelreuterias, both bipinnata integrifolia and the more common, panniculata, sometimes called the Golden rain tree on account of its yellow flowers in early summer.  Incidentally if you are driving through Simorre on the Lombez road just before the roundabout on which the post office is situated, you will see some very fine specimens, exceptionally tall for what is normally quite a small tree.

Planted below our large oaks is also a Liquidamber orientalis.  This I acquired at la Coursianna, where as I have mentioned before you will also discover a fine collection of the more common L. styracifolia, of which there are now many hybrids, for which see the Adeline catalogue where twenty one are mentioned.  L.orientalis is smaller, indeed it is sometimes described as a bush, but it is recognizably a liquidamber with the usual outstanding autumn tints, but its leaves when rubbed should smell strongly of balsam. I may have planted mine in the wrong place, that is to say on a dry south facing bank, when it is supposed to like damp conditions. But if you read the books this is apparently true of all Liquidambers, and yet they seem to flourish in our region, but then of course at certain periods, as now, we can get plenty of rain.

Of the shrubs one needs to mention most of the deciduous viburnhams, though in the case of V. burkwoodii and its hybrids, more usually semi-persistent.Last year I acquired V. burk. Mohawk, and am delighted with it; the usual smelly flowers in the spring, very red in bud, but with very good autumn tints, tints being the right word  because some leaves remain greenish.  More in your face is the colour of the Hydrangea quercifolias, of which there are now, like the Liquidambers, many hybrids. If you can cope with the almost bling-bling effect of their large white flower heads, they are good news as they cope better with our summers than the more usual 'mopheads'. Their autumn colour is a very rich burgundy. But if you can grow other hydrangeas look out for the H. serrata group, all of which tend to have good autumn colour.

With us some of the best autumn colour is provided by two roses. I grow more and more of Rosa morlettii,unlike most roses attractive almost all the year round, since its bare and almost thornless stems are a deep red. Its flowers are for my way of thinking good enough, if only once flowering, though over a longish period, but the autumn colour is very intense.  Rosa virginiana's colour is perhaps even more intense, though not as dark a red. It is a smaller bush than R. morlettiii, rarely more than a metre, but it clumps up well, and in addition to the autumn colour has very good berries. My intention is plant it all over the wolder parts of the garden. Incidentally both these roses are very easy to progate, either by cuttings in the late autumn, or in the case of virginiana just by chopping bits off. Of course the rugosas colour up well, but as I may have mentined before I find them surprisngly difficult to grow with often significant die back. he problem is that though they can cope well with poor conditions, they do not seem to like our heavy clay, this unlike most roses. 

Finally to return to the family with which I started, the oaks.  The real autumn stars, are what are called the Red Oaks, mainly coming from America. Adeline list over seventy, and many other French nurseries have a very fine collection of them, including Florama and La Preille. But for a very useful list see the otherwise rather uninformative catalogue of Pep. bot. Armoricaines. I cannot pretend to be an expert, and have not stayed in any one garden long enough to make a proper assessment. One of the most commonly available is Quercus palustris, or Chene de marais. This has attractive leaves even without autumn colour, but as the names suggest it has a preference for dampish conditions, as sadly do many of the red oaks. Probably this difficulty can be exaggerated.  My absolute favourite, Q. schumardii, looking at its best about now,apparently likes dampish conditions, but of course not too damp! It prefers acid soil, and therefore does not like calcaire, and one is advised to avoid heavy clay.  I am not sure that I can provide any of these conditions, but it seems to grow like a bomb. So as always the best advice is to suck it and see!