More Fun at the Fairs

After the Silly Season comes the Plant Fair season, essentially  October, though increasingly they are to be found in May as well.  When I first came to this region, over twenty years ago now, there was little doubt that the Fair to be seen at was Gaujacq, Gascony's Chelsea you might say. I doubt that that is still the case if only because plant fairs, like every other sort of fair have become much more common, and in fact you will find many of the same exhibitors in which ever fair you go to. Still I suspect that Gaujacq still attracts nurseymen from further a field than most. For instance we have bought many a tree from M. Le Cam of the Pepineres Botaniques Armoricaines from way up in Brittany. It has to be said that Le Cam is not a loquacious man but he has a good selection of mainly trees and shrubs at prices that are extremely reasonable. The only eucalyptus we have bought from him - E.mannifera maculosa with most attractive bark - sadly did not survive its first winter but he has a very fine collection of the genus; similarly Acers, camellias,  and Hollys, some of these perhaps more suited to the North of France than down here in the South West. But he also has a very good selection of oaks. Our much mentioned Q.shumardii, incidentally just beginning to show some autumn colour, came from him, and this year we bought Q.stellata, this because apparently it can put up with drought but also because with luck it too will have good autumn colour. Also bought was a Cedar of Lebanon, probably rather too grand for this garden, which has not anything remotely like a park where they can be seen to most advantage, and of course it will not look anything very much for at least another thirty years, but I suppose that is what planting trees is all about. Anyway my strong recommendation would be to anyone wanting to plant trees is first to get hold of Le Cam's catalogue - he does not do the internet - before buying elsewhere because qualité/prix he is hard to beat.


Sadly the Pep:Filippi, frequently mentioned in these blogs as the great specialists of all plants for dry gardens, no longer appears at Gaujacq, though various nurseries have taken its place including Aromaticulture, as the name suggests excellent for anything  remotely 'herby', and Les Senteurs du Quercy, Iris and Salvia specialists amongst other things. And I have a rather soft spot for Le Petit Jardin, 'petit' because their nursery is 'petit', or they grow plants for a small garden I am not sure - and there is the song of Jacques Dutronc but that I think was a Parisian garden while this nursery is situated in the Pyrenees Orientales. Anyway I find that increasingly I am tempted by what they have on display, since amongst other things their plants always look in very good condition. This time around I fell for a Caryopteris incana with its very deep blue flowers and attractive foliage, Euphorbia Copton Ash, this partly because I used to visit Tim Ingram's nursey near Faversham, where presumably this plant was discovered, and finally Lavendula latifolia x lanata,one of these felty grey leaved lavanders that I love, and which I think they may have bred.

Quite different from almost any other nursery that I know in France is Le Jardin de Rochevielle. I hope that Jean-Francois Giraud and Dominque Permingeat will not mind if I say that there is something slightly amateurish about their approach  which I mean to be a compliment: they are obviously passionate about plants, but also travelling in order to discover new plants, but perhaps not so passionate about presenting their plants to best advantage. I have often mentioned them, especially in connection with buddlejas, of which they have a wonderful collection, some of which have been bred by themselves, but in fact what makes their list more interesting than most is its eclectism with plants from all over the world, many of which I for one have not heard of.  Abelias we all know but Abelia mosanensis from Korea?  And how many Bauhinias do you grow, these from Mexico and South Africa? Hesperaloe funifera, also from Mexico ? Reinwardtia indica, this from SE Asia? And so one could go on, and I have not even mentioned their interest in begonias of all kinds, perhaps because I do not share it.  One of their plants that has done very well for us has been Anisacanthus quadrifidus wrightii, this from Arizona Texas. It is like a more substantial zauschneria with bright orange flowers in late summer. I see that it could grow to over a meter, but ours has so far always been hit back each winter, so makes a fairly compact bush of some 50cms.  Anyway well worth a try if you like bright colours.

Of the other plant fairs this autumn I only managed to get to Ordon-Larroque. This has the great advantage for me of being much nearer than Gaujacq, which is to say that it is in an attractive 'hill-top' village just north-west of Auch. Unlike Gaujacq it is only one day - the Sunday. You park just below the village, but there is transport provided to get you to the top if the climb puts you of, and also to help you to get your 'booty' back to the car. It seems well organized but above all it has very friendly feel to it, perhaps because not too big but with good exhibitors, including my favourite Bernad Lacrouts for the vivaces, the Pépinière Spahl for trees and shrubs, and my two favourite rose nurseries, Yan Surguet's les Roses anciennes du Jardin Talos, and Becky and John Hook's La Roseraie du Desert.  We are beginning to run out of places for new roses, but alas I cannot resist, so inter alia a Marie d'Orleans from Surguet and N 92 Nanjing from the Hooks. The later deserves, and no doubt will get, a more attractive name since it is a very promising rose with a clusters of smallish semi-double flowers of a good strong red which hold themselves well away from the foliage.

 At the end of any plant fair I always ask myself if I have spent wisely, and I think that this autumn I have, though perhaps I always think that. But the mood from both fairs was that times were hard for nurserymen and women, so to a certain extent any spending is good. These small specialised nurseries are the source of enormous pleasure for us passionate gardeners so their survival is vital.