High Summer

It has been a funny old year in the garden so far,which I guess makes it much like any other year! Still what for me has been the feature has been the changeability if such a word exists. It was a mild winter but with two very cold spells, one late which is what no gardener wants. Then we have had some very hot spells  with temperatures well over 30.c which along with a dry spring and early summer is a great worry since our main rainfall falls in this period. But then came a wetter than usual July with colder temperatures and this weather has so far continued into August. And what a difference a drop of rain makes both cheering up the garden and myself. The result is an unusual air of optimism, this despite the usual crop of weeds - the other day a visitor, I think intending it as a compliment, exclaimed:"oh I do like your wild garden. " - a bad back which makes all gardening more difficult, and far too many visitors which limits gardening time.

I guess that what is pleasing me most is that after just over ten years of activity the garden is at last taking on an air of maturity. Shrubs and trees have grown and are beginning to fill their allotted space, paths look meant, and there are not too many dead areas. Looking best at the moment is what used to be called a shrubbery, though the word at least has rather gone out of fashion. That said it also has one or two trees, the most important of which being Prunus x subhirtella Autumnalis Rosea. I have praised it often before so I will not go on about here, except to say that I consider it a must for a Gascony garden. For some reason the Malus Prairie Fire has not looked so good this year. I am hoping it is not the dreaded Fire blight to which the malus family is prone to  but rather the dry winter and spring, because it is a very attractive small tree. There are a number of buddlejas, one essentially a tree rather than a shrub being at least four meters high. I think it is B.macrostachya but I have my doubts - foliage effective, flowers disappointing. Of the others I would particularly recommend B.alternifolia argentea with good lilac flowers in early summer but making an attractive bush at all times. Then there are one or two  Vitexes - Vitex agnus-castus , I guess latifolia - with the small blue candelabras in summer. These do not last very long but the seed heads are quite attractive as is the foliage, and as it seems to be trouble free another 'must'.

Then there are one or two Lagerstroemia indicas in flower at this moment, as also Oleanders/neriums, and then what is perhaps making the most impact at the moment a Cotinus Grace. All cotinuses are good news. There candy floss flowers are attractive and whatever the colour of their foliage in summer they all colour well in autumn. C.Grace has soft purplish red leaves, not as purple as the more common C.coggyrigia Royal Purple, particularly attractive if back-lit. It is vigorous plant, but like I think all the shrubs so far mentioned can be heavily pruned in early spring, and is probably the better for that.

Two other shrubs are worth mentioning, though one I hope will eventually become a tree. I am not a great fan Arbutus unedo, the Killarney strawberry tree, though we have some in the hope that one day they might enable us to have a colony of my favourite butterfly, the Two-tailed Pasha which is such a feature of the Herault. It is evergreen, and the 'strawberries' look quite nice, but somehow it always seems to be rather scruffy. A.andrachne and A.x andrachnoides are much smarter, which is to say more tree-like, so that the cinnamon coloured flaking bark, a feature of the whole family, is much more prominently displayed. We have got a newer cross, A.Marina. This will eventually make a smallish tree, again with the attractive bark but according to the catalogues with slightly more showy flowers and fruits.

Into this mix add one or two different abelias, very common but for the good reason that they are trouble free and in flower for a long period, potentillas, very scruffy in winter but cheerful in summer, and quite a few shrub roses.  Again I have said a lot about them in previous blogs, so I will just re-emphasize my love for the now in some cases almost hundred years old Hybrid musks.  They are all good but for sheer flower power from early summer to late autumn Penelope is very hard to beat, while my love for Vanity only increases. Ours is now almost three meters wide by one and half high, sending out long sprays of single, strong pink/red flowers over a long period.  Also starring in this mix is David Austin's Crown Princess Margareta, and Perle d'Or, another rose that flowers its heart out, this time with clusters of smallish pale apricot fading to pink flowers and dating back to 1884.