When it is Spring again . . .

Well I suppose that it is here again, and certainly lots of things are out, and the temperatures have been high, but what is certainly here again is the rain. As I have often mentioned, I am greatly in favour of the stuff, as months go by when we do not have enough of it but as of now I wish it would stop, since it is making any sort of gardening virtually impossible. Moreover winter wet can be just as much a killer as winter cold, and though I have not noticed any major disasters as yet, there is still plenty of time for them to emerge. What have emerged are spring bulbs, though they are not in my experience nearly so successful here as they are in England.  Having some time ago planted hundreds of snowdrops I now seem to have about twenty, not a good return for my efforts, though perhaps they have enjoyed all this wet, and thus will do a little better next year. As for daffodils, my experience is that though  they do not decrease in numbers there is very little increase. I have gone for Narcissus February Gold, a slightly more sophisticated version of the 'wild daffodil', small like the wild, but with rather elegant petals and a brighter yellow. As the name suggests they arrive early, and this is important. For me the whole point of the daffodil is that they appear when nothing much else is happening in the garden. In what I would call a slow English spring April remains pretty spring like, here in a fast spring by April we are into roses already, and perhaps more to the point dandelions which can very easily out-yellow the daffodils.. This competition from 'wild flowers' is I think a serious problem. The other day I was looking at one of our banks, where daffodils are planted, but what caught the eye  was the blue of the speedwell, and the yellow of the celandines, so much so that I wondered why I had bothered with the daffodils. Admittedly amongst the 'wild' were cyclamen coums, these along with their late summer cousins, the cyclamen hederifolium being for me essential Gascon 'bulbs'.  They appear to cope well with both our dry and wet conditions and are not the favourite food of any of our numerous fauna. They are quite expensive, but are a good investment, since they do multiply, probably a better one than either autumn or Spring crocus, since these do seem to be eaten and need ideal weather conditions to look at their best, by which I mean sunshine.  And while on the subject of expense I should perhaps mention Peter Nyssen Ltd as a good supplier of bulbs. I have a slight question mark about them since I am not sure that the quality of their bulbs is always of the best, but as regards 'qualité/prix' I have not found any better.

Bought from them this winter was Ipheion Jessie, a new ipheion for me with the advantage of being a much brighter blue than the more common I. uniflorum. In fact it is almost as blue as I. Rolf Fiedler, which I adore, the flowers being jewel like in their brilliance, but my suspicion is that Jessie will in the end produce more flower power, rather in the way that the white I. Alberto Castillo does, this another 'must' for me. The point about the Ipheions is that rather like the cyclamen they seem to cope with our conditions very well, not being afraid of drought, so if you have not come across them, do please give them a go. Meanwhile I never thought that I would hanker after the Grape Hyacinth (muscari armeniacum), which in England I used to consider rather too common and a bit of nuisance since it can multiply  at a rather alarming rate. But I see in the Nyssen catalogue you can now find it in all sorts of shades of blue with such upmarket names as M.Valerie Finnis, and here where we have lots of space things that multiply are very welcome. Also often a nuisance in England is the bluebell, but a bluebell wood is a marvellous sight which one rarely sees in our neck of the woods.   The purists are rather sniffy  about the Spanish bluebell - Scilla campanulata as distinct from S.nutans, the English bluebell - and it is a coarser product. But what I am after is the blue carpet look and I suspect that to achieve that out here something Spanish is more likely to succeed.

One of the spring effects that I miss out here is that provided by the cherry blossom, and while of course there is the blossom of the edible cherry to be found, what is missing is the huge range of decorative cherries, with perhaps the exception of P.cerasifera Pissardi, with the rather depressing dark red leaves, though the pink flowers are a delight.. Even what is probably the best French tree catalogue, that of Adeline's, can hardly muster 50 while in the English Plant Finder one finds over 200.  I have never worked out what the reason for this is. Perhaps because in the south of France they would not like the summer heat?  I have had some success with P.Shirofugen, perhaps of all the decorative cherries my favourite, also P.Shirotae, otherwise Mount Fuji, but I feel that over the years I ought to have tried harder. Of course I have constantly praised the so-called Autumn flowering P. x subhirtella Autumnalis Rosea - mine is at this moment yet again in full flower having already flowered its heart out in early February, and what is more it does not appear to have any problems with our summers. In the last few weeks I have been introduced to another Gersois pepinière, P. Le Hour, near to Eauze. They specialize in trees; not a huge choice, though they will search for trees for you with suppliers both in Holland and Italy, but of good quality at very reasonable prices.  Amongst the trees they do have is P. avium 'Pena', the double flowered version of the wild cherry. In full fig it is a marvellous sight and well worth having a go with.