June in the Gers

Wet apparently. I always tell myself not to complain about too much rain, since normally we do not have enough, but I have to say that it would be good to have a little bit of sunshine, or at least not such as heavy rain, which has left so much of the garden looking a bit battered. Funnily enough I am rather more optimistic about the garden than usual, though I am not very sure why, since much of it is out of control, encouraged to be so by the wet. But there is plenty in flower including the penstemons. These are surely a 'must have', though I know of some people who have had difficulties with them. I am not sure that they welcome too much competition around them, whether from bonnes ou mauvaises herbes, and I have a suspicion that their roots can be attacked by voles, of which most of us have rather too many. But here they have worked very well. I have grown some from seed - they propagate very easily, and this is a cheap way to renew them since they are not very long lived - or you can buy the named varieties, many of which are available. My favourite, and of the most easy to grow, remains what I call P. Garnet, but now more usually lurks under its German name, P. Andenken an Frederich Hahn.

Another plant family in full flower is the Alstroemeria. I remember a time when they were considered 'difficult', and it is true that like the paeony they have an exotic look that suggests difficulties. But here at least they seem to grow like weeds, the clumps getting bigger and bigger, and for instance they seem to have suffered no ill-effects from our severish winter, this incidentally true of almost all the dahlias, cannas, though perhaps they are a little later than usual, and more surprisingly the Hedychiums, or Ginger Plants. All these I leave in the ground having decided many years ago that I was just as likely to lose them out of the ground as in, in either case rot being the principal enemy. As for the Alstroemerias mine were a cheap lot whose names I have not recorded, but none of them are the more recent shorter variety, which I have to say I do not like nearly as much. I have a recollection Of Christopher Lloyd sounding off against all shorter, and supposedly more convenient - no staking - hybrids, and as always he was right. For instance the mini-snapdragon is a miserable specimen the giant varities - Chiltern Seeds stock them - very fine.

I am not sure how often I have praised the Salvia turkestanica, but in my view it cannot be praised too often. The appearance of its flowers is one of the most magical moments in the gardening calendar. It is hardly more than a biannual, but it is usually generous with its seeds, so once you have it you should never be without. A very wet winter is not good news of it, but then it is not for most plants.

As I mentioned last time, the roses have been exceptional this year, and in my last blog I promised some sort of assessment of some of the lesser known ones that I grow. In fact I think it is a bit too soon to make a judgement about many of them, particularly those bought from La Rosereraie du Desert, the reason being that most of these are eventually large specimens, and until the reach a certain size it is difficult to assess them. Still I am very pleased with Emmie Grey, and not just because it's origins are listed 'found Bermuda'. It is single red, quite similar to Sanguinea, incidentally another 'must have', but seemingly of more upright growth. Also very succeessful is the species rose, Rosa soulieana, a great favourite of Sir Roy Strong's, if that is a recommendation.. Again it is big, at this time of year covered with single white flowers with attractive yellow stamens, to be followed by orange hips. But its chief feature is its foliage, not quite as purplish blue as Rosa glauca, but I am not sure that grey, the description used by Peter Beales is quite adequate. But however you describe the colour it makes a wonderful shrub.

I had intended to make rather disparaging remarks about Kathleen - the hybrid musk, not the china - but the other day while weeding around a massif of roses my eye was caught by a mass of very delicate, single, pink roses, whose name I did not know. It turned out to be Kathleen, only confirming my view that all hybrid musks are good news. I have got old favourites such as Buff Beauty, Cornelia, Moonlight, and Penelope, but also, new to me the aforesaid Kathleen, but also Nur Mahal, semi-single, bright crimson, and Vanity, a bright pink, which I am finding particularly attractive. If you confined yourself to only hybrid musks you would not go far wrong. The individual flowers are not I suppose especially distinguished, but they repeat well, rarely suffer from the diseases that many roses are prone to, and for the most part have good scent. Many were developed in the 1920s by the Rev. Joseph Pemberton, one of those now virtually extinct breed of Anglican vicars who devoted a lot of their time to flora and fauna to the great benefit of mankind.