28 April 2013

Some things grow, some don't

Some plants just won't grow, or won't grow very fast. Why is that? I guess it's a function of the ground they're planted in. Acid? Alkaline? Our soil is what they call terre à vignes in France. That means poor soil fit only for grape-growing. It's rocky, with a lot of clay in it.

Yesterday, CHM asked about my Aucuba japonica  or "gold dust" plants. Here are some photos. I'm having more luck with them than in past years. I've tried many times to get one going, without much success. I think the species needs richer soil. I guess I should have dug a deep hole and filled it with rich compost to plant them in. Maybe I can spread some compost on the ground under these three little survivors. It's worth a try.


Some plants you just can't kill. The one below is very old, I was told by the previous owner of our house. It keeps on growing and producing fruit. They say these particular trees can live to be very old. This one doesn't seem to get any bigger, but it shows no sign of slowing down either. Do you recognize it?


And here's another flower growing on a very old tree. It too just keeps on going. Big limbs have broken off under the weight of the fruit it produces. Mushrooms grow at the base of its trunk. Nothing seems to stop it.


And finally, here's another one I've been trying to get going. It grew a lot last year, as two really long branches. Then suddenly one branch died. To add insult to injury, some animal or bird ate all the fruit before I was ready to harvest it.


This spring the surviving branch has a lot of leaves on it. Maybe I'll get some fruit this summer. It doesn't matter much, because the few times I've picked some of it, it wasn't very sweet anyway.

6 comments:

  1. Your Aucuba japonica seem to be doing well. Just give them a little time to be settled. The “parents”, here, growing into pots are also doing well and flowering, I noticed yesterday. There are male and female plants. When I come and visit with you and Walt, I’ll bring cuttings of this other variety — non variegated — that’s been growing in my small yard for decades. I’ll bring also cuttings from yellow jasmine, that blooms in the heart of winter.

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  2. Apologies for calling you Walt, Ken...
    but that blossom pic was so much your other half's style, I got confused...
    still think it was a great pic, tho'!

    Is the old fruiter [tree that is] a pear? The leaves certainly look pear-like.

    I commented to Pauline that, as I trimmed round the fruit bushes yesterday, they were all now in little pits...
    and she suggested I top-dressed them...
    in our case with a terreau and sand mix....
    but you are right thinking something rich for your variegated laurels...
    forget not that any variegated plant is at a disadvantage from the start...
    it cannot make food in the white bits!!

    You can grow anything anywhere if you mess with the soil...
    an uncle of mine [a horticulturalist] used to do it all the time...
    he had azaleas growing in his chalky, limey Surrey soil...
    except they weren't...
    he'd buried six huge sections of concrete drainage pipe in the front garden and filled them with acid soil...
    he hid the tops of the pipes with copious amounts of leafmould...
    which also fed the azaleas and helped keep ,the soil acid...
    he also had a couple of hydrangea plants either side of the front door...
    one with pink flowers...
    natural on limey soil...
    and one with blue...
    natural on acid.
    In this case, they weren't in "pots"...
    the blue one used to get all the tea-leaves, all the old, rusty metal and all the vinegary water from the regular cleaning of kettles and pots... but it looked effective!!

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  3. I don't know what the mysterious flowers are. Tim might be right about pear blossoms.
    What I like about France are the gardens, the potagers and all the cuttings and new plants people always talk about. The wild mushrooms, blueberries, chestnuts... harvested in the fall. I wish I could do that too in LA.

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  4. I'm afraid I am the owner of a very 'brown thumb', I kill every plant I've ever tried to grow, so I just stopped trying.

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  5. Another possibility is Quince...
    very similar leaves...
    but here, some 40 miles south, the Quangos are only just flowering their blousy pink flowers...
    but the pears are over like these... I'll go Pear still...

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  6. Yes, Tim, the middle two pictures are of pear blossoms. The closeup is an apple blossom, and the last picture shows a thornless blackberry cane.

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