Nouveautés

Last year we seem to have acquired quite a lot of new plants, quite a few from England, which is not something we particularly like doing - it costs! - but as I have mentioned before there does seem to be a wider choice. I suspect many of our new plants will turn out to be mistakes. I am undoubtedly an impulse buyer, which no doubt can be criticised, but for me is part of the fun, and if you do not have a go you will never know what plants will flourish. And though there are mistakes there are fortunately some pleasant surprises as well.

Of course my visit to the Cornish gardens was the cause of many temptations, and I was only saved from financial ruin by the fact that many of the most exciting plants were clearly not going to flourish chez nous. In our garden azaleas and rhododendrons are impossible, while camellias and magnolias are difficult. What I ended up with were two species that are probably not in what might be called the first rank of plants but but were sufficiently a feature of the Cornish gardens to catch the eye.

The first of these was Olearia x scilloniensis. If I describe it as a white daisy on a grey-leaved small shrub it does not sound all that exciting, but it charmed me sufficiently to want to acquire it, this as a good filler-inner on our Southern slopes. What should perhaps have flagged up a red light is that you do not see many olearias in Gascony. I have grown nearer to the Pyrenees than I am now O.macrodonta, which to be honest is a rather dull shrub with sage-green, holly like leaves, but the white daisies do smell. Also smelly, or perhaps I should say fragrant, is O.x haastii, this flowering in the summer, while O. x scillionensis flowers in late spring. Meanwhile I also fell for O. phlogopappa 'Comber's Blue', probably even a greater mistake, since its rather exotic purple daisy-like flowers may look rather bizarre in our mixed shrubbery, that is if it survives. Olearias come from the Southern hemisphere, so they are not afraid of heat, and some of them will not survive a really cold winter. But I suspect that it is not the cold that is going to be the chief worry but our dry summers. What they like is mild and wet which is why they flourish in Cornwall, and may well not in Gascony.

One could probably say the same for camellia sasanquas. Moreover like all camellias they would prefer a soil that that was rather more acid than our frequently heavy clay, while according to Hilliers "a Woodland site with light overhead shade is ideal".  These are not conditions that most us can provide very easily, but this has not stopped me acquiring three camellia sasanquas -Crimson, Versicolor, and Yuletide - along with C. Quintessence, a hybrid between C.japonica and C.lutchuensis, all of these from Alan Thoby, an elder brother of Jean of Gaujacq fame who runs a nursery, pepiniere des Cascatelles in the Tarn, which I have only really discovered this year, but that seems to be very good news. The feature of sasanquas for those who do not know them is that they flower in the autumn, have less artificial flowers than the more commonly found japonicas, since often single though not such a variety of choice, but with very often good scent. Moreover I have always had in my head that for us they are slightly easier to grow, though admittedly I have not found much evidence for this in the reference books. Still I have done my best. They are planted in semi-shade on the south terrace. I have added a good deal of peat to the soil, and there is ready access to water, for another problem with camellias, perhaps even the most important, is that they do not like dry conditions. Apart from that they should be easy!

As easy, or should I say as difficult, is another plant that I fell for in Cornwall - Amomyrtus luma. As the name suggests, it is essentially a myrtle - bush/tree with darkish evergreen leaves and fragrant white flowers. It differs from most other myrtles in that it is spring rather than summer flowering. Also praised are the copper coloured young leaves. I have to say it looked extremely attractive, but then I was seeing it in full flower. Whether it will do here is quite another matter. I have tried and lost the related Luma apiculata Glangleam Gold, a variegated version of the so-called Chilean myrtle, though whether through cold or drought I am not sure. It could well have been the latter because like most of the plants already mentioned it likes mild but also humid conditions. As always this is not easy to find in our garden but beneath a quite high wall there was formerly a 'mare' and as a result the water seems to be retained there despite the sunshine it receives, so that is where it has gone. On verra!

Finally two other shrubs that were acquired this year. I did not spot Philadelphus maculatus Mexican Jewel in any of the Cornish gardens I visited since it was not in flower, but I suspect it was there since featured in many of the English catalogues. Like many new introductions it may well be being oversold but with its 'intensely scented white flowers which hang down' it sounds rather good, though the fact that it is called 'frost hardy' rather suggests that it does not like being too cold. Curiously we lack Philadelphus perhaps because of my plant snobbery since they are to be found in many people's gardens. They are also only in flower for quite a short period and without flowers the plant is not very attractive. But of course the scent is to die for, especially since it does carry, and one of my resolutions for 2016 is to plant more.

The last shrub is one that as far as I can make out, and unlike most of the others so far mentioned, should be full proof in Gascony but probably so far untried since it is a comparatively new plant. Its name is Calycanthus  raulstonii Hartlage Wine. C. floridus,or otherwise called Carolina allspice I have grown, but would only give it medium marks - attractive shiny green leaves but the brownish rather dead looking flowers did not do anything for me. C. raulstonii Hartlage Wine has 'maroon to wine-red summer flowers . . . with a circle of smaller creamy white tepals in the centre', and is delicately scented. And since it was strongly recommended by the celebrated Irish gardener, Helen Dillon, I hoping that it is going to be a winner - and on this note I will end by wishing you all Happy Gardening in 2016.