Our Friend, Jim Willis has settled very happily in France.... quite a contrast to life by Newcastle and here is his latest update to us of what's happening in Blanzay.......
"It's that time of year when you are often in my mind as the water gets
poured on re-potted bulbs, seeds are sown and, Maggie, the fig tree is
stuffed with fruit which is fought over with the local blackbird population.
We did have a Spring this year but it was the driest since 1975 and the
drought restrictions which were put in place very early are still in effect
regardless of the useful falls of rain we have had for the past three/four
months. To my eye the local maize crop seems to have been a failure - you
could almost think that the farmers hard turned to a new dwarfing variety-
and in the Vienne many farmers have been in receipt of grants to compensate
for the failed fields of maze: harvesting is well underway really very much
earlier than usual.
The bulbs in the the two plunges took a real hammering and I think I lost
more than half of them - they did not enjoy this year's weather conditions
at all. In the garden very little seed was set by anything bulbous and the
early frits were up and down so fast that if you blinked you missed them
though the later varieties did rather better.
I lifted an accumulation of narcissus canaliculatis which failed to flower
for the first time this year though I have to say they never seem to flower
easily. From an area of about three to four square feet I lifted over 250
bulbs of varying sizes, tightly packed but all very healthy. I refreshed
the area, planted even deeper than before - I read somewhere that they need
to be deep to flower well- put some elsewhere in the garden and gave most of
them away to friends. And this was only half of the planted area but I left
the other half till next year for though I was lifting in late August after
a dry year, the roots were forming, some being quite advanced. What a
contrast to what I found in far too many pots.
I have been watching wild sources of narcissus pseudonarcissus this year.
I found the daffodil growing in three separate locations this year, but at the best site,
photo attached, every last flower was picked by some of the local entrepreneurs and sold in
bunches outside the local supermarkets; at the second site on the edge of
the commune when I returned full of enthusiasm to take some seed the whole
area was waist deep in thistles and stinging nettles and nothing could I see
( this area was coppiced last year and I wonder if the vigorous growth of
the unfriendly was a result of the increased light).
The dry Spring has also affected our walnut tree growing at the back of the
house whose nuts this year are about half as large as they usually are. The
sternbergias had a splendid flowering and they are bulking up well though I
have never yet found any seed on any of the plants despite looking
hopefully. I have lutea in abundance and this year flowered greuteriana (is
it?) for the first time and such a delicate contrast to the 'in your face'
lutea. Sicula is in the beds and sets leaf every year but has yet to flower
for me. I wonder if the season for this coming year is going to be an early
one as the spring flowering orchids were beginning to appear through the
ground in early September, by my reckoning a good month earlier than usual
or perhaps I look more carefully these days. I hope they flower well in
2012 because this year the bee orchids barely showed at all, seeming not to
like the dry spring but Margaret and I, in contrast, found over a hundred
butterfly orchids in two afternoons on the edge of the paths in the woods
where we walk Pip (the dog). The first narcissi in the garden are in flower and
some have buds formed and waiting tucked into the base of their leaves.
Take good care,
Bon courage,
Jim "
It is always interesting to learn that others are facing similar problems in their areas. Not that fighting blackbirds off a laden fig tree is a problem I have much bother with here in Aberdeen!
