Ornamental grasses after a fire
Well, now. That’s a relief.
The eragrostis curvula grasses came through the conflagration.
And even the miscanthus are struggling back into growth.
Struggling, but growing.
And best of all. BEST OF ALL. My favourite shrub for flower arranging and sheer delight – the choiysia Aztec Pearl is not dead.
It even has a teensy bit of bud burst along the bare branches I didn’t lop off last month.
The picture isn’t pretty yet. But I have hopes for the future.
You have to squint but there is a bit of hope.
I traipse up the steep bank quite regularly right now. And I’m of course amazed and disappointed to learn that a lot of things fried. But not the damn brambles. I pull and pull and cut and cut and still can’t win. But at least with all the bare earth between the grasses I can see them. Usually it’s a lovely jungle and I never notice.
On the other down side…. the rosemaries didn’t transplant.
They will have to come out.
The phlomis and iris and ballota and sedums are fine.
Sadly the viburnum tinus further along the bank is so crisp and unsightly that I have gone for the chain saw and lopper option.
And I don’t love it enough to wait out a few years like the choiysia.
And what of the mighty cypresses?
Well. I’m hedging my bets. Yes they are crisp and I think a bit of growth is lurking beneath.
But to placate myself I went shopping.
And we pause for a brief moment to peer into the car boot and see that despite only going down to the plant nursery for five small cypress trees (which you can’t even see) Madame seems to have come back with an awful lot of loot.
Moving swiftly along.
So I planted up the small cypress totems (ten euros a tree instead of the whopping 35 I would have had to spent for a similar size that took about seven years to grow to the lovely height in the garden).
We all know that smaller is going to be better and they will catch up in about five years time. I’ve done enough instant gardening already.
You just have to plan for a long life.
They are hiding behind the big crispy ones. That way I have double the trees right now, and if they big ones really don’t come back to life I can pull them out and have a good cry.
But for now it’s a lovely little cypress family in among the grasses.
I have added the yellow stakes again so I can find them to water them throughout the summer. Not the best time to be planting. But I never expected the larger ones to catch fire over winter.
Quite.
