Sorbus torminalis

Yet again a blog with one plant as its title, and in this case not even the excuse that it has not appeared before. My reason for doing so is that each autumn I fall in love with it again and vow to plant more of them which is as good an excuse as any, but moreover I have the impression that people do not really know about it perhaps because being common to most Gersois woods it is not considered sufficiently smart.. This year I have gone out into the woods and acquired a goodly number. This is not an altogether easy exercise. First of all one needs to identify it, the problem being that it is easily confused with the Field Maple, Acer campestre, in itself a very beautiful tree especially in autumn when the leaves turn a very intense yellow.  It is too complicated for me  here to explain the differences but the most obvious is that the acer's leaves are more deeply lobed.  Having found the right plant the next problem is that the roots are often layered but very sparsely rooted. The result is that you often end up with a lot of stem and very few roots. I have nevertheless planted these up, and only the Spring will tell whether they have rooted or not. Perhaps you are  better off buying them at a nursery - look out for Alisier - where at this time of year you will find them bare-rooted at a very reasonable price, for instance at Mirande's Jardinerie d'Embaloge.

But why bother?  First of all it has the features common to the family Sorbus, attractive leaves, bunches of white flowers followed by berries and good autumn colour. In fact neither the flowers - a rather dingy white, nor the berries, more brown than red - is its best feature, but rather the autumn colour, though even this is not as spectacular as some, that is to say it is neither bright red nor bright yellow. Probably it is old age but I increasingly like the more subtle colouration which often takes place over a period of time with on the same tree leaves of a different colour.  The Parrotia is one of the best in this respect, but alas I do not seem to be able to grow it well; mine shows little sign of growing and this year hardly bothered to change colour, I assume because it did not like our dry, hot summer. It is also a bit exposed to wind; one of the best examples that I can remember was tucked away in the cottage garden at Sissinghurst. Another tree that comes into this category and which I cannot grow for lack of enough water is the Cercidiphyllum, though I know of a marvellous specimen of C.japonicum Pendulum, but this growing much closer in to the Pyrenees with just that more amount of rain.

Of course we can do autumn colour here. I have mentioned the various red oaks before, my favourite being Quercus schumardii as also Pistacia sinensis. Liquidambers do reasonably well and for a very fine collection pay a visit to my 'favourite' garden, La Cousiana at Le Romieu. I have only got two: L. straciflua Worplesdon, this partly because I used to visit a lovely garden at Worplesdon, and L.formosana. The latter I am rather keen on without quite knowing why, though perhaps because its autumn colouration is not quite in your face as some - but I have just noticed that it may not be quite so frost resistant, coming from southern China, as the North American varieties.

Still, alas, autumn is over, though there are still leaves on our oak trees. The winter flowering cherry with its rather contradictory Latin name of Prunus subhirtella autumnalis - in fact it can start quite early in the winter, which I suppose one might consider to be almost autumn - is just coming into bloom. It will now flower intermittently through the winter in any mild spell, which is one of its charms: one thinks that you have had the flowers, and then up they pop again, almost stronger than ever. Also out are one or two mahaonias, and viburnum bodnantense. As yet no cyclamen coum in flower, but if this mild spell continues it will not be long before they appear. On the other hand the Iris unguicularis - why didn't we stick to the much more pronounceable I.stylosa! - are in full bloom and what a joy they are. So with plenty to look out for in the garden all that remains is to wish anyone who reads this a Very Happy Christmas and lots of good gardening in 2013