A story with a happy ending

O.K. a story starting with the photograph of a Butternut Squash does not seem to bode well for a riveting read, but wait there is a deeper message!

In August 2012 I wrote a blog “Pumpkin Perfume?” (yes, I was surprised too, that I’ve been writing my blog so long). I had grown a pumpkin that exuded a divine perfume!

I had no idea if this was something very common with pumkins or on the rare side. My friends who had given me the plant had no clue what they had given me as they grew different sorts every year and did not keep records.

Over the years I have had comments on the blog from other people who had occasionally had a whiff of this perfume while others had never noticed any odour. Then yesterday I had a comment all the way from Argentina from Carolina. She has grown butternut squash and like me noticed nothing in particular, but this year she is growing Uchiki Kuri squash and has noticed the wonderful perfume from the flowers in the early morning!

I quickly looked up Uchiki Kuri squash and found it is called Potimarron in France and is indeed a very popular squash here. It has a good flavour in soup with a hint of sweet chestnut.

I have already ordered my seeds for next year. Who cares if I get many potimarron, I just want to smell the flowers again. But here is the rub – the perfume is only for early risers. If you enjoy late morning rising you will miss this perfume.

What made me so happy was the thought of Carolina in Argentina contacting me. Often I have dark thoughts about the progress of technology and whether it has brought the benefits we hope for but I was so touched by Carolina reaching out to me and my cyber friend saying,

“Hi, I have got the answer to your question.”

The colours of December

The colours of December are more subdued. The leaves fall in progression. The Liquidambar leaves are a gift whether they are on the ground or whether I have swept them up to decorate the borders where they hopefully retard the weeds and surely provide a good mulch.

The big Salix caprea or Pussy Willow at the bottom of the garden is still holding onto its leaves that have turned golden now and light up in the morning sunshine.

The Salix Alba “Chermiesina” catch the morning sun also and look on fire in the early light. I am not so happy about their mid-summer hair cut that left their lower trunks bare, but made the mowing easier. Hopefully, Kourosh will have a more restrained trim next year.

The Abutilon is still holding onto some of its flowers but the petals have become almost transparent with the cold.

The Hydrangeas are much more subdued but I like their dusky colours.

The Sedum’s colours have completely faded but hold their own against the pale blue of the Rosemary bush behind them.

The leaves of this Cotoneaster have turned an attractive copper. I’m not sure whether it is supposed to do this or whether it is going to die and this is its swansong.

Luckily, there are plenty of other cotoneaster bushes in the garden with plenty of berries for our blackbirds and thrushes.

This year we have added two Malus “Coccinelle” to the garden. I was pleased to see that in the first year the bees had plenty of flowers and now the nibbled “apples” show that they have been a success with the birds, too.

This is what we have been waiting to see. Our pear tree “Chanticleer” survived its first summer in the garden, which was extra hot and dry and has now its bright leaves. No fruit for the birds, yet, but perhaps next year.

The bright leaves in this photo belong to Diervilla rivularis (Honeybee). I was recommended this plant through the blog and brought two plants back from the U.K. in 2016 as they were not available in France at the time. I only bought two as they were quite expensive. The amazing feature is that they can survive at the bottom of my garden in the shade and dry. However, I say survive. In conditions like that it is not possible to have rampant growth! They are so pretty that I moved one this year to better conditions where it can be better appreciated. Certainly an interesting plant if you had a small garden and wanted a pretty little bush for a shady corner.

We had our first frost this week and some heavy rain has started. I will have to wait to see if the rain will wash away the bright colours of December.

My Tetradium daniellii or Bee-Bee tree

Tetradium daniellii is such a mouthful of a name for a tree. Especially as this tree can be known as Evodia or “Arbre à miel” or “Arbre aux abeilles”. I first heard it mentioned by bee keepers in France who talked in reverential  tones about trees they had seen, but it appeared rare here, and I had never seen one.

I decided to buy one but this proved difficult to source here until I found one listed on the online site Planfor. Here, I made a mistake with my button finger and ended up with an 11 cm. plant! It was duly planted in November of 2014. I did source another larger tree in a pot from another nursery but that tree did not survive, so I had little hope for the 11 cm. stick.

I was wrong to be pessamistic. After a slowish start the tree grew rapidly but I had no idea of how long the tree would take to produce the first flowers. In July of 2018 we had the first flowers from the Bee-Bee tree.

What impressed me most was that the honeybees were attracted to the flowers almost before they opened and worked at the flowers to gain access to the nectar.

I think you can almost see the bee smiling.

The little flowers contain large amounts of nectar and also provide a yellow pollen. It is impressive to see the number of bees of all sorts that the tree attracts.

So this year in January 2020 we bought another Tetradium darlienii from the same online nursery, but with more confidence we invested in a larger potted plant.

We were very excited to see it push forth its new shoots at the end of January. Such pretty new leaves too!

So this year we have had two surprises. Firstly, it flowered in the summer time and secondly the flowers produced seeds!

The seed pods are an attractive pink colour.

As the seeds ripen the pods open to reveal the black seeds. These are reputed to be eaten by the birds but I quickly gathered mine. I will be interested to see if I can germinate them in the springtime.

So why has my first Tertradium not produced any seeds?

Some sources say that the Tetradium daniellii is dioecious – that is that you get male and female flowers on the same plant. That would surely mean that I should have already had seeds on my older tree.

Other sources say that the tree is monoecious – that is individuals either produce male or female flowers.

That would mean that my first tree produces only male flowers and my new tree produces only female flowers.

However, yet other sources say that individuals can be monoecious or dioeceious. So my first tree could be male and my second produce both male and female flowers.

Luckily the bees do not care as both male and female flowers produce the nectar and pollen that they seek.