In praise of Lavatera

On June 25, 2022 By afrenchgardenIn flowers11 Comments

Some plants tick all the boxes for me. Lavatera is one of my favourites. It does not ask for special treatment. It prefers full sun but can manage in partial shade and manages well through dry periods.

In June the plant is in full bloom, providing a mass of flowers.

This was the Lavatera near the house in April this year. It was already filling out and pushing out its soft green leaves.

Now in June it is covered in flowers and attracts all sorts of pollinators drawn by the nectar. It has a rapid growth. You can take advantage of this if you want to quickly fill up a space in the garden.

Unfortunately the rapid growth can lead to branches breaking with the weight of the leaves and flowers. Looks like we should have given it a more severe cutting in April. However, it is easily grown from a cutting. In the U.K. it is preferable to take a softwood cutting in spring but they grown well from cuttings taken in the autumn here as long as they are not exposed to harsh weather. We often find an offshoot at the base of mature plants too.

Claims that only 10% – and not 75% – of crops are pollinator dependent are misleading and dishonest

On August 20, 2021 By afrenchgardenIn Nature9 Comments

I was so shocked by this post written by Professor Jeff Ollerton that I wanted to share it.

The Genetic Literacy Project has been asked to take down their version as it contravenes copyright.

Mid April in the garden

On April 16, 2021 By afrenchgardenIn Garden17 Comments

Blue skies and sunny days often bring overnight frosts and after the high temperatures we had two weeks ago most of the plants have suffered from frost damage. The leaves hang, a bit droopy and sad but they will recover.

We too are passing our second April in confinement, not so strict this time, we can go 10 kilometres from the house which is more then the one kilometer distance for one hour of exercise that we endured last year. Like the plants we will survive.

Nature continues and we have baby blackbirds in the garden. They do not fly away when you approach but this careless attitude will only last a few days and we do not have cats.

We have more and more Honesty (Lunaria annua) self-seeding over the garden. I love the colour and it seems to be able to find better places to grow than I would have imagined. It is perfect to attract all the pollinators.

The furry bee flies look cute but are parasites of solitary bees so I cannot help feeling a twinge of antipathy towards them.

This little bee had a slightly metallic sheen to it and it could be a Lasioglossom (perhaps morio)

Butterflies also take advantage of the Honesty and the orange-tip butterfly is especially photogenic.

I checked ot out onthe Butterfly Conservation web site. Guess what? It lays its eggs on Honesty in gardens. I have never noticed any caterpillars on them so the site must be correct that it prefers some of the wild flowers that are around just now. I’ll try and remember to keep my eye open for signs of caterpillars.

The last of the tulips are fully open now in my layered planter. So providing interest from the middle of February until late April is a worthwhile effort.

The last white tulips (Mount Tacoma) looked better on their own than while the pale pink (Candy Prince) were open. The pink was definitely a candy pink and looked pallid beside the pure white tulips.

Live and learn!

May sunshine, flowers and fruit

On May 25, 2020 By afrenchgardenIn Gardening15 Comments

This May has been so hot and sunny, following an extremely mild winter that some of our plants are doing unusually well, like the bottle brush (Callistemon spp.).

Kourosh had bought it for the bees and I was concerned it would be too tender to do well here. This year it is well established and attracts clouds of bees, they do not seem to object to fighting their way through the spiky petals so the nectar must be good!

I have been trying to grow more succulents in the pots this year so that they are easier to care for in hot, dry summers.

I am happy to see that many of the succulents attract pollinators, too.

Not everything succeeds in a garden. I planted seeds of Echium amoenum last year to harvest the flowers to make Gol Gav Zaban tea. I only managed to grow two plants which are now flowering but I do not think all their flowers would be enough to make a cup of tea. In the meantime the bumble bees appreciate them and I have to wait to see how the Echium vulgare, planted at the same time, does.

Experience helps. We have two Reine des reinettes apple trees in the garden. I like the flavour very much and it reminds me of the U.K. pippin apples. However, they have a tendency to set a lot of fruit. At first we assumed a lot of the little apples would fall, in due course. However, they do not fall and it results in lots of little apples. Now, I knock off excess and leave no more than two at a time near each other. Time consuming but worth it in the end.

We have planted an Eleagnus angustifolia on the hedge near the road.

This year we have had plenty of the pretty yellow flowers, providing nectar for the bees and perhaps this year some fruit for us.

This is the first year that our ” néflier du Japon ” (Eriobotrya japonica) or loquat has managed to hang onto its fruit through the winter. I am looking forward to enjoying them and in the meantime I have been given a supply of the fruit by some friends whose tree is a bit more advanced than ours.

The yellow raspberries are ripening…

as are the cherries but as usual I am sure the birds will beat me to the cherries.

So far, so good with the peas. Does anyone know if all peas can be eaten as “mange tous”?

This gorgeous moth was resting on my bee house otherwise I would never have spotted the perfect lichen-like camouflage.

Our parasol continues to attract visitors. This time it is a little wasp. The two spikes in the photo are where Kourosh knocked off the beginnings of its nest. Now we have given up and are letting it be. It is not the stinging type of wasp.

Because the car was not moving over the confinement Kourosh noticed this wasp bringing in a green caterpillar and taking it inside the window slot. It has been busy for some time. We will no doubt see the result in a few weeks or perhaps next spring. I am sure it could have found much more convenient and stable sites. It does not seem overly perturbed when its nest disappears for an hour and then reappears.

More sunny weather is forecast for the next few days so we will have plenty of time to enjoy the garden and our coffees under the trees and enjoy the perfume of the Philadelphus. The restaurants and cafes will not open in France until 1 June 2020 and with the inconvenience of social distancing they are not as tempting to us as pre-Covid times.

Lavatera in the garden

On July 14, 2019 By afrenchgardenIn Garden17 Comments

I have Lavatera at the front of the house.

I have Lavatera at the bottom of the garden. In fact, it is an ideal plant for this area and I will have one anywhere I have a space in the garden. The grey green leaves give a clue and it is indeed a well suited plant to withstand hot, dry summers.

It can get a bit untidy as its fast growth can take you by surprise. It is not a long-lived shrub and we have already got a small shrub in waiting and some cuttings – just in case they are needed. They root very easily and are not difficult to find homes for if you end up with an extra pot or two.

Mine is a Tree Mallow but I have no idea of the species. In French it is called Lavatère en Arbre or Mauve en Arbre – a very appropriate name as they are mostly this mauve colour.

They attract all sorts of pollinators, it is a Carpenter bee in the above picture.

However, it is at this time of year I love to check out the flowers in the morning and I often find what I think is a Tetralonia malvae bee still asleep in the flowers.

What surprises me is that she is not an early riser. I took this photograph at 9.44 a.m.

You do not often get the time to get close up and photograph bees. What appeals to me is that she is such a fluffy bee. Her long feathery hairs on her hind legs look so silky but are perfect to transport caches of pollen to her nest.

Once she starts collecting pollen the hairs are covered and take the colour of whatever pollen she might be gathering. She is pretty faithful to the Malvaceae family but the pollen colours do vary.

This is what she looks like gathering pollen from the Marsh Mallow.

So many reasons for growing Lavatera.

Flowers of the moment

On July 6, 2019 By afrenchgardenIn Garden18 Comments

The garden is still relatively green despite our higher than average temperatures and lack of rain.

I have managed to have sweet peas for the second year, much to my surprise. They are the perennial variety and have self seeded and caught me unaware, so I will just have to sort things out after they have finished flowering. Perhaps next year I will be able to help them put on a better show.

The Wisteria is flowering for the second time and has had a sever trimming since this photograph was taken.

The mophead Hydrangea has supported the heat, up till now, although it looks a little sad in the evenings.

Although the flowers of the Lacecap Hydrangea are pretty close-up, I think they are more difficult to appreciate from a distance as the flowers face skyward. The mophead Hydrangea may be more common but I feel our mophead has more impact.

The Foxgloves are mainly over but I will be collecting the seed and trying to increase them as they seem very happy in the garden and have put up a fine show this year.The other star of our June/July garden is the Larkspur (Delphinium consolida). I have found these grow best here if left to self-seed or sown in the autumn straight into the soil.

They attract all sorts of pollinators and require no special care. I get beautiful pale shades of pink and lilac but I have found that I must select the seeds of the white and the pale flowers or else it is mainly the dark blue flowers that take over.

My geraniums have made themselves at home all over the garden and are quite happy in drier, shadier areas. They are also a big favourite of the bumble bees.

The lavender is growing well and enjoying the hot sun we are experiencing at the moment.

The hummingbird hawk moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) has been around for a while now and he visits the garden from early in the morning until the light is going.

It is good to see the season visitors in the garden like the Anthidium manicatum bee on the Stachys. Growing Stachys is a sure method to attract this bee to the garden.

On the other hand the bottle brush (a Callistimon species) has not been the bee magnet that we had expected.

At the moment it is the Magnolia grandiflora that is the star of the garden. It looks beautiful and smells divine.

…and of course the bees love it! Have a look at this short video (30 seconds) to see the bees collecting pollen from the flowers.

Cognac Jardin Public revisited

On November 5, 2016 By afrenchgardenIn French life25 Comments

It was a beautiful day in October, when mellow from a very enjoyable lunch we decided to enjoy the sunshine and walk through the park in Cognac. It was many years since we had visited the garden but although I noticed improvements, the structures that had delighted me years ago had been left intact (or preserved).

Water plays a major role in the garden which extends over 7 hectares (17 acres). The town bought the first part of the gardens (including the building now used as the Town Hall) from the Otard family. This family bought the close-by Chateau of Cognac (birthplace of Francis I) in 1796 and the same family are still producing Cognac and storing it in the cellars of the chateau.

I like the moulded tree struts of the bridge which is quite in keeping with the grotto in the distance.

The design of the gardens was the work of the landscape gardener Edouard André who started of life as a gardener at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris and was given the task of remodelling these gardens in 1892. He specialised in fountains and grottoes and worked internationally, including in Sefton in the U.K.

I love the mystery of grottos and the sound of running water.

We have a fair number of stones in our garden and Kourosh has produced some rockeries and dry stone walls; I wonder if I would be pushing it to suggest he try for a grotto?

The folly would be one step too far for our garden but looks perfect in Cognac. Otherwise called the neo-Gothic tower it was built in 1835 and is octagonal in shape. It is having work done on it at the moment and I believe it will have a moat surrounding it in the future.

I had seen all of the park before but what I noticed this time was the number of plants providing nectar for pollinators.

The arbutus unedo or Strawberry trees were full of this year’s blossom and last year’s fruit. I’ve read that honey from the Strawberry trees has a rich chocolatey/coffee flavour which I would like to try.

This honeybee is on a Johnson’s blue geranium and was spoiled for choice on the bee friendly flowers in the borders.

My only small complaint was that the labelling of the plants was variable but I suppose the gardeners are working towards the upkeep and beauty of the gardens – not trying to sell the plants. However, at the base of this tree was a large plaque announcing that it was a Sophora japonica. I was initially extremely surprised as I had never heard of the Sophora producing beautiful red berries.

However, taking a step to the rear I realised I had got a little too close and the real Sophora was hiding behind. A Google search at home indicates that it is Lonicera Maackii or Amur honeysuckle which produces these attractive red berries. This is an Asian species which has become invasive in some parts of the U.S.A. I found the berries very beautiful and the flowers are rich in nectar.

You could not miss the enormous American Black Walnut tree at this time of year as it was impossible to walk near it without sliding on the walnuts. I noticed that the fruits were smaller than our walnuts and the outer coatings were more yellow.

In December 1999 France was hit by a catastrophic storm which caused immense damage and 288 trees were lost in the garden. This statue called “Instinct” was carved from a fallen green oak tree that had lived for two hundred years. A fitting tribute to the memory of the trees lost in the storm.

I was so pleased to see the garden planted with such thought for the pollinators but it also gave me pause for thought.

There were lots of little blue butterflies on the Erigeron.

I think they may have been Lang’s short tailed blue butterflies ( Leptotes pirithous) but I am not sure. What I do know is that I have masses of Erigeron that self seeds in every nook and cranny in my garden and although it looks pretty I have never seen a bee or butterfly on the flowers. I wonder if it is the sole butterfly that likes Erigeron?

I will make a point of returning in the spring as many of the bedding plants were perennial and it was too late in the season to see them all to their advantage.

Cognac’s park provides ample room for everyone to enjoy the usual space for playing, running and other activities so well provided for in parks.

a french garden

Tag: pollinators