A provencale vineyard in autumn colours
At the October meeting of the IWCP Garden Group in Provence, France, Saskia Newlands talked us through the glorious autumn colours of shrubs and trees found in the Var and brought samples of their foliage.
Name: Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Wilmottianum
Foliage: Deciduous
Height: 70-100cm
Spread 60cm
NOTES: Striking blue flowers, reddish
leaves in autumn. A light prune
after flowering will promote repeat flowering.
Name: Euonymus europaeus (Spindle Tree)
Foliage: Deciduous (but
Euonymus Japonica is evergreen)
Height: Tree, 3
– 6m
Spread:
NOTES: A native to
Provence - uninteresting flowers in
spring, but lovely pink
segmented small fruit that
open up to reveal orange berries.
Name: Ligustrum lucidum (Chinese Privet)
Foliage: Evergreen
Height: 10m
Spread:
NOTES: White
panicles of flowers in summer followed by black
berries, quite drought resistant.
Name: Lagerstroema indica (Indian Lilac or Crepe
Myrtle)
Foiiage:: Deciduous
Height: Up to 8m
Spread:
NOTES: Origin China, flowers
from summer to autumn. The flowers
come in various colours - white, pink, lilac
and deep red.
The autumn leaves are an attractive orange/red colour.
Does
need watering in summer.
Name: Cotoneaster lacteus
Foiiage:: Evergreen
Height: 4m
Spread: 4m
NOTES: All cotoneasters produce red berris in autumn. My
favourite is a large shrub with red berries all winter
long. It can be specimen plant with arching branches.
Name: Eriobotrya japonica (Japanese Loquat)
Foliage: Evergreen
Height: 8m
Spread: 8m
NOTES: Evergreen tree with
scented clusters of white flowers in
autumn,
followed by prune sized orange edible fruit. .
Name: Cornus sanguinea (Common Dogwood)
Foliage: Deciduous
Height: 3m
Spread: 2.5m
NOTES: A native shrub - white flowers in
spring in clusters, the
leaves turn a reddish/ purple in autumn, tends to send
out suckers, but can be shaped quite nicely to keep it
under control. Height 3m
and spread 2.5m. .
Name: Arbutus undo (Strawberry Tree)
Foliage: Evergreen
Height: 4.5m
Spread:
NOTES: Fruit
and flowers at appear at the same time late autumn.
Name: Abelia grandiflora
Foliage: Evergreen
Height: 3m
Spread: 4m
NOTES: Flowers
till frost, leaves turn slightly red. Drought
resistant. .
Name: Continus coggygria (Smoke Bush)
Foliage: Deciduous
Height: 5m
Spread: 5m
NOTES: The leaves come in different
colours - chocolate,
reddish purple, green with red veins and the local
one
grown in the hills has bright green leaves. All
the leaves turn red and
reddish/orange in autumn. One
of the large shrubs that can cope with Provence’s
increasingly hot climate. I guess it is my favourite as it
requires
hardly any water in summer.
Name: Pyracantha (Firethorn)
Foliage: Evergreen
Height: 3m
Spread: 3m
NOTES: Clusters of white flowers in spring with
orange or red berries in autumn carried on long
arching green foliage. Long thorns make it an excellent burglar-proof
hedge. .
Name: Pistachio terebinthus (Terpentine tree)
Foliage: Deciduous
Height: 6m
Spread:
NOTES: A tree local to Provence, very
drought resistant with
greenish/red flowers in spring followed by panicles of
bright red fruits. Properly pruned it
can make an attractive-
shaped tree.
Name: Amelanchier lamarckii (Snowy mespulus) Foliage: Deciduous
Height: 8m
Spread:
NOTES: Originally found in Canada and North America but naturalised in Europe. In late spring copper- bronze foliage appears
followed almost immediately by a mass of pure white flowers.
With apologies from Sue Spence for some formatting irregularities but the communication between draft post and published version has a mind of its own. I have gone off the idea of photos to accompany a piece . . . . .
