hydrangeas | Aussie in France

I don’t know how it got to be 10th March when just a couple of days ago, it was still February. All that R&R we were supposed to have this week doesn’t seem to have happened. Even though the fireplace smoked, we still could have spent time stretched out on our new sofa or relaxing in our armchairs reading.

The Pierre Ronsard rose bush after pruning

So what did we do? Well, we made the most of spring. When the weather suddenly got warmer – 15°C – and the sun came out, we dashed into the garden where we discovered we were late with most of our pruning. We cut back the Pierre Ronsard and Meilland roses which already had new buds sprouting. We pruned the grape vine (not that the grapes are edible), the wisteria and honeysuckle.

We cut back all the hydrangeas in the hope that they will flower again as well as they did last year. The timing seemed to be right in any case. We cut down the remainders of the tall-stemmed daisies. I’d already pruned the hollyhocks in the autumn and they all seem to be doing well.

Jean Michel planted potatoes, onions and garlic in the rain by himself this year while I was upstairs working. But it’s OK, I didn’t really feel I was missing out on anything …

We couldn’t resist a visit to the nursery though. Our aim was to buy a clematis for the wall you can see on the other side of the front yard when you’re having breakfast. We nearly didn’t plant it because it turns out there’s a lot of water under that flowerbed but there was absolutely nowhere else to put it so we’ll see what happens. The lavendar and Saharan rose seem to be doing OK.

I spent a couple of hours trimming back all the geraniums we’d left inside the little house for the winter. When Jean Michel saw them the day we arrived in Blois, he said I was going to be disappointed because they were all dead. Not so. After only a week, there were new bits of green sprouting everywhere. However, since it’s going to get cold again this week, with temperatures below freezing, I cut them back, gave them a bit of water and let them in the little house until our return.

We also wanted some peonies. I love pink peonies.The man at the nursery said to plant them in pots and put them with the geraniums. That way we can plant them in garden when we come back in a month’s time. I’m not really sure where though. We really do seem to be running out of room.

Our little wood full of daffodils and primroses

In the meantime, the little wood is a mass of daffodils so we were very sad to leave. There are two lilacs we should have pruned in the autumn so I don’t know it we’ll get many blossoms. That’s another flower I love. We’ve started a garden book so we’ll do all the pruning at the right time next year. I’m looking forward to seeing the native Touraine orchids bloom in May.

A native Touraine orchid with spotted leaves

All the bulbs I planted in autumn are starting to come up and last year’s fuschias are just sprouting as well. However, we decided not to plant any gladiolis. They look a bit messy when you aren’t there to look after them all the time. I’ll wait until we live there permanently. The little pansies came right through winter without batting an eyelid.

We’re supposed to be going down to Blois again in a month’s time, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to resist that long. I just love watching everything coming out of the ground in the spring! Driving back to Paris, we’ve just learnt that we’re in for a very cold week, with snow expected tomorrow. The temperature has already dropped from 8° to zero. I’m glad we made the most of spring in Blois!

Each time we go to Blois, we fall in love with the garden again. In June, we had masses of honeysuckle and roses. Now the outside fence is lined with light and dark pink hollyhocks. The view as you drive down the street towards the house is quite spectacular.

Inside, the prettiest flowers at the moment are the deep pink hydrangeas. These extraordinary flowers range in colour from a bluish mauve to light or dark pink depending on the aluminium content of the soil. They’re extremely popular in Brittany, where they are usually mauve. We have several bushes in the front garden and nearly a whole wall of them at the side of the house near the bread oven.

The other flower just coming into bloom is the Rose of Sharon, which can be white, pink or mauve. We have one of each! The flowers themselves look surprisingly like hibiscus but the leaves are different and they can grow into quite a large tree. The genus is actually hibiscus syriacus. In French, they are known as altheas. Hollyhocks come from the same family. Our grape vine is producing large bunches of black grapes but Mr Previous Owner told us that the ones that manage to escape the birds aren’t very tasty which is a pity. The wisteria is growing like crazy and still flowering.

Our trumpet creeper seems to be a lot later than most people’s and its lovely dark orange flowers are only just coming into bloom. Next time we’re in Blois, I imagine the whole vine will be covered. It looks wonderful on the side of the little half-timbered tower on the far corner of the house which also has a tall hollyhock in front.

The two rose bushes we bought from the Orchaise Priory are coming along well. They lost their roses quite quickly after replanting, but we pruned as instructed and there are lots of new buds. We have a lavendar bush in flower next to one of the them. The roses on the front steps had totally disappeared but are about to flower again as well.

And do you remember those potatoes we planted in the rain in May? Well, we ate the first batch this weekend. Just one plant produced about 10 medium potatoes. We were a bit disappointed though because they’re a little floury. We prefer the sort you bake in the oven. So Jean Michel dug a new patch of ground and we planted some organically-grown ones that we really like and that had sprouted during our two-week absence. They should be ready for picking when we get back from Australia in mid-October.

from the Tropics to the City of Light

Aussie in France

Tag Archives: hydrangeas

Making the Most of Spring in Blois

I Love My Garden

from the Tropics to the City of Light