St Catherine will be Pleased

 Traditionally in France one must plant trees before St Catherine's Day (25th November) inferring that the climatic conditions are good at that time of year for them to establish. Well we are not doing too bad, subject to the odd hitch, explanation to follow. We just have the cypresses to plant and a couple of climbing roses which arrived earlier than expected and are "healed in". We are also proud that we have collected a lot of free compost from the recycling centre and spread it on our beds as a mulch.......still acres more to cover! We must be a sight to behold at the "dechetterie" two old crocks taking it in turns to rake and shovel the compost into the trailer. People are always telling us to reduce the garden, not do so much etc. but I am not ready to do that yet and John just has to take things a bit slower than before.

Well I promised the saga of the pseudoacacia (frisia). Note two has become one, we reflected that John's one was a rediculous price for it's size so he had to make do with a Yew for another bonsai. First we had to lift and pot the cherries we planted last year. Aesthetically we were not happy with their position, hence the frisia was purchased.

 It is obviously a bit of a lottery when you buy on line but we ordered the frisia from our usual online supplier with whom we are very satisfied. Initially the delivery was delayed (wasteing 2 days waiting  for a delivery which did not happen). however when the tree did arrive we were not happy. It was packed atrociously (normally this company have exceptional packaging for their plants) the roots were dry (supposedly specially treated?) and some branches were broken. We assume it came from a grower who do not observe the same ethos as our regular supplier, and we thought they ought to know.

Over the weekend we soaked the tree, pruned the broken branches and then planted it. In accordance with Alan Titchmarsh's recommendation we then swore at it and now we hope.

 However the supplier has been exceptional (returning to their normal service) and within a day they reminded us that we have a 2 year guarantee (may or may not be realisable when you are approaching 77) and they refunded 50% of the tree price. That I call service and will be pleased to continuing using them.

Our final job on Sunday was to plant the Leylandii (as the rain came down). John had previously lifted the non flourishing sycamores, chopped them in half and potted them up to see if they will grow as bonsai. (Hope springs eternal!!)