The ‘Last Post before Rabat’ is not the title of an obscure Marlene Dietrich movie from the early 30’s, but it tells you what is about to happen next with us! Next week, we are off to Rabat in Morocco for a month while Andy takes his Arabic on the next leg, and then we will have 10 days or so to travel a bit in the Eastern side of Morocco. Our house sitter will man the barricades back here in Oloron, and I will be researching the Moroccan spring as much as I can. Meantime, Spring is hotting up here…
And this is the final Anemone moment in it’s full scarlet glory. And this year I am almost in double digits with flowers, so it’s a happy, if slow growing, plant.
This Koenigia used to be known as Persicaria polymorpha, and still is in France anyway. Just a baby as you can see, but I am looking for giant, voluminous cream flower heads and a substantial bush by the end of the year, I think it’s a fast grower, or I’m hoping that’s the case. It likes shady conditions, which should make it ideal for under next door’s tree overhang, as it is not off to a quick start, and should be gathering pace as the overhang fills up with leaves.
Last weekend, we had a major wrestling match with 2 huge pots of Pennisetum villosum. It’s probably not a plant to recommend for containers, but it was worth a shot. But by the end of last summer, it was clearly seriously congested, and so surgery had to be performed to get them out of the pots without knocking great holes in the pots themselves. A lot of dead stuff was discarded, and we ended up with six reasonable clumps, which have gone into the ground in the front garden as a half-ring round the young Chitalpa tashkentensis ‘Summer Bells’. This is a hot, stony position and should suit the Pennisetum. Could look great…
I had to take this photograph. ‘Kurome’ is really spectacular, even if isn’t cerise, and the golden pollen looks stunning against the cranberry colouring. I have to be careful that I don’t end up with a forest though.
This is a new Euphorbia that has beetroot-red colouring- there must be some Atropurpureum in there somewhere. It darkens down to a deep burgundy colour and flowers for longer than your regular Euphobias. I bought this as 3 young bare root plants and am letting them bulk up before slinging them into the boxing ring for plants that is the hot, dry bit of the Barn Garden. I have three dark leaved Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Tom Thumb’ already in there, so these new Euphorbias will develop that theme. Apparently, it is also a compact, maybe 75cms all round, kind of sized plant, so ideal where there isn’t masses of space. Euphorbias take pretty much anything weather throws at them, with the likely exception of flooding, so they give a lot and should also self-seed, which might be welcome or not, but you do have the choice.
Sometimes when you are drawn to something new, which is also something new to the supplier, you end up with plants or bulbs that, to be truthful, are too young to do what it says on the tin. Thus it was with my Disporums. Hopeless for the first year, getting better in the second, and now in the third year, actually looking pretty robust- but that’s quite a bit of a wait. Still, here is the first flower beginnng to edge itself out of it’s covering- so maybe by the time we leave next week, it might have fully emerged. I really hope so. This one, Disporum longistylum ‘Green Giant’ may well end up living up to it’s name. It needs semi-shade and no strong sunlight, and should be a lovely, wafty clump about a metre tall. One or two sites in the UK say ‘full sun’- I would say ‘Don’t’.
This is a case of lost plant names! The evergreen Euonymus on the left, which is beginning to spire upwards, is Euonymus japonicus ‘Benkomasaki’, and it is probably nearly 7 years old, so lovely though it is, it’s a long term investment. Having said that, I would go for that every time over a more expensive, older plant. It is just brilliant. Lovely structure and small-scale drama all year round, with tight, glossy, dark green leaves- it has presence.
The Euonymus on the right, with the pale green new foliage is another newer variety- probably bred to open up the market with a faster growing plant that will keep customers happy. I think it was ‘Green Spire’ but don’t hold me to it. This plant, already as big as the other, is only 3 years old and much cheaper to buy at the outset. I am actually warming to the pale green new foliage, at first it seemed a bit weird. And It is doing a good job, so it is a good thing, just different. I love them both ringing the cherry tree in the front garden.
This utterly charming Narcissus was new to me this Spring. I have to admit that I don’t spend hours swithering over one Narcissus or another, I kind of dive in, make a choice and order it, and then it’s all a bit of a surprise. I did also choose ‘February Gold’, which has just finished- but I think I prefer the soft cream to the very bright yellow and ‘Sailboat’ has a perfume I can actually smell, a lovely sweet floral scent. It is also multi-headed so you seem to get more flowers than you thought you would.
So the next post will be from Rabat…
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