This and That

It is raining, which is one reason why I have at last got around to writing a new blog. I suspect that it is not going to be much, enough perhaps to avoid having to water today. In fact this year has been pretty kind as regards water. We have had some very hot and dry weather, but interspersed with just enough rain to keep the garden looking unusually green for the time of year. I have just come back from a rare visit to England. This included visits to Richmond and Kew. The former what with the grazing 'antelope', and the real parrots looked rather as I imagine the African veldt is, that is to say very brown indeed; ditto Kew where even the largest trees looked under stress. So in that sense I was glad to return to our green lawn around the swimming pool. Of course lawn, in the English sense it is not, rather a clover patch, but just because of the clover it does resist our usually dry and hot summer reasonably well. I have also, really for almost the first time in my life, resisted the temptation to cut low with the result that the slightly longer 'grass' has better retained what moisture we have had.

What plants did I see that caught my eye? Perhaps not as many as I hoped to, but then I was not there for long. The outstanding tree was curiously was Ostrya carpinfolia, I say curiously because to the question frequently asked of me by a non-gardening friend, what does this or that plant 'do', the answer could be not very much. It is very similar to what around here is the extremely common hornbeam. When I saw it it had attractive seed heads, and apparently in winter it has attractive catkins. It has reasonably good autumn colour, though of the yellow variety. What it did have is great presence, but then, it being Kew, I was looking at a particularly well-established specimen. There seems no reason why it should not grow well here, and if you have space I would recommend it.

Also in Kew I saw Althea cannabina. By chance I had just bought a plant during my visit to one of my favourite nurserymen, Bernard Lacrouts just outside Vic-en-Bigorre. There it was in a pot,looking remarkably beautiful but rather delicate. At Kew it was in large clumps of certainly 1,5 metres high, and apparently not lifted during the winter,and this has radically changed what use I could make of the plant.

Finally at Kew I was able to see the newly created rose garden. July is not the best time to see a rose garden in England, especially one under stress from drought and only recently planted. Given all this it was not looking too bad. It consisted mainly of David Austin roses. Those that seemed to be doing best in these difficult conditions were two that I had not really picked up from the catalogues, both of a deepish pink, Benjamin Britten and Sir John Betjamin. Amongst the Austin roses that I grow, and I think so far not mentioned is Crown Princess Margereta. Strong growing, so that it could easily be grown as a small climber, it is a strong apricot, has a good fruity fragrance, and repeats well. Also doing well and this in very difficult conditions, with the same possibility of being a climber, is Jude the Obscure. But being yellow rather than apricot, it rather fades away to not very much in our hot sun, so I cannot recommend it so strongly.. The strongest apricot that I know of, in fact described in the catalogue as copper, is remains Pat Austin, another very good 'doer'. Frequently mentioned by me is the rather bling bling and rather unattractively named, unless you are a supporter of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Molineux, about which I think that one can truthfully say, which in my view is rare, though a remark often seen in the catalogues, that it is never without flower.

What else to say about England? My most abiding impression is just how good the average garden is, with practically every where something of interest to see. Here one misses that, not that there are not good gardens, but they are rare, and usually rather unimaginative. That said some of the town gardens are good. I have not really noticed what Lectoure has done this year, but in the past its colour schemes have been rather imaginative. And there is a very good small garden at Auch under the cathedral and close to the cinemas. Any news of other very welcome.