Survivors !

I had thought of entitling this blog 'Successes', but in the end it seemed a bit too triumphal in a summer which has really tested us all. From May to September here we have had  124 ml of rain when the average for these months is around 300 ml to which one should add the fact that it has been exceptionally hot as well with temperatures often over 30 C. So one might well argue that anything that has survived can be counted a success, and of course there have been one or two survivors.

To start with something really quite ordinary, the Perovskia. There are various ones on the market, but I suspect that mine are the most common, P.atriplicifolia Blue Spire, and anyway I for one have not taken in the differences, though I do not see much point in acquiring a P.Little Spire. Many of you will know it, perhaps under the name Russian Sage with quite fine grey foliage and fronds of blue flowers over a long period - mine are still showing colour having started somewhere near the end of June. Treat it like a buddlejia and cut it right down early in the year it seems to resist anything that the weather might throw at it.. My guess is that it is better in an open bed, or even in the dreaded Prairie Garden where mine are, than in a traditional border, where it tends to flop seeking no doubt the sun, but of course it can always be staked.  I am adding to my collection since I have come, perhaps rather late, to the decision that I need more of the common, or perhaps along with our new President I should say 'normal' plants. I am thinking here of Hibiscus, lagerstroemias, lavenders, rosemarys, plants that do not turn a hair as the temperatures mount into the thirties.

Many of the grasses seem to pass this test, and I do mean grasses rather than sedges which do demand more water.  The great advantages of grasses is that they do not have flowers, or not at least in the ordinary sense of the word, for it is often the flowers that suffer most in the heat. Either they do not appear at all, or they are over far too soon.  Grasses in the same heat may look a little browned off but after all it is their browning in late autumn that we anyway look forward to, and though most of them would welcome a bit water, they do not seem to need it. Can I in particular praise the Panicums. They are not as big as the Miscanthus or at least they are not in my garden, though having just glanced at Neil Lucas's 'Designing with Grasses', a book I can strongly recommend, I see that many of them can get to 3 meters or more. I have grown with pleasure for some time P. virgatum Heavy Metal, but am new to P.v.Dallas Blue which as the name suggests has bluish leaves and very showy flower panicles which makes it for me a bit of a star.

Most roses have suffered a bit, which is to say that their second and third flowering, that is if they do repeat, has been less good than usual. Among the exceptions to this I would definitely include David Austin's Crown Princess Margereta, which increasingly think is one of the best that he has produced, and in flower now on our walls and pergolas Ena Harkness, Lady Hillingdon and Sombreuil. I have actually lost one or two roses that I planted in the Spring, partly as a result of carelessness, but it has been very difficult to keep an eye on everything, but by and large roses do survive the secheresse and most will make a strong comeback next year. And while I think about I want to put in a good word for Mrs B.R.Cant, a rather pedestrian name for what I first took to be a rather pedestrian rose. However it was recommended to me by Becky and John Hook of La Roseraie du Desert, so perhaps it is not so surprising that I have changed my mind.  It is certainly a survivor having come through this summer without needing a drop of water and I am now enjoying its third significant flush of flowers.  The colour has been one of my worries. It is a strong pink which I suppose is not my favourite but better perhaps than a pink that gets washed out by strong sunlight. The flower itself is rather beautifully formed, and perhaps above all it appears at the end of a long stem, which makes it ideal for cutting. So all in all a rose well worth looking out for, especially as it does not seem to suffer from any of the prevalent rose diseases.

Other survivors would include the achilleas. I am not talking here of the very many varieties of Achillea millefolium in all shades of of colour and with names like Cassis  and Paprika. They are often recommnded for the dry garden, but they do not do at all with me, seemingly needing more water than I am prepared to give them; No, I am talking of the tall plants in various shades of yellow with names such as Cloth of Cold or Gold Plate. Mine are mainly Ach. filipendulina Parker's Variety which I grew from seed. They are imposing plants which seem to resist the secheresse and have quite a long flowering period. So another 'normal' plant that I am increasingly concentrating on.

But having been a plant snob all my life I find it difficult to shake of my old love of the unusual.  I am not sure just how unusual Mandevilla laxa is but I do not think that it is often seen. It is much like a white Morning Glory but with the advantage of a good scent, though sadly not one that appears to carry any distance, so you have to stick your nose in the flower. It has pretty enough leaf, and this year mine has covered a wide area of the front fascade of the house and has been in flower for a long period. It hails from South America so one worries about its survival in the winter, but all I can say is that it came through the last one without any problems which means that we can call it a survivor.