Any Old Iron

No doubt a silly title, but a way of linking it to my last blog and the attempt to draw to your attention plants that cope with our lack of rain. I now want to move on to shrubs, but before doing so I ought to mention the Fraxinus family. What made me think of it was looking recently at a common or garden ash, in someones very dry garden and noting how well it looked. Here I have grown from seed what purport to be Fraxinus ornus,or the so-called Manna Ash with white flowers rather like those of a sweet chestnut. In fact I have my doubts about whether they are what the seed packet said they were, but what is true is that they are putting on growth and generally looking happy with the minimum of attention.  It is a very big family some of which have significant flowers, and some of which, or perhaps even all of which, if you include a goodish yellow, have good autumn colour, and some of which have both.

As for shrubs I will mention only in passing the families of ceanothus, cistus, lavendula, phlomis, and rosmarinus, all of which are happy with the dry, though less happy in winter wet, so better on a slope, if you are on heavy clay. Moreover some of the cistus would prefer more acid soil than many of us can provide, and for this the Filippi catalogue, or indeed their book, 'Pour un jardin sans arrosage', is extremely helpful. On the other hand I find here that many of the salvias are difficult. It is such a huge family, and some will cope with dry much better than others, but the ones I find difficult are the salvia gregii, x jamensis and micophylla, though amongst the last named what I used to call S.grahamii copes a bit better than the newer hybrids.  These you will find in every plant fair in great quantity, and in almost every colour, and they are very enticing, no doubt having been pumped up with every kind of fertiliser. But beware, they really do like a bit of TLC to do well. On the other hand one of my favourite salvias, S.Indigo spires, a very good darkish blue at I would guess just under a meter, copes surprisingly well with the dry, far less well with the winter wet and cold, and is probably best used as an annual.

Looking at the large number of Viburnum lanata, or Wayfaring tree, that grow wild in this garden you would think that as a whole this most attractive family, both as regards flower and foliage, would do well in the dry, but though most will survive not all will be happy.  For instance I find that the lovely V.plicatums with that layered foliage and flower struggle a bit, and never look quite as good as they did in England.  Some shade is probably the key and avoid a south facing slope. What do flourish in heat are the evergreen V.tinus with the white flowers which can appear from almost any time between November and April.

Most buddlejas cope reasonably well with drought, though again some better than others. The bible here is Le Jardin de Rochevielle's catalogue.  Partly because the owners of this nursery are so pleasant we have ended up with perhaps rather too many of them, since many of them have what I consider to be a great drawback, rather persistent and ugly seed heads.  This is particularly true of the most commonly available B davidii. These come in a great variety of colours from white to deepest purple, and in flower they are a fine sight, famously much loved by butterflies. But the flowers do not last very long and their leaves are not nearly as attractive as some of the lesser known species, this especially so in drought conditions.  Of course one can cut off the seed heads, and perhaps one should, as this can encourage a second flowering, but if you have got a big bush, and they can grow to well over 2.meters, this is easier said than done.  The answer to my mind is to look for the varieties whose greatest virtue is their foliage, often, grey, or blue grey, sometimes almost white and slightly felt like in texture.   One of the best for me is B x Loch Hinch , which when its blue flowers are just appearing from out of a blue, grey foliage, is one of the great gardening events.  Some of the early flowering buddlejas, that is to say as early as March, have particularly attractive foliage; for example B. agathosma (?farreri)and B.officinalis Vicomte de Noailles, both of which also have most attractive flowers.  Another well worth having is B.x Pikei Hever. This essentially flowers all summer but also has attractive grey foliage. One of its parents is B.alternifolia with its very racemes of lilac flowers, a good enough shrub in every way, but out done by its sibling, B.alternifolia argentea. I would put the latter in the 'must have' class for Gascony gardens, amongst other things performing the task performed by silver leaved willow such as Salix alba argentea does in English conditions, though not as big.

Thus buddlejas are on the whole good news but discussing them has not left much room for the many other shrubs that perform well in dry conditions. Amongst those that I  meant to mention are the various ceratostigmas - griffithii, plumbaginoides,and willmottianum - all with the blue flowers and wonderful autumn colour, and the vitexes, if that is the right plural for them, these another 'must have plant' for Gascony gardeners, for apart from being very beautiful in flower and foliage they seem to flourish in the dry. But while writing this we have just had over 20mm. of rain so it is probably safe to say that the drought is over, and we can think of other things, including the various plant fairs that are just about to begin, and where some of the plants mentioned above can be found.