Perennials

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In our first year here friend gave me a Convolvulus cneorum but I had also just bought one for myself. I planted one in a spot alongside the road with rocks behind, the other one found a place on top of rocks where there happened to be quite a lot of soil. Convolvulus number one soon died. Now I understand why: the soil just became too hot under its feet. Other plants died there as well: I should plant cactuses if I did not hate them so much ... The other one thrived on top of the 'hill' just opposite the kitchen window. Now that was a spot where our view was taken away by the despised kermès oak which is not pretty to look at. We decided to level down that hill until we reached bare rocks. So I potted the convolvulus and the work was done. That sounds easy but actually it was a hell of a job with many trips to the 'déchetterie', a great deal of carrying heavy stones and finally the gardener coming in to pull out the stumps of the oak with his little digging machine. The convolvulus was put in another position up the hill where it looks fantastic next to the lovely melianthus. It has a nice way of growing, folding itself into the landscape. Convoluvlus cneorum is decorated with lovely silvery leaves with a bonus of large white flowers over a longish period in spring. The surprise was that among the rocks in the spot where it was before a lot of offspring appeared and even flowered briefly. So far I love them. The roots seem to feel at home in the deep cool of the stones. A friend of mine wrote an article in a Dutch magazine  which I more or less know by heart: she lives in the Ardèche area. She tells you to take cuttings from this convolvulus as it might freeze in a cold winter. I trim the plant in spring and use the cut off bits for cuttings. They don't root very easily, only about half of them will root. You could try with cuttings taken in late summer as well.

Two toppers among the plants in my garden are Erigeron karvinskii and Ceratostigma plumbaginoides. The first is a sweet little thing, quite simple, like a daisy, but unlike a daisy it hardly ever looks untidy. A daisy is when the first blooming is over full of unpleasant looking finished flowers. Erigeron always looks neat, though especially after a long period of heat and drought it may become a little straggly. You can just cut it off and within no more than two or three weeks the flowering starts all over again. Only cold in winter or a long period without much water will stop it. It self seeds and never becomes a nuisance. Youngish plants may be put in another spot if you water sufficiently until they have 'taken'. The photo does not really show the potential of this very good plant. 
In the background a larger Oreganum dictamnus which will be discussed a little later. Erigeron karvinskii makes a lovely combination with pink Gaura lindheimii. (photo in the middle) I think its further name may be 'Siskiyou Pink' - as described in Philippi's catalogue - but I am not sure. Mine was a nameless present from my daughter Anne Claire. It's a lovely plant, but a little straggly. The pink one does much better than the white one and also produces seedlings to be used elsewhere. Gaura is extremely drought resistant.

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (photo above right) starts flowering around the end of July and will keep going until winter. Its pretty blue flowers are very attractive among gray leaved plants and it has this lovely habit to grow down among stones if you plant it on top of a loosely built wall. In autumn its leaves turn bright red. Then it shrivels and dries out, so that you will have to cut it back in spring. It is mildly invasive and is said to produce cuttings easily.

Salvias  

On the left a photo of Salvia elegans 'Scarlet Pineapple'. 
I was given a cutting two years ago and see what it grew up to!
On the right the same in close up.



 It likes some water, grows to a meter in height, flowers from the end of September onwards with quite large, bright red flowers.

Another worthwhile perennial is Salvia microphylla. I have seen it in bright blue, red, pale creamy yellow and fuchsia pink. It can stand a lot of heat and flowers for a long time though a little less in the hottest month. Needs cutting back in spring. On the left the fuchsia coloured one raised 
by my friend Hieke.  

There is an excellent book on salvias, simply named Salvia, by John Sutton. You could try at Amazon.com on the internet. Philippi has many different species of salvia.

Salvia microphylla, described above, with Tanacetum harajanii growing before it. The tanacetum is a lovely thing with feathery, downy, silver leaves and extremely well suited to hot/dry. For sale at Gill's nursery. The yellow thing in front is ordinary rapeseed, literally growing in the road. It looks great, doesn't it?
 Salvia guarnatica  -left- reaches even up to two meters, with large flowers in gorgeous darkish blue. It needs a little more water and a little more shade and does not always survive the winter though it may appear a little late in season from its rootstock. Quite spectacular
and very easy to make cuttings from..
I do have more salvias. One is an easily growing, gray leaved, lowish plant, that expands sideways and has blue flowers in spring. It is drought resisting and quite beautiful but I am not sure of its name. In Philippi's catalogue it may be the one called 'Bee's Bliss'. At Filippi's they say: possibly a cross between two others. 
All these grey or blue grey or silvery grey plants match well and go well with the reddish soil.

I was given Salvia taraxifolia originating from Morocco, still small here, but full of promise with its silvery, unusual leaf and the palest pink flowers. From seed ... The well known Salvia officinalis with purplish leaves always looks nice and always soon dies for some reason. I have seen a picture with this one combined with Fritellaria persica and Euphorbia characias, wow! so I tried and all of them failed. I must have chosen the wrong spot as the euphorbia is a real survivor.
A real gem: Oreganum dictamnus. Its beauty is best seen when planted on something like a wall or rocks, so that its hanging flowers show to full advantage. Velvety aromatic leaves, hop like flowers, 15 cms high, growing in width rather than in height and available at Gill's nursery. Extremely worth while. It loves a warm, sunny position.

Leucophyllum langmanae is an attractive bushy plant. Maybe it is a shrub rather than a perennial, sometimes I just don't know. It has lovely lilac or pink ( in Leucophyllum frutescens) flowers which appear after rain! It should not be watered as it will lose its shape by too much water. In the photo, below left,  you can clearly see that the reddish colour of the natural environment doesn't go all that well with pink! It does though with gray and silver. The silvery thing is tanacetum harajanii, the pink flowered one a kind of silene, I have no name.
Bulbine frutescens 'Hallmark' - I wonder about frutescens: it means bearing fruit, doesn't it? I never saw any seed on the leucophyllum nor on the bulbine Yet the bulbine must have produced some as I find baby bulbines all over the garden. The 'Hallmark' part makes me wonder about an association with the card people, all very mysterious! The bulbine is a great plant for this area. I was given a piece by my gardener which grew to a width of some 60 cms in two years' time. Fleshy, green, narrow leaves and spikes of orange flowers with a yellow centre. It is a busy meeting place for all kinds of bees and things and needs no water at all. It also comes in a yellow variety. That one died after its first year here. A car salesman once told me yellow is a bad colour ... Middle: Bulbine frutescens close-up, right plant as it looks: in harmony with the colour of the earth and the rocks here! Heartily recommended! 
2008: Later I planted another yellow one which thrives. But maybe it can't survive bad frosts. We have not had any in the last few years.

Farfugium japonicum belongs to the ligularia family. This one has firm, round leaves which give it its ornamental value. I have had mine for at least ten years. I once bought it at Land's End!
  
To my immense surprise it started flowering here for the first time, at the end of October. Unfortunately snails are as fond of it as they are of other ligularias but the leaves are tougher and there are fewer snails here. Once you have been able to find/buy one it is very easy to propagate by division.
I do not particularly like thorny or prickly plants.  You can't hold them which causes problems when you have to prune or replant and such. 
But yucca is quite lovely in a spot where it can't hurt you and gets full attention. You only have to cut away dead flowers once in a very long while.
Flowers from the end of August onwards. The photo is from the last days of October another specimen was long over. In 2008 it flowered in March ...

31rd January 2006 Not all goes well. Unexpected hard frost may damage plants in spots where things grew happily for ages!  
Sedum rubrotinctum is a nice little plant for very difficult spots in the sun. It hardly needs anything. A bit of lee? No problem. Left. 
But this winter it suffered badly from frost in open spots. The photo on the right shows sad, black remains...
You can grow new plants from just a (fallen) leaf: put it on the soil where ever you'd like to grow another plant! 
As is the case after a period of frost seedlings appear around this time or even earlier under a mother helleborus when you have been too late to catch the seed, as often happens: they are always suddenly gone! Today I pricked out some 60, potted quite a few to eventually give away and planted some out somewhere just to see if they will grow. They were Helleborus sternii 'Wilgenbroek' , horrible name! babies. In rich clay they will flower in 3 or 4 years, in poor spots it may take ages. All the same they are really strong and hardly ever die, even when not all that tenderly taken care of! Newly planted seedlings will need some watering in the beginning. When in flower I shall take pictures of the adult plant which is rather lovely. 
One of the very best plants here is Sedum palmeri . It hardly needs any attention, even in a pot; in winter its leaves turn an attractive reddish colour; it flowers very early in the season when hardly anything flowers yet: pretty and yellow; its is very easy to make cuttings from: just break of a bit and stick it into soil! A bit of water will help to make it form roots. In the picture it is nearly in flower and on its left Sedum rubrotinctum which survived this pretty nasty winter without any trouble in a sheltered position in a pot without any special care but the occasional drop of water.
I dug up three of them when leaving the Netherlands and this one is my favourite: Helleborus orientalis ?
Unfortunately no 'colour' name was added. It is the first to flower. The other two are yellow and white with purple netting. The yellow one produced a lot of seedlings, but there were none around the other two. 
Whoever wants any is welcome to them. They are very strong, but may take a few years to start flowering

I love the plant itself better than its flowers. This is Othonna cheir(ant)ifolia. Great colour, lovely shape. 

I bought mine from Gill Pound. I succeeded once in making a few cuttings and shall try again as it is immensely worth while having around. It may come under another name though ...

 
Euphorbia characias with its bluish green leaves, elegant shape and intriguing flowers is indigenous here and you never have to do anything about it but cut a dead stalk out once in a while. Its is poisonous though and therefore it is not much loved by the French ...
They say that as long as the tops are bent frost may be expected, but one they straighten up that's the end of winter. The photos were taken in the same week though. The one on the right is in front of rocks and always the first to flower.

My friend Anne presented me with some seed of this beauty Corydalis nobilis. It needs no special care And I think it will combine wonderfully with euphorbia characias. It will take a few years but I am surely going to try. I don't think the corydalis likes to be transplanted, so I'll have to wait for seed and then 2 1/2 years. Gardeners usually have a lot of patience!

Elsewhere things start to grow: Erodium pelargonifolium is a plant that does not need any attention and self seeds profusely into the bargain.

 

The other helleboruses start flowering now (13th March) Among them Helleborus sternii 'Wilgenbroek' and a yellow oriental whose personal name is unknown to me. I have quite a few seedlings of both in case anybody is interested!
It is a bit of a pity that the flowers droop, so that you have to lift them to have a good look at them. But they are dear to my heart. In a shady place with a bit of clay, some chalk and/or fertilizer and a bit of water once in a while they do pretty well. At the left H. sternii, middle and right H. orientalis. The last one of my prized Helleborus orientalis. This one again has no name that I know of. Unfortunately it has so far never born any seed yet, but as it flowers so late this year we might get some. And I shall surely tie a small net around the seedpods when that happens, so that the seeds won't be lost.

It is supposed to flower together with crocus 'Ruby Giant' and it was indeed a lovely combination in the years before, but Ruby Giant is long finished already.

Viola odorata is a plant I associate with trees and growing under them ... I was given some by a neighbour and they do well. When I had to find plants to dress a bare patch in full sun I used some of them as I had so many already.
So these are in a spot which is in full sun for quite a large part of the day, is not often watered and the soil itself is not much either. Still they flourish. As, when finished flowering, the plant is not unattractive I have high hopes for the future.
On the far right Euphorbia cypariassis 'Tall Boy' which I love. (Philippi). Mind you: it is quite invasive!

Phlox subulata 'Blue Eyes' does extremely well in a very dry and hot spot. It starts flowering tentatively in February, but is now, at the beginning of April, completely blue.  I have a dark pink one - Phlox douglasii 'Red Admiral'  - too, just starting out. Very good plants indeed!!

Thymus serpyllum is quite useful as a cover. Lovely dark green when not in flower, slowly spreading and less dangerous firewise than ordinary, woody thyme. Right.

I more or less started this part with Convolvulus cneorum.

Now - mid April - it is in flower and will be for about a month. Cuttings can be taken at the end of summer.

For those who love salvias: I think this one may be called Salvia 'Bee's Bliss'. Easy growing and also lovely when flowerless. Extremely easy to make cuttings from.
Another 'bliss': Iris germanica 'Susan's Bliss'. I was given just one corm three years ago!!! (Rita van der Zalm) This one grows in a spot that is watered quite often and is in the shade during a large part of the day, so it has an easier life than most irises in my garden. I love its unusual colour.

I am afraid it is going to be dug up in autumn to be divided into several pieces...

The trouble with pinks is that their names are rarely given. This cherry red one I bought in our local garden centre. It has been in a large pot with chickweed and Iris reticulata for several years now. Cuttings root quite easily.
2008: all of these died in a long dry summer.

Two more are shown below, but alas: no names. The one on the right was given to me. It died within a short time, but I was lucky to collect some seed. Two years later I have several plants in various spots which seem to do quite well. It is only 20 cms tall or so. The one on the left is much taller, app. 40 cms. If anyone knows names, please tell me?

There are moments in your life which you never forget. A long time ago I went on a holiday to Jersey with my family consisting of husband and no more than two small girls yet. On our way out we visited W.P.Smith's bookshop in the airport and I found 'The Dictionary of Garden Plants' and fell in love. I had to wait for the return trip though. Why? I have no idea!
It must have been one of the very first books on gardening with photos in colour. Among the the blue poppy, 1265, and a tantalizing one of Convolvulus mauretanicus, 38, as a compact plant covered in flowers on the corner of a raised bed surrounded by mossy bricks. WOW!
I have never seen it in a compact shape like in the book. These days it is called Convolvulus sabatius and is widely sold for use in hanging baskets. As long as I have known it it produces these long, rather floppy shoots with enough flowers. Its stands heat pretty well and will happily grow through something like Brachiglottis 'Sunshine'. Not bad either!

Lobelia laxiflora grows in the poorest spot with hardly any water. It flowers twice. Quite long in May/June and a second time, though modestly, in October or so. It spreads quickly by way of runners, but they stay close to the plant. An ideal plant for a difficult spot. It matches the red soil here and gives a splash of colour which is quite attractive. By taking rooted runners in spring or in the fall it is very easy to propagate. 
Verbena bonariensis a well-known hardy plant, does quite well. She, I think of this plant as a female! likes cool feet, self seeds preferably where you have paving ... tall, slender, flowering for months. French butterflies don't seem to know her so she is not visited as often by them as she is in the Netherlands (and Great Britain?).
Surprisingly Scuttelaria scordiifolia showed up in a pot after having been absent for a whole year. It is a surprising thing which might just as well be discussed in the bulb department: it grows from a sort of small corms, looking quite like some oxalis.
There are two olive trees in the hobby part of our garden. That part gets a lot of attention and more water than the rest of the garden ... I don't think the olives particularly interesting. I love them when their trunks are old and gnarled, but to have them like that I must wait another hundred years or so.
Meanwhile I thought, I could make one more attractive by pruning it into a regular shape and having it invaded by Sollya heterophylla. I asked someone to bring me one from Holland as it is not easy to find here though I have seen them occasionally. It does not grow very fast, but will eventually reach two meters. It flowers for a long time with lovely blue bell shaped flowers. 
Anthemis x 'Sauce Hollandaise' never did very well in Holland, but here I am pleased with it. It very easily roots, so cuttings can be made from the smallest bits!

Teucrium aureum - below - combined with a so far unknown sedum slowly covers the soil in impossible places. A wild variety - also quite lovely - can be seen in the wild plants' chapter. 

One of the best surprises this year is Catananche coeruleum - above right - which I also tried in the Netherlands without much success, but here it thrives though it has taken a few years to start doing so. What a beauty!
The first flowers have appeared on Ceratostigma plumbaginoides. We have 21st June today! The height of summer, but here it is clearly visible that the resting period of summer has started. This tells me we have more or less gone full circle and  this will be the end of this chapter. Unless, of course, something really exciting happens ...
  19th March My neighbour gave me plantlets of Helleborus niger a few years ago. In Holland this is a difficult plant which only now and then finds a position to its liking. Here it does surprisingly well. I keep it in a spot that is regularly watered and catches the sun in the afternoon. In my neighbour's garden it is at the bottom of a wall and gets the full hot afternoon sun from 12 o'clock onwards. Her plants are quite big and flower profusely.

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