After months of drought now everything is wet! The Nerine bowdenii has shot up with rain, totally unconcerned with the dry summer as it lay dormant underground. But the petals are sodden.
The little cyclamen have pushed through undeterred by the dry summer. Certainly autumn flowering bulbs and tubers are good drought resistant plants for the garden.
The bees go out for nectar and pollen when the rain stops but this poor bumble bee was quite soaked from the wet petals.
The Tulip tree or Liriodendron did not get watered during the summer but the autumn rains have been sufficient to allow it to put on its usual autumn show.
Since we have had rain the Chosia ternata “Sundance” has started flowering. I find the Choisias do very well in the garden and as well as the C. ternata (basic?) I have a Choisia ternata “Aztec pearl”. which I prefer as I like the finer leaves. Yesterday, I saw a Choisia ternata “White Dazler” in a nursery. It was covered in white, very perfumed flowers that the bees seemed to be appreciating as much as I was appreciating the perfume. I paused from purchasing as I do not have a place ready for it at the moment, and it was 35 euros. Has anyone experience with this variety?
My Osmanthus heterophyllus “Goshiki” has also come through the summer to provide us with loads of perfumed flowers but it does live in a shady spot and did not have to withstand any scorching.
Today was sunny and in the low twenties Centigrade and it was so good to get into the garden after all the rain, even though the work to be done is a bit daunting.
The good thing about sunny days in the garden is that you are never alone.
Today a grasshopper joined us for morning coffee.
Then we were amused while we had lunch on the patio by the antics of another green insect. This time better camouflaged, in amongst my potted Salvia uliginosa.
This is the Praying mantis doing her special photo pose, with me taking her from her best side. They seem such clumsy creatures that do not seem to know quite what to do with such long legs.
Kourosh is a fan of Praying mantis and the insect did not object to being handled gently. Some people keep them as pets. I’m glad Kourosh seems to be satisfied with keeping his bees.
a french garden 
I love the mantids too. I tried Aztec Pearl here in the Vaucluse near Carpentras (several in fact) and they all slowly died. They were planted along a wall and I wonder if there was something in the soil. However one planted in another area died also. I may try the ordinary one and see how it gets on, as choysia has such a nice scent and would be good in my developing white garden.
bonnie in mazan
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I’ve found mine extremely tough plants and they have had rough handling and been moved. Now is a good time to plant them and give them time to settle in before summer. You may have to water them more the first summer during very dry periods. Good luck if you decide to try again. Amelia
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Thanks amelia! I think I did all the right things but death stalked them. Why? One of those cosmic questions. I will report on failures and successes!
bonnie
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I got very excited about choisia , the generic called Mexican Orange here. All my new friends had it growing in abundance in the lowlands. Meh! It lived a (year or two and died. It thrives in the mid to south of USA and we are not south! 😦 You have so much color going on Amelia, all our color now is in the falling leaves, which are amazing this year! Annie north east of Seattle.
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The Cosmos, although a bit wet. are still giving a lot of colour, among other things. The winter flowers are just starting here. Amelia
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Hello Amelia,
Lovely photos, wonderful tulip tree colour and how special to have mantis in the garden – I’ve always thought they were very exotic. BTW might your other insect be a cricket and not a GH? Having looked at different GH’s here for the first time this year, I realised that we might get crickets as well – though I haven’t seen any, and they tend to have much longer antennae as your little fellow has.
Best wishes
Julian
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We do get crickets here. Some of the crickets are quite big and black, so I think we may have quite a variety of them. I’m afraid I cannot tell a grasshopper from a cricket but luckily Martin thinks it is a Speckled Bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima). I think I have a blind spot for anything that is not a bee – which is just not good enough 😦 . It is good to get pointed in the right direction. Amelia
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Thanks Amelia and good you have a Cricket expert to pin it down for us all – I think you do really well on your bees anyway!
best wishes
Julian
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Hi Amelia. The insect on your table looks to me to be a Speckled Bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima). Was it covered in fine dark speckles? If you don’t know the following web site, I recommend it: https://www.grasshoppersofeurope.com/. Daunting at first, but some fantastic photographs. Cheers, Malcolm. (And the Mantis is simply stunning).
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Thank you Malcom… I didn’t know of that website… and I am going to find it useful, also.
And I am in agreement on Leptophyes… that dark stripe down the back is pretty distinctive.
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Thank you for coming to my aid! That is a fantastic web site. Everything that jumps and is green has been to me “a grasshopper”. I shall be looking closer in future 🙂 Amelia
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Lovely post as usual, Amelia…. we have Aztec Pearl… but it doesn’t seem to like it here, very slow to get to any appreciable size… 6yrs old and 50cm high! In Leeds, it was wonderful…. and a bee and hoverfly magnet when in flower.
Love the mantis shots… great posers!
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I am slowly forming the picture that Choisyias can be very choosy. Success or failure seems rather arbitrary. Amelia
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Yes, loved the mantis photos!
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Crickets, mantises… and do you ever find stick insects, Amelia? RH
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Way back in 2012 I posted about one we had found in the garden https://afrenchgarden.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/french-stick-insect/. Well, I think it is a stick insect but you know I am no expert when it comes to identifying insects :). Amelia
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White Dazler does look good, €35 is quite a lot for a shrub. They always charge more for something a bit different or special.
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First time seeing a Mantis this year up in Creuse. Funny guys.
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Must be Mantis season! Amelia
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What delightful cyclamen! I have grown only the florists’ cyclamen, which typically get discarded as annuals. I really dislike them for that, and want to take them all home to plant out in the forest. That would be too many though, and the bright white and red would look phony in the wild. I intend to eventually try the Cyclamen hederifolia and Cyclamen coum on a small scale, to see how well they do here. They would look nice in the redwoods.
I don’t know that Choisia ternata ‘Sundance’ because I have just never tried Choisia here. It is well rated for our region, but I have never seen it do well.
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The Cyclamen hederifolium are originally European but I see no reason why they would not do well with you. This year they were completely dried by the lack of rain and are planted at the base of trees where there is not much soil. They are very tough plants and self seed and will form new plants but only in the immediate area. They are not invasive. Amelia
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