Secheresse

As I write this we are enjoying the first serious rain since July  - already 30mm has fallen and more is promised - so at last the secheresse is over. But one way and another it has been a testing year with a very dry late Spring and early summer, this the time when usually the Gers enjoys its most amount of rain. July was significantly wetter than usual but the last three months have not only been very dry but also for the most part very hot. How has the garden coped, or perhaps more important how have I coped, the answer being with difficulty. What has helped is that our large 'resevoir', which collects all the water off our roofs, has not, rather to my surprise, actually run out. They are expensive to install but if you are a keen gardener, probably in the end worth it; You will need a pump to bring the water up to a tap. We put in two but we could do with more; as it is, for the more distant parts of the garden we have to make do with 'eau de ville'.  It is probably too early to count up the actual 'deaths' but clearly a lot of plants have been under great stress.

To avoid the stress the secret of course is to chose the plants that most suit your conditions, but since we tend to have dry, hot summers, but wet and sometimes cold winters and and springs that is not altogether easy, and I have to say when looking at pictures of English gardens with their great variety of plants I can become rather depressed.  Of course we can do exotic things. I have written often in praise of the dahlia. I also have cannas and one the most attractive of foliage plants, Melianthus major, but only because I am prepared to water them on a regular basis. On the other hand I have a number of the so-called Ginger Lilies (hedychiums) and though they get quite a bit of water they struggle and I am beginning to think that they are not worth the space they occupy The rather striking red Hibiscus, H. coccineus, just about does, but this year Hiiscus dasycalyx, with attractive white flowers looked miserable all summer. All these 'exotics' not only like water but also need serious feeding to do of their best. This is not true for something as ordinary of as the Loosestrifes. The Purple Loosetrife is one of our most common wildflowers, and if you like purple it makes a wonderful sight. I have tried  various cultivated versions, being particiularly attracted by L. salicaria Blush, which looks splendid at La Coursiana, but with virtually zero results: the plants have not died but they have hardly flowered, and mostly look miserable. But the wild loostrife is to be found in ditches and boggy ground and those conditions I singularly lack. The same conditions please the Ligularia family, imposing plants with attractive foliage, sometimes of a purple hue, and in some cases rather brassy orange flowers. Perhaps more elegant but again with foliage being a principal attraction, are the Rodgersias, but unless you have got a reliable source of water they are hopeless.

But in getting rather depressed by the large number of plants that I cannot grow I have not left much space for the many that I can.  It has taken me rather too long to appreciate how well the lavenders do here. Of course I have always liked them, and the smell of lavender is for many of us a Proustian moment: for instance one of my grandmothers usually smelt of lavender and the sachets used to be put into many a draw. But I also have memories of it looking rather miserable in England during the winter months, as indeed it can here if the ground gets too waterlogged. But much of our garden is on a slope which despite the clay means that the drainage is reasonably good, so that is not a problem. It is also probably true that the variety of lavenders has greatly increased in recent years, it now being well into the hundreds. Pepinière Filippi is a major source, and moreover his catalogue is one of the most informative that I have ever come across. Alas, he has given up coming to the Gaujacq fairs so unless you are willing to travel to near Sète on the Mediterranean coast you will have to pay extra for mail order. But Les Senteurs du Quercy, who do come to Gaujacq, have 18 lavenders listed in their catalogue, and there are other suppliers.   I am not keen on the whites or indeed the pinks, and for me the deeper the blue/purple the better which puts the well-known L.Hidcote Blue high on my list as also the less well-known L. Twickle Purple which has the added advantage of flowering a little later than Hidcote.  But I increasingly like the various varieties of L.x chaytorae - I have Joan Head and Richard Grey - this because of their very white and felted foliage which seems to stand up well to winter wet. On the other hand winter cold may be more of a worry, as it certainly is for the various L.x allardii. But the latter are certainly worth a try: their foliage is striking and they flower over a long period; in fact you could almost call them repeat flowering, this from April until October, and this year certainly November.

Equally resistant to secheresse are two families that I had intended to write something about, that is the Phlomis, both herbaceous and woody, and the Rosemary families, but having got too depressed about the things I cannot grow I have run out of time and space, so that a consideration of them will have to wait for another time. Meanwhile the stars of my autumn colour, as indeed they were last year, are Acer oliverianum and Quercus schumardii, both of which incidentally have come through the secheresse without turning a leaf. If you have not got them go out immediately and buy them.