It was not I who honoured Bernard Lacrouts with this title, but another client, and he is certainly far too modest to accept it. Still as long as we can think pagan, since there are other 'Gods' to be found, I am in agreement. We are very lucky to have someone as good as he who is reasonably easily available. His nursery is situated just outside of Vic en Bigorre - roughly speaking just above Tarbes - very close to the road from Vic to Pau. One of his many advantages is that he has very good website - www.unjardindevivaces.fr - where you will find a better idea of how to get to him than I have provided. There is also on the site a most excellent catalogue, which you can download and print out, most of the plants having photos available. His descriptions and advice may not be quite up to the standard of Thierry Denis - another 'Dieu de Vivaces' but two or three hundred miles away, and with a much more limited selection - but they are good enough.
What is so good about him ? Well, first of all there is the accueil. He and his rather remarkable lady 'colleague' - a champion archer, surfer and snowboarder - could not be more welcoming, without being too much in your face: you are allowed to get on with your visit, but if you need advice they are there to help. There probably is a plan, though I have yet to work it out, but the large area is sufficiently well organized to make finding things fairly easy, and when I was there earlier this week all the plants were looking well despite the intense heat of recent days. In these hard times price is an important consideration and his seem to me to be very reasonable. But what makes his nursery a bit different from many others in our region is the choice.
Compared with England I would say that the average nursery and garden centre in France is rather conservative in their choice, though perhaps that is changing a little. But Lacrouts has always travelled widely in search of new plants, so he knows what is happening in England or elsewhere in Europe. For example his current catalogue lists over fifty hardy geraniums, including all the important new varieties such as G. Orian and G.Rozanne. All the different varieties of vivace are well-represented - achilleas, asters, phloxes, thalictrums, etc., etc. as well as what in the old days one would have called rockery plants, including the increasingly fashionable Delospermas, for me a sort of mesembryanthemum, with names such as Nelson Mandela, and Graaff-Reinet, the latter in fact a rather disappointing white, but since I was at Graaff-Reinet last January I felt that I had to have it. If you like day lilies you will not be disappointed, or for instance salvias of which there is a huge choice.
But what gives me particular pleasure is finding plants that I have never heard of, yet alone come across, this after a life timing of gardening a not very frequent event. On my last visit I suddenly came across a very fine specimen of what turned out to be Patrinia scabiosifolia. It is difficult to describe. Christopher Lloyd who came to admire it in late life likened it to the tall Valerian which you can see growing on roadside verges at this moment if not cut down by the over eager 'équipement', but with flowers 'of a cool yellow with just a hint of green in them'. There is a worry about just how much heat and dryness it can take. Lacrouts thought that it probably would need rather more moisture than I can provide here, especially at this moment with temperatures well over 30.C, but Lloyd thought that it went well with Verbena bonariensis which suggests that it could manage some 'secheresse'. If anybody knows anything about the weather in Eastern Siberia they would be able to provide the answer because apparently that is where it hails from. But in all events it has that unmistakable look of a quality plant, and is just one example of the kind of vivace you will find chez Lacrouts.
Thursday 26 July 2012
Monday 23 July 2012
Six Years On
We arrived here on the 13 July 2006 so we have just celebrated our Sixth anniversary, though since there was no garden here at all when we arrived it makes more sense to talk about our fifth summer. It is far too early to talk about maturity, but at least not everything is at the pygmy stage, and it is perhaps a good moment to sit back and try to assess how we are doing. I am not a great believer in a detailed Five Year Plan, but one or two major decisions had to be made from almost day one. Amongst these was the position of the pool. By and large they are not things of great beauty especially when decorated by swimming pool furniture and toys, so if possible I would always be in favour of hiding them. Here that was difficult since the property is tucked away on the side of a hill, and in the end we decided to go full frontal, which is to say that the pool is in full view of the main facade of the house. Here we have created a large flat area. This consists of, immediately outside the front door, the so-called Gravel Garden, then grass, then the pool, then grass again, and then the so-called Prairie Garden. After that the the natural contours of the slope, fortunately not too steep, take over, leading to an orchard, and to a particularly fine oak tree. Making this oak the central focus of the garden was I suppose the main design decision, slightly complicated by the fact that close to it is an electric pylon, which at great expense we are about to remove, two similar ones nearer to the house having already been done away with.
By and large it works, the pool when not in use standing in for an ornamental pond, this necessitating an alarm system, no visible pool house, no cover, and no emptying in winter.. Of the other features the least satisfactory to date is the Gravel Garden, about which I have written about in previous blogs. The ground should have been better prepared, the use of peat to mix with the gravel was a mistake, and the planting of oenothera speciosa was a catastrophe. But I still think that the idea was a good one, and with better drainage - the gravel was placed over fairly heavy clay - and a better choice of plants I am hopeful that it will improve. To my surprise the various thymes have been rather disappointing, one in particular whose name I have forgotten but whose flowers are pretty nondescript pale pink and whose foliage is far too lax, has threatened to take over. Also disappointing have been teucrium ackermanii and t. cossonii. In the photos these appear to provide a marvellous carpet of a strong purple colour, but mine have struggled to produce any flowers, the reason I suppose being the lack of really good drainage. T.marum has taken its time, but is at last beging to make an impact - good greyish foliage and purple flowers. As for successes I would single out tanacetum densum subsp.amanii with its almost white persistent foliage, a small red leaved berberis whose name I have also forgotten, various dianthus(pinks) though sadly these need frequent renewing, and various geraniums, chiefly g. sanguineum but also g.Rambling Robin, these providing colour, but not shape, and it is shape that this area of the garden desperately needs.
I am a late convert to Prairie gardens. As I wrote over ten years ago now, one of the problems with them is that we do not all possess a prairie. Here we have one, though rather small by North American standards, and no bison.It is one of the many parts of the garden that looks reasonably good from a distance which is appropriate enough as regards prairies. The great saviour here has been the gauras, which are in full fig as I write this. They in fact do much better in a prairie, or indeed in an Island bed than for instance in a mixed border where they tend to flop about in an unsatisfactory way. Very successful too are the macleayas, in particular m.microcarpa Kelway's Coral Plume, and m.micro; Spetchly Ruby, the latter with a more glaucous leaf and with flowers rather less coral, though I would not call them ruby. They are tall - over 2 meters - do not need staking, and die attractively, so are a feature for a long period, but definitely not for a small area. Also vital are tall achilleas, mainly a.filipendulina Parker's Variety which I grew from seed. They more or less support themsleves, their bright yellows make an impact, and their flowering season is quite long. They will be followed by asters, and of course the grasses. We have now got quite a lot of them, mainly misacnthus and panicums, and in a later blog I will try and assess them, but it is just worth noting that for the first half of the year they do not contribute very much, and indeed one might think of them at this stage as not very desirable 'weeds', which enables me to stress that though a convert, I have not become, like many converts do, a fundamentalist. Grasses can be good in certain situations, but can easily be overdone, and indeed many are thugs.
The Prairie Garden is certainly getting better, and with luck will continue to improve in time as the various clumps get bigger. The same can be said of various massifs situated on banks. They consist chiefly of shrubs and trees, all still quite small but at last beginning to make an impact. Amongst the trees are those that I have mentioned quite frequently including ornamental pears, red oaks and perhaps almost my favourite tree of Pistacia chinensis. I suppose autumn colour is its main feature but the ash like leaf is always attractive, and it seems to grow fast. Amongst the shrubs I would include the various buddleias with the I suppose fairly bogstandard, b.Lochinch very hard to beat, clerodendrum trichotomum, about to burst into flower - white with a good smell that carries followed by turquoise berries - and the elaegnus angustifolia and e.commutata Quicksilver. The roses, which must be if not the best at least the most noticeable feature of the garden I have written about too many times to need to say more here, but one advantage of them is that they grow fast, though a little patience is needed during the first year.
I have never considered myself a garden designer, which may be why my gardens are never quite as satisfactory as I think they ought to be. But a garden design tends to require more money than I have ever had available: walls and hedges,lakes and follys are wonderful but expensive and then there is often the designer to be paid as well. But I do not feel to hard done by since what I like about gardens are the plants and by and large they are much cheaper than hard surfaces. But the great danger of my approach is that it all gets to look a bit the same. Because in my case gauras and roses do remarkably well there is a great temptation to have them all over the place, and I may not have completely avoided this danger here. Fortunately I do also like growing new plants, and we are also lucky to have in the grounds about half a dozen really fine oaks, which if all else fails us give us something rather beautiful to look at while the things that we have planted continue to grow. Let us hope that we are still around in six years time to make a further assessment.
By and large it works, the pool when not in use standing in for an ornamental pond, this necessitating an alarm system, no visible pool house, no cover, and no emptying in winter.. Of the other features the least satisfactory to date is the Gravel Garden, about which I have written about in previous blogs. The ground should have been better prepared, the use of peat to mix with the gravel was a mistake, and the planting of oenothera speciosa was a catastrophe. But I still think that the idea was a good one, and with better drainage - the gravel was placed over fairly heavy clay - and a better choice of plants I am hopeful that it will improve. To my surprise the various thymes have been rather disappointing, one in particular whose name I have forgotten but whose flowers are pretty nondescript pale pink and whose foliage is far too lax, has threatened to take over. Also disappointing have been teucrium ackermanii and t. cossonii. In the photos these appear to provide a marvellous carpet of a strong purple colour, but mine have struggled to produce any flowers, the reason I suppose being the lack of really good drainage. T.marum has taken its time, but is at last beging to make an impact - good greyish foliage and purple flowers. As for successes I would single out tanacetum densum subsp.amanii with its almost white persistent foliage, a small red leaved berberis whose name I have also forgotten, various dianthus(pinks) though sadly these need frequent renewing, and various geraniums, chiefly g. sanguineum but also g.Rambling Robin, these providing colour, but not shape, and it is shape that this area of the garden desperately needs.
I am a late convert to Prairie gardens. As I wrote over ten years ago now, one of the problems with them is that we do not all possess a prairie. Here we have one, though rather small by North American standards, and no bison.It is one of the many parts of the garden that looks reasonably good from a distance which is appropriate enough as regards prairies. The great saviour here has been the gauras, which are in full fig as I write this. They in fact do much better in a prairie, or indeed in an Island bed than for instance in a mixed border where they tend to flop about in an unsatisfactory way. Very successful too are the macleayas, in particular m.microcarpa Kelway's Coral Plume, and m.micro; Spetchly Ruby, the latter with a more glaucous leaf and with flowers rather less coral, though I would not call them ruby. They are tall - over 2 meters - do not need staking, and die attractively, so are a feature for a long period, but definitely not for a small area. Also vital are tall achilleas, mainly a.filipendulina Parker's Variety which I grew from seed. They more or less support themsleves, their bright yellows make an impact, and their flowering season is quite long. They will be followed by asters, and of course the grasses. We have now got quite a lot of them, mainly misacnthus and panicums, and in a later blog I will try and assess them, but it is just worth noting that for the first half of the year they do not contribute very much, and indeed one might think of them at this stage as not very desirable 'weeds', which enables me to stress that though a convert, I have not become, like many converts do, a fundamentalist. Grasses can be good in certain situations, but can easily be overdone, and indeed many are thugs.
The Prairie Garden is certainly getting better, and with luck will continue to improve in time as the various clumps get bigger. The same can be said of various massifs situated on banks. They consist chiefly of shrubs and trees, all still quite small but at last beginning to make an impact. Amongst the trees are those that I have mentioned quite frequently including ornamental pears, red oaks and perhaps almost my favourite tree of Pistacia chinensis. I suppose autumn colour is its main feature but the ash like leaf is always attractive, and it seems to grow fast. Amongst the shrubs I would include the various buddleias with the I suppose fairly bogstandard, b.Lochinch very hard to beat, clerodendrum trichotomum, about to burst into flower - white with a good smell that carries followed by turquoise berries - and the elaegnus angustifolia and e.commutata Quicksilver. The roses, which must be if not the best at least the most noticeable feature of the garden I have written about too many times to need to say more here, but one advantage of them is that they grow fast, though a little patience is needed during the first year.
I have never considered myself a garden designer, which may be why my gardens are never quite as satisfactory as I think they ought to be. But a garden design tends to require more money than I have ever had available: walls and hedges,lakes and follys are wonderful but expensive and then there is often the designer to be paid as well. But I do not feel to hard done by since what I like about gardens are the plants and by and large they are much cheaper than hard surfaces. But the great danger of my approach is that it all gets to look a bit the same. Because in my case gauras and roses do remarkably well there is a great temptation to have them all over the place, and I may not have completely avoided this danger here. Fortunately I do also like growing new plants, and we are also lucky to have in the grounds about half a dozen really fine oaks, which if all else fails us give us something rather beautiful to look at while the things that we have planted continue to grow. Let us hope that we are still around in six years time to make a further assessment.
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