Don't let late-summer doldrums deter you from planting, writes Jane Powers
Oh Lord, is it that time already? September is upon us, and with it, in this house anyway, comes the yearly wrestle with the garden blahs. I'm sure you know the what's-the-point feeling. The garden has run away on you again, the weeds are winning and what's done is done. So why bother trying to undo or redo it? And anyway, now the evenings are growing relentlessly darker, pretty soon nobody will be able to see anything, except during those few milky hours in the middle of the day. So thanks and goodnight, and I'll see you in spring.
Or that's how I feel, until something jumps up and knocks some sense into me. Because although I've been suffering from end-of-summer horticultural fatigue, certain plants in the garden have been mustering their energies for their annual floral bash. Shrubs and trees that did nothing more than provide a calm green structure for the past several months are suddenly covered in flower, snapping the weary gardener to attention once more.
One of my favourites - which makes it all the more tragic that I killed it by attempting to move it, having foolishly neglected to take insurance cuttings first - is Eupatorium ligustrinum. The evergreen shrub is a native of Mexico, and its frothy sprays of white blossom are delightfully scented, earning it the common name of incense bush. Like its chic herbaceous cousin the American Joe Pye weed (E. purpureum), it is beloved of butterflies. Gardening books describe it as being a little tender, but it should grow perfectly well in Ireland, providing it's given a sheltered spot in the colder counties. It's not easy to find: in the current RHS Plant Finder, the only Irish supplier listed is Seaforde Gardens, in Co Down, where it appears on the plant list as Eupatorium micranthum.
Seaforde holds the national collection of eucryphias, another genus that puts on a late- season party. These mostly small and medium-sized trees start to bloom in late summer, and some, such as E. x intermedia 'Rostrevor', may go on until year's end. Their cup-shaped creamy flowers have remarkably long stamens, like miniature sheaves of fibre optics. Originally natives of Chile and Australia, eucryphias are reputed not to be entirely hardy. Nonetheless, I've seen them growing happily all over Ireland. They need a good, moist soil and acid conditions, although E. x nymansensis 'Nymansay' will tolerate some lime. If you want to know lots more about these beautiful trees (which should be planted more often) read Patrick Forde's excellent discourse on the species on the Seaforde website, www. seafordegardens.com.
If your soil is too alkaline and dry for eucryphia, then try one of the New Zealand lacebarks (Hoheria). In my own garden it's often the H. sextylosa flowering outside my window that nudges me out of my late-summer doldrums. The five- petalled white flowers appear in late July, covering the evergreen tree with a floral snow that lasts for six or eight weeks. That it is a member of the mallow family (Malvaceae) comes as a surprise, as its starry flowers look nothing like those of its more typical relatives abutilon, hollyhock and hibiscus. (Among the last of these, incidentally, is H. syriacus, which, with its many cultivars, is also a valuable late bloomer.)
Hoheria (and hibiscus, too, for that matter) is also supposed to be somewhat tender. But Ireland is mild compared with Britain - whence most of the gardening books, and pronouncements about plant hardiness, emanate - so we should make the best of our favoured climate. While our nearest neighbours are struggling with hard frosts in the latter months of the year, much of Ireland is still luxuriating in balmy conditions. Late-flowering shrubs and trees that usually come with "you'd be-crazy to plant this outside except in Cornwall" warnings thrive here in all but the chilliest midland counties (and there they are usually fine against a south-facing wall).
Take the myrtles: evergreen plants with small leathery leaves. From Chile comes Luma apiculata, with its foamy white flowers and rust-coloured bark the texture of finest suede. It is so at home on this island that it self-seeds prolifically, if the ground is left undisturbed at its feet. For patriots who like variegated leaves, there is an Irish version called 'Glanleam Gold', which arose in the Knight of Kerry's garden on Valentia Island 50 years ago.
Another late-flowering myrtle is the petite and glossy-leaved Myrtus communis subsp tarentina, from the Mediterranean. In Ireland it may be used as a low hedge, in place of box (now increasingly at risk from the fungal disease box blight). At Inish Beg, near Baltimore in west Co Cork, the designer Verney Naylor has used it to outline the beds in the walled garden. The leaves have a warm, sweet, spicy scent - "like Christmas pudding", says shrub specialist Mary Leahy, of T & M Leahy nursery in Piltown, Co Kilkenny.
Leahy also reminds me that another myrtle, Ugni molinae (formerly known at Myrtus ugni), will be in berry shortly. The fruits are very sweet (it is known as the Chilean guava), and if you pop a few into a bottle of genever, and leave it at the back of the cupboard for a few months, you will have a delicious liqueur. The berries taste of wild strawberries, she says, "and the smell is delicious. It will draw you to the plant. I have one customer whose dog sucks the fruit off the stems".
Fuchsia, another plant that comes with a hardiness warning, and which will go on jingling its pendant red bells for months, is so happy here that visitors (and some natives) mistake it for an Irish plant. The famous "déora dé" (tears of God) of the west of Ireland is, in fact, from South America.
Hydrangea ranks with fuchsia as a classic cottage-garden shrub. The mop-headed varieties of H. macrophylla are too blowsy for some gardeners' sensibilities. But in mid-autumn, when the flower colour has begun to deepen and mottle, a heavily pregnant hydrangea bush glowing in the evening light is a dramatic sight. And that, as far as I'm concerned, is exactly what's needed to give the jaded gardener's spirits a kick in the pants.
TREES AND SHRUBS TO BRIGHTEN THE END OF THE SEASON
Abelia, buddleia, Caryopteris, Ceratostigma willmottianum, Clethra, eucryphia, Eupatorium ligustrinum, fuchsia, heaths and heathers (Calluna vulgaris, Erica, Daboecia cantabrica), hebe, sun or rock rose (Helianthemum), hibiscus, hydrangea, hypericum, pheasant berry (Leycesteria formosa), Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Blue Spire', potentilla, roses, Zauschneria
TREES Eucryphia, Hoheria, Magnolia grandiflora, sorrel tree (Oxydendrum arboreum)