The late lamented Bishop of Auch

As I have mentioned before I am very fond of dahlias, partly because they are fond of me, or rather my garden's soil, which is in most areas heavyish clay.Amongst my favourites are the so-called Bishop's children, that is offspring of the Bishop of Llandaff, much loved by and popularized by Vita Sackville West at Sissinghurst. The flowers are a bright red held above finely cut, dark red/ maroon leaves. This latter feature is a characteristic of most of the 'children', while the flowers are usually a shade of red. Not all however. I have just acquired the Bishop of Dover which has single, clear yellow flowers, and very smart it is to. The flowers of the Bishop of Auch, so-named by me, since selected by me, was much more apricot/orange than red. It was also fully double, though not in a overblown way. Alas the one plant, that flowered so well last year, has not seemingly survived the winter, and so a most attractive garden plant is no more. No doubt this is my fault for leaving it in the ground, but since I have been in France almost all my dahlias have flourished with this treatment, while the few that I have lifted in the autumn have died. What annoys me is that I tried quite hard to interest nurserymen, and women in this plant without the slightest success, none of them, including Sarah Raven, who in my view should know better, bothering even to reply, and these days a reply is just a question of pressing one or two keys on your computer.

What I have retained is some very good photographs taken by a friend who happens to be a professional photograper, but I would have preferred the plant itself. Saved, however, is the Bishop of Lombez, rather closer in looks to the parent plant, and I now have two or three of these, and hope to have more, so that I can distribute them to friends. Any of you out there who are interested in having one do let me know. I do not think that you would be disappointed.

Meanwhile at last some rain; here about 40mm in four days, and more is promised. It came in the nick of time, with our very large water storage almost empty. The garden as usual is mostly out of control, but there is enough that is pleasing to keep me optimistic. In the least satisfactory area, the so-called Prairie Garden, the gauras are coming to the rescue, the sunny, open conditions obviously suiting them well. Also present in some numbers is the lovely silver thistle , Onopordum acanthium. It is a biannual, so you have to be quite clever to get flowering plants every year. it also have vicious spines, so vicious that Christopher Lloyd would never have them in his garden. But they have a huge 'Gosh' factor, , and for the moment they are enabling a rather weedy area of the garden look rather exciting, at least that is from a distance. I am still hoping to win in this area. I need more large grasses, that is to say, Miscanthus and Panicums, also more Macleayas, the so-called Plume Poppies, but it all takes time and money. The first flush of roses is behind us, but they are at last beginning to make the impression that I hoped they would, especially on the 'Wild Rose' bank, one of the first things that you see when you get to the house. So all in all the garden could be a lot worse, and with the return of the rain I am feeling much more cheerful, this despite the death of the late lamented Bishop of Auch.