When we arrived at our new house in February I was delighted by the palm tree on sunny days it gave the garden a lovely Mediterranean feel although it was still winter.
The palm we have is Chamaerops humilis The European or Mediterranean Fan Palm). It is the northernmost naturally occurring palm in the world. In the spring it bore dense clusters of yellow flowers at the top of the stems.
When I lived in the Middle East I used to sit under a date palm and dream of the time when I would have a garden of my own. Now here I was with my own palm as well.
The garden though was dormant and surprises were in store because some of the plants were quite unfamiliar to me.
This tree was a total puzzle to me. What was it?? It had a sturdy trunk with a lot of spindly spikes sticking out of the top. My neighbours had similar trees but they didn’t have spikes just knobbly bits, all of their spikes had been chopped off. The question was should we prune ours. I tried the internet, I read my garden books but I couldn’t find anything that looked like it. Then when we were having the new boiler installed I thought I would ask Jacque. He was most helpful and described how to prune it and told me that I would lie under it in the summer as it would provide well needed shade. The trunk was sturdy enough but the twiggy sticks didn’t seem to hold out much hope of shade. It wasn’t too late to prune it I enquired. No it wasn’t so the tree was shorn. The name of the tree
A Mulberry.
I looked them up. They were apparently grown all over southern France for the silk Industry
Eventually it would have fruit, rather like an elongated blackberry and with a mild blackberry flavour. Red at first then black when ripe.The only drawback is they drop off as soon as they are ripe.We have three of these trees and one by the drive drops fruit all over the gravel. 
Here is the Mulberry tree in July its growing very fast and the leaves are lush and beautiful. 
The next plant to appear which I was unfamiliar with was the Coronilla or Crown Vetch. This Coronilla variety has bright yellow flowers. The plant has charming delicate looking foliage and makes a small bush which seems now the summer is here to need little water.
A real surprise was the one that popped up in the middle of the lawn. The lawn was planted by the last owner only a year ago, so I was informed. So perhaps before that there was a flower bed of some kind under where the lawn now is. Back in the spring whilst I was mowing I noticed what were to be lilies poking up through the grass. A second group of shoots near by grew and eventually produced deep purple flowers. Each bloom lasted only a day but there was a steady succession of flowers. I identified the plant from my gardening book as Tradescantia. It seems to like the shady patch in the lawn. I am keeping a close eye on it with the intention of moving it to the edge of the lawn in the shade of the garden wall next autum where I hope it willl continue to thrive.
With the arrival of July the next tree to delight me as it burst into flower was the silk tree or Albizia julibrissin. Although most Albizias are found in the tropical and sub-tropical regions, this variety is an exception and is found in warmer temperate regions. It is an attractive deciduous tree with frond-like leaves. and has a definite 'African Bush' look to it which is very appealing. The nature of the leaves divided into hundreds of tiny leaflets means that a great deal of light gets through, and provides a lovely dappled shade and with the spreading branches mean that it is a very good shade tree to sit under.
The soft silky flowers give it its common name the silk tree. It appears to be readily self seeding. So I have transplanted some new seedlings to pots with the intention of providing some additional shade in my back garden. Also as you can see from the photograph above my roses seem to flourish under it, so I can use it to provide shade for future planting.
I waited impatiently for my Hibiscus Syriacus to flower. I have grown this plant before in France but until it flowers I don’t know what colours we have. The one near the gate turned out to be pink and the one in the back grden white. I am surprised that the pink one which is shaded by the Albezia flowers much more profusely than the white one which is in full sun.
To read more about my garden see - My Blog - Mulberry Tree Discovering my garden part 2
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