Scrapbook

As soon as I had written my last blog I went out into the garden and immediately saw plants that I might have included amongst my Autumn marvels. I do not intend to list them all but there is one that is worth mentioning if only because I suspect that it is not very well known. Pseudocydonia sinensis may not get into one's 'Top Ten' but it is certainly worth a place in a Gascon garden. In our garden at least more shrub like than tree it has various pluses including when it reaches any size  flaking bark similar to that of a Plane tree. Its leaves which according to Hilliers are semi-persistent, though not with us, are a quite shiny green. In April it has solitary pink flowers which I have to say do not make a huge impact but are attractive enough, these then followed by large fruits not unlike grapefruit to look at, though I do not think that one can make anything of them. But for me it is in the autumn that it becomes a real star as its leave turn a lovely mixture of reds and oranges with also some green remaining and this over quite a long period.  Hilliers does not mention this feature and if you read the entry you would not be tempted to buy the plant. Many reference books and catalogues do not include it. On the other hand the marvellous Adeline catalogue - mine for 2008/9 and I think no longer produced - calls it a "Plante splendide", and I agree.

Another plant that caught my eye was a Cotoneaster  franchetii if only because it usually does not! Readers of these blogs will know that I am quite a fan of C. lacteus especially at this time of year, this not because of 'autumn colour' but because the combination of rich dark green leaves and red berries is very striking. Its 'cousin' is for me something and nothing; neither its leaves nor its berries being especially striking. But just at the moment that I saw it the mix of leaf and berry when caught in sunlight was attractive, this largely because there was a combination of red, orange but also green leaves. So I am going to be a bit kinder about C. franchetii in future. Moreover it is also a reminder that in the garden it is the 'moment' that is all important, since there are so many variables - light and shade, wind and rain, changes in the plant itself - that will effect the look.

Meanwhile a plant that did not catch the eye but arguably should have was Euonymus alatus, famous for its brilliant autumn colour, this because mine is struggling to survive. Moreover having been seduced by descriptions of E.hamiltonianus Indian Summer with its 'reliable,crimson to purple autumn foliage' I acquired one only for it promptly to die. This is all the more surprising since the wild euonymus or Spindle tree pops up all over the garden, and where it is not in the way I am very happy for it to do so.

There has been rather a long gap in the writing, perhaps permissible in a 'scrapbook', but what I was going to mention was that there were quite a lot of roses in flower, despite the frosts, many of them the China and Tea roses favoured by John and Becky Hook at La Roseraie du Désert (www.frenchtearose.com), and this gives me a chance to note that though they are still anxious to move to sunnier climes they are still in business. Over the years they have managed to build up an outstanding collection of roses that many of us have never heard of. It will be a tragedy if this collection has to disappear, so let us hope that in the end someone will be found to take it over. In the mean time do visit their website, or even better visit them though December is perhaps not the best time to do so,  so that you might buy one or two roses that you would have difficulty finding anywhere else.