Alas, my Sparkleberry ne sparkle pas !

I miss the holly in all its various varieties and variegations. It may be a little artificial, and you can make it even more so by making it into topiary, but leaving aside the excitement, and associations of the berries, it adds a touch of smartness to a garden, and can lighten up a dark corner. I have seen the wild holly in various parts of the South West, and I suspect that if you are near the mountains you might have success with them, though in the only garden in that category that I know of they nevertheless struggle. I suppose that it is the usual problem of heat and drought. I thought that I had found the answer at least to the berries in Ilex Sparkleberry. It is much recommended by my gardening guru, Pamela J. Harper, and in her Virginia garden it sure does sparkle. Not here however,and since unlike the traditional holly, its leaves are not evergreen so far it has added not a lot to the beauty of the place. No doubt it is the aforesaid problem, though I would have thought that like us Virginia was pretty hot in summer. What it may need is shade, or perhaps I just need to be a bit more patient. Incidentally, like most hollies for there to be berries it requires a male plant to be somewhere around, so for the sparkle you will also need Ilex x Apollo. Both can, or at least could be, found at Pep Botaniques Armoricaines, which though situated in Brittany does come to the Gaujac plant Fairs.

As already indicated, Sparkleberry without its berries is a rather poor thing, in the same way that say a Forsythia or the Winter flowering honesuckle are poor things without their flowers - or to put it another way they are shrubs that lack shape and/or attractive foliage. This leads me on to a reflection that also connects with my recent visit to England. What sadly we do not seem to be able to do here is create an English woodland garden. One thinks of the great Cornish gardens, too many to name, or the ones in Sussex, which I know better, such as Borde Hill and Leonardslee. What of course these possess is acid soil and moisture, which most of us do not, so no azaleas and rhododendrons. Many acers, supremely a shrub/tree that has both good form and good foliage, do not require acid soil, so one is tempted to try them, but with what success? Most of mine are struggling, though admittedly they are all small. One that is not is Acer oliverianum. It is on a south facing bank, so very dry, but under a large oak, and thus in shade, which may be the secret. One of the acers I have great hopes for is Acer triflorum, which amongst other things has rather similar bark to the better known Acer griseum. Mine alive but struggling, as also is my specimen, of A. griseum. The same can be said of my magnolias. These I have mostly planted in full sun, backing my hunch that they can take more heat than is usually suggested, but perhaps I am wrong. They are all alive, and already quite a lot of flower buds are forming, but they are not putting on much growth. Similarly the rather too many dogwoods that I have planted. These are shrubs/trees that like the acers perform more or less all the year round in one way or another, though with more flower/bract power, so very desirable - if only they would grow. I was very distressed the other day to hear Véronique Delonnoy of La Coursiana, say that she had great difficulty in growing the dogwoods, since in that lovely garden there is some acid soil, which the dogwoods probably prefer -and if she cannot grow them what am I doing trying. All is not lost. In fact they have come through the recent heatwave reasonably well, but on verra.

Meanwhile at last the rain has come, just about in time. I knew that was tempting fate in writing in my last blog that we were greener than in England, since when ,of course, we have had zero rain and temperatures in the 40.cs. Still it looks as if we have just about survived, though given that we have still a long autumn ahead of us, perhaps I am tempting fate yet again.