We can't all be Stars !

This reflection was prompted by the 'rediscovery' of my Cotoneaster lacteus. Of course they have been there all the time, but for most of the summer one hardly notices them. They do have flowers in the Spring, in some quantity indeed, but they are a rather dingy white, so nothing to write home about. But as the autumn progresses the plants become more and more noticeable. Mostly this is because of the berries which are a very good red, in large clusters, and appear to last a long time. But what sets the berries off is the colour of the leaves which become an increasingly deep, almost glossy green - very eye-catching. I suppose at this time of year they become stars, but unlike stars they are not expensive. They self seed easily - if anybody wants them I have plenty to give away - and they require absolutely no cosseting. In a previous blog I lamented the fact that I find hollies too difficult to grow, but Cotoneaster lacteus are a good substitute.

I am rather confidentally calling mine C.lacteus, but if somebody said that they were C. salicifolius I would not argue with them. C.salicifolius to my way of thinking has, as the name suggests, more willow-like leaves, which is to say longer and thinner, and Hilliers suggests that it has rather fewer berries, but it is clearly a good plant. I have two other cotoneasters - C. franchetii and C.simonsii. The former is much praised for its gracefulness, and it is true that it has a good form which I wrongly no doubt rather hide by growing through it a clematis. It also lacks the berry-power of C.lacteus. So does C.simonsii, though there are berries enough, and it can hardly be called elegant, with its rather rigid and upright growth, but it is that quality that makes it a useful shrub in a confined space. I have got my eye on C. bullatus. It is more of a tree than C.lacteus, but its leaf colouring is rather similar. The berries are a very good red, but bigger - cherries rather than red currants?

Meanwhile there are plenty of other cotoneasters, C. Exburiensis for example, but this shrub comes into the my 'out of kilter' category. Its berries are yellow, when I want my cotoneastar berries to be red, in the same way that I want my Rowan berries to be red, not pink (Sorbus vimorinii), or white (S.cashmirana). But I wish that I could grow rowans here- attractive leaves, flowers and berries, and often very good autumn colour; one could hardly ask for more, except a greater resistance to heat and drought. Some people manage to grow them, and I have even seen some municipal planting, but in the autumn when they should come into their own they appear to be under great stress, losing both leaves and berries. Moreover their berries appear rather too early for my liking - berries are for autumn, not summer.

But I seem to have strayed from my original purpose, a discussion of stars, or rather non-stars. Amongst the shrubs non-stars might include Forsythias, Philadelphus and Weigelas, while Magnolias and Rhododendrons for the most part have star quality. Amongst the herbaceous plants delphineums are obvious stars, nepetas (catmints) more humble folk, ditto many hardy gernaniums, though amongst these are to be found stars, even, like Geranium Rozanne, what I would call celebrities, but more of those another time.

Out of Kilter

Earlier in the year I recommended a tall bearded Iris called English Cottage; in fact I called it English Cottage Garden which was wrong. What especially attracted me to it was its floriferousness; there are so many buds on one stem that it appears to be in flower for a long time even if an individual flower hardly lasts more than a day. Its colour is attractive enough, being white with a lilac flush. It does have a sweet smell and, what I did not mention, it is remontant, with the result that at the beginning of November it is back in flower again. This is supposedly an advantage - most of us like a rose that repeats - but the more I look at it, the more it worries me, which is to say I find it out of kilter. I suppose that this is largely because I do not expect to have irises flowering at this time, but there is also the fact that the colour does not go with the autumn reds and yellows. Perhaps if it was red or yellow it would worry me less, but in fact I find something worrying about a yellow or red iris at whatever time it flowers. I prefer mine to be in the blue to purple range; ditto for my delphiniums though decidedly not so for my roses, or rather decidely not blue. Incidentally anything white I find acceptable, though do not ask me why. Does all this make me an old fogey. Probably, but I fear that at my advanced age there is little to be done about it. What I am not sure about is what to do about English Cottage. I suspect that I will leave it, but it is now not quite the favourite I thought that it was going to be.

Meanwhile autumn colour is very much the theme. As I have already made clear, it is something that I am especially fond of, so much so that any tree or shrub that does not perform in the autumn, has got to do something spectacularly good at other times to be acceptable. At the moment my two stars are Pyrus calleryana Red Spire and Pistacia chinensis, both I think musts for Gersois gardens.The former's better known relation, Pyrus call:Chanticleer, has only just begun to turn. It also appears to do so in a more uneven fashion, something I actually prefer - parrotias are good at doing this, though my specimen is looking so miserable that I do not think that it is going to have any autumn colour - I happened to see yesterday one I had planted some fifteen years ago in another garden and it was looking stunning. Of course acers are probably the best providers of autumn colour, but since most of them do not like our summer heat, and some do not like our non-acid soil, the decorative pears are a useful substitute, mine growing on a very dry bank without the slightest sign of stress. I have recently added Pyrus ussuriensis, a wild chinese pear, which I suspect will eventually be rather too big for the position that I have given it, but since mine is one of the Florama 'babies', that is to say essentially a seedling, it is a problem that I will not have to grapple with. But like all pears it flowers very early in the year, and has good autumn colour. Incidentally neither Chanticleer nor Red Spire is small - c.12m - but their shape is what I think is called fastigiate, which is to say that they are much taller than they are broad, with their branches being upright rather than horizontal, so do do not take up so much space.

Meanwhile there is nothing quite as red at this time of year as a Sumach tree (Rhus). I prefer to see the most commonly grown sumach, Rhus typhinia, in other people's garden as I do not like the red candelabra flowers, and it does spread itself around rather too vigourously. Instead the other day I acquired at La Coursiana, as always looking very beautiful, Rhus chinensis. It is going to have white candelabras, which I hope will be less of a worry, and it does not seem to spread. On verra!