Plum blossom and cranes

I saw the first flower on the 9 February and in less than a week the whole plum tree is a mass of flowers. It always flowers early and last year we had no fruit as the cold weather that followed prevented the fruits from forming. Some years we have had a lot of fruit, so we will have to wait and see what the weather brings.

The flowers are not just decorative but the whole area surrounding the tree is perfumed with the special bitter sweet odour of the plum flowers. Of course, the whole tree is buzzing with bees and bumblebees, watch the buzz by clicking the Youtube link.

The bulbs are pushing forth and flowering all over the garden and I am pleased that last year’s layered bulb pot is working again. I just left the bulbs to overwinter in the container outside and they have pushed through again. They are not coming through in the orderly fashion of last year but I have no complaints.

Every year we see the cranes pass over. A wonderful sight as they fly in an arrow formation and you can watch as the front birds taking the tough front position tire and are replaced with more rested birds from the further back positions.

This time the noise was much more than usual and they flew round in circles over the garden squalking as if quarreling. Then I realised what had happened. A few days earlier we had had unusually heavy rain and the fields behind they garden were flooded again forming lakes. I could imagine the cranes who use the rivers and lakes arguing and saying “I told you we should have turned left 5 minutes ago!” “I’ve been on this route for years and there are no lakes here, I tell you!” “Look, who has got the GPS, I am tired going round in circles!”

Eventually, they reached some consensus and flew off but not with their usual elegance. Kourosh got a a short 16 second video of their disarray, here is the link.

The Gloom Continues

In mid January we had our first frosty morning, so it has not been so cold – but gloomy and wet.

The garden is progressing as the winter wears on. The Viburnum tinus has been flowering since December and the ornamental apple is gradually losing its fruit to the birds. The difference is more with me as I am a fair weather gardener and it is the bright days that pull me into the garden. The plants do not seem as effected as I am by the low level of light since mid October. The plants most certainly appreciate the extra rain they have received this year.

The exception is that the Hellebores have not been as happy. After being scorched by an extra hot summer, the Hellebores were deluged by the heavy rain that turned many of the leaves brown and I had to cut off a lot of leaves as they had become unsightly. The Hellebore flowers are opening in earnest now and I notice that the bees appreciate the downturned flowers that keep the pollen dryer and easier for the bees to collect.

We thought that we had lost all our bee hives to the Asian hornets (Vespa velutina) at the end of the summer. However, two hives seem to be surviving and bringing in pollen. It is still early days to know whether they will survive till springtime.

There are plenty of flowers to provide pollen inside the garden and the winter flowering honeysuckle has been flowering since December and the gorse is in flower in the woods.

My Cornus mas shrubs are getting bigger and producing more flowers but I still find that the bees are not attracted to them.

Our old apple tree always has some mistletoe growing on it but this year it is covered with it. I will knock most of it off when I get around to it but there is so much yet to do in the garden that warrants more urgent attention.

Yesterday we saw the first flowers on our old plum tree. It always likes to be the first plum tree to flower. It seems to be signaling that despite rain and thick cloud the garden is pushing forward.

This is just to prove that I have been down on my hands and knees as I picked up a hitch hiker while I was weeding. I am not sure what the lizard was doing as it was not a warm day but I must have disturbed him and he was happy to stay on my fleece until I removed him to shelter under a bush.

The best thing about the garden at the moment is the flowering Sarcococca confusa which we have strategically placed where we park the car. We are welcomed home by the perfume of this amazing plant.

Seedy Garden

The Cosmos are well past their best but I keep them for the Goldfinches.

I am not sure whether it is just the seeds they eat or whether they take the whole forming seed head from time to time.

I would be interested if anyone could tell me and also if they have birds interested in their Echinacea seed heads or any of their autumn flower seed heads.

Whatever they eat, it is lovely to see the young birds in the groups that descend. Their head feathers still have some growing to do and the breast feathers are very downy.

Most of my Cosmos comes up naturally self-sowing from year to year but last year I noticed a preponderance of the pink shades so I sowed a white dwarf Cosmos to break things up.

I sowed them out in clumps but the plants were not as strong as my self-seeders. I also noticed that they were not always pure white.

These two flowers are from the same plant. I noted that I had more pink or pink tinted “white Cosmos” when it was very hot. Sunburn?

Has anyone an explanation for this?

My Salvia leucantha has survived its first winter in the soil. I am very pleased with it in the ground so I will not move it and see if it will survive if I cut it down before winter and cover it with straw and a fleece.

The Salvia leucantha in the ground is much happier than the one in the pot on the patio.

I had no intention of growing Cosmos sulphureus around the bird feeder but it just grew there, profiting from the run-off when I watered the pots.

I have never noticed any birds feeding on the Cosmos suphureus although it is a prolific seed producer. Is this what you have experienced in your garden? It is even easier to grow than the coloured Cosmos and new plants grow continuously and for a longer season than the coloured Cosmos.

My Asters are now getting beaten down by the downpour of rain that is telling me that autumn has arrived.

It is such an abrupt change from sunny days at the beach but I am so happy to see the rain that I bought a new bird bath in celebration.

We have had so many “last day at the beach” this year but I think last Sunday must have been the final day as it has rained since them. We came across this cute little creature in a rock pool at Mescher on the Gironde estuary.

Maybe I will be able to concentrate more on the garden now.

The dry garden

The Manuka bushes were planted in the spring of 2019, we thought the bees might enjoy them. The bushes survived until last summer with some watering in the first summer and I hoped they would perk up this year. They are not, evidently drought tolerant so I must find something to replace them. There is no room for a tree as they are between the very large Liriodendron and the small Evodia. The other alternative is just to let the space cover naturally. Any ideas? They have the full afternoon sun.

The screen of willows (Salix Alba Chermesina) was planted in 2015 and never gets watered.

With the help of the Magnolia grandiflora (another drought tolerant marvel) they provide a sheltered shady spot in the morning.

The fruit trees cannot get watered and the Golden Delicious apple tree is starting to produce its apples.

The dry weather has meant that the apples are small and the tree is dropping its burden.

The Nashi Kosui tree was planted in 2021. It is quite close to the vegetable garden and I think Kourosh secretly waters it when he does the watering of the vegetables.

He is very proud that this year it has provided its first crop of fruit.

The bees are sheltered from the sun for part of the day and we leave plenty of water out for them and the birds.

The yellow cat’s ear weeds are in full flourish at the moment.

It is difficult to get angry with these weeds as the Dasypoda bees love them and I enjoy watching them as they collect the pollen on their silky hind legs.

There are other wild bees like this Halictus, and of course the honeybees, that come onto these yellow flowers but it is mainly the Dasypoda.

Despite the vagaries of the weather this year, we have had plenty of tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes with the promise of plenty of butternut and potimarron pumpkins to come. It does mean that the vegetables must be watered almost daily.

Snow in a French Garden

We have been having a cold spell which has kept me out of the garden. It is not just the cold but the grey skies and lack of sunshine has left the leaves unraked. It is a job I reserve to keep me occupied in the garden when it is sunny.

Yesterday afternoon we had snow. The flurry did not last long and it had melted before the morning.

The Hellebores were covered with snow but are showing no sign of flowering.

This will be the first really cold weather for some of the new plants. The Azara looks like a mini Christmas tree but is hardy enough as we have only been having lows down to a minimum of minus three degrees Centigrade.

I have to thank Kourosh for these photographs because I stayed by the fire.

Rain

From the middle of November we have been having rain, at last. That means less days sitting watching the garden in the sun and more time viewing it from the inside.

At least the Lagerstroemia is getting enough rain to drain the leaves of their precious nutrients and allow the dry shells to fall. Gradually the bark is becoming mature and starting to peel.

The Salvia leucantha is still going strong, and with the bees and its long stems in constant motion, it draws your attention as soon as you look outside.

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The saffron has been harvested and although I did not think it was as plentiful as last year my harvest was 5.5 grams against 3.8 grams of last year.

We had an unexpected harvest from our Acca sellowiana or feijoa bush this year. Perhaps it was just the very hot summer but it was the first time that our plants had given fruit. We had planted them as the pretty flowers attract the bees and had not really expected them to give fruit and we were surprised at how good they tasted.

Our Eriobotrya japonica is in full flower at the moment but I can only smell the lovely perfume when I go to the bottom of our garden which has not been so frequent in this rainy period.

The flowers attract a lot of pollinators including the Asian hornet. I just hope the fruits will manage to set before we get really cold weather as we had no fruit last year.

Although this year we had hardly any apples or pears, at least our Malus has given fruit for the birds.

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The birds come to have a bath even in the rain, so this is something else that we can watch from the window. I think this is a female black cap (Sylvia atricapilla).

Autumn Salvias

In the back garden the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) has changed to its autumn colour and today the leaves are falling waiting to be gathered in for composting.

My Hydrangea from the Savill Gardens in the U.K. is keeping dusty pink flower heads, the soft colours in keeping with the autumn tones.

In the front garden I am still enjoying sitting outside and eating lunch on a small portable table as the big one has been stored away as we felt the warm weather could not last – but it has.

Our Salvia leucantha growing in a pot in the patio supplies us with plenty to watch as the bumble bees love it.

The carder bumble bees are Kourosh’s favourite.

The hummingbird hawk moth is a constant visitor and has the right equipment to get to the nectar of these salvias.

This bright blue salvia is in a pot too but will get put into the garden as soon as it has finished flowering.

This salvia has a beautiful flower.

I find it grows too tall. The wall is about two and a half metres. I thought it might grow less when I moved it to the front garden last year as it gets a lot of sun here. It has grown just as tall in its new position and I just think it looks leggy. Any suggestions?

We are still waiting for proper rain to give the garden a good soak after this hot, dry summer.

Nothing is the same this year and now our spring flowering Prunus “Accolade” has started flowering.

Back home

After a pleasant break in the Auvergne region of France, it was good to get back to the garden. We visited the Puy de Dôme, an extinct volcano towering 1650 metres high and providing an amazing viewpoint of the area. It is possible to access the summit by foot, or a charming train can take you up and down. We asked if it was possible to take the train up and then come down by foot. We were told this was quite possible but it was not mentioned that the “goats’ path” would not lead you back to where we started from but to another carpark at some distance from the main centre where we were parked. Luckily, we enjoy walking but the extra leg was more than we bargained for.

There had been some rain for the garden while we were away and the Cosmos had taken over a corner of the front garden as I had not had the heart to weed out the self-sown plants.

Today some of the flowers are finishing and it has attracted the Godfinches (Carduelis carduelis).

The adults are very brightly coloured with distinctive red heads.

I am not a birder but I think there were quite a few immature birds in the group.

Perhaps someone might know if these are females or young birds.

There was a constant movement of birds in the Cosmos – I can count five birds in the photo above.

We were amused to watch them patiently wait their turn until the sparrows finished splashing around and drinking from the bird bath.

Eventually the sparrows move on.

It makes me wonder if they are the same birds from the little nest that the goldfinches hid amongst the leaves of one of our Hibiscus syriacus at the front of our house in July.

The rhythm continues

The rhythm of summer has begun.

It is hot, although this year there is more of a breeze in the garden.

We all have our habits. We take our morning coffee in the front garden but soon it will be too hot for that and we will shift to the cool of the trees in the back garden.

The shade of a parasol is getting insufficient to keep the heat of the sun at bay on the patio.

In addition we have to do our “frog check” each time we open the parasol.

He is not easy to dislodge.

The parasol has to be removed and the frog shaken on to the lemon tree close-by in a pot. This is a secondary favourite haunt so he will hop off easily.

This is a closer view for those of you who cannot see him in the photo above.

In fact, it is much easier to take our coffee in the back garden now.

Sunflower time

The sunflowers have started to flower around us here in the Charente Maritime in France.

There are some small fields near us.

A little further on there are fields so large that their yellow blends into the horizon.

This year the bees and bumble bees have descended upon the sunflowers and so I presume they must be producing a good supply of nectar although it has been an overall dry season.

The different sunflower hybrids produce nectar with different sugar mass quantity so whether this season will produce an abundant honey supply or not remains to be seen.

For the moment our girls at the bottom of the garden are very busy.