Beauty takes time

You need vision to be a gardener because developing your dream space takes time – unless you have a large budget that facilitates ordering a garden in a van.  You have to be able to visualise what the little shrublet in the pot at the garden centre, will look like as a fully grown specimen in ten years time and ensure it is in harmony with its surroundings.  Sometimes my visionary skills are tested and this Sorbus Sargentiana is a case in point.  

For a long time we have planned to re-plant the bed at the front of our property and add colour which we can enjoy from the house.  2011 saw the start of this process. 

There is an established, if a little tired, laburnum tree so we decided on a palette of the hot, jewelled colours.  We also have a small fir tree in the bed which would look lovely strung with fairy lights – if we ever get round to it!  Anyway, we overhauled the bed and planted some perennials and spring flowering bulbs.  Until they grow, there are a lot of gaps and too much brown earth for anyone’s liking. 

Planting a tree was definitely part of the vision.  After consulting books, the internet and other gardeners, we decided on a Sorbus Sargentiana - because a Rowan can deliver high impact in a medium sized space.

The Sargent is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 6–16 m tall, with an attractive rounded crown.   There are stout shoots of large, sticky red buds in winter, white flowers with yellow stamens in early summer, followed by red berries which are a joy for the birds.  The long, green leaves turn a fiery orange and red in the autumn so this is a fantastic tree for interest all year round. Needless to say, lots of other gardeners think the same and sourcing one was quite a challenge.







A supplier put our name on the waiting list for the next shipment of bare rooted stock.  A pot-grown tree can be planted any time of year but bare rooted trees are planted from late autumn when they are relatively dormant and there is still enough warmth in the soil to become established before the really harsh weather sets in.  So a week or so ago on a very wet day, our bare rooted tree arrived in a cardboard box.  Or should I say, our stout ‘stick’ arrived in a cardboard box.

Bare rooted trees are field-grown, dug up for re-planting and have their roots trimmed.  They need to be planted immediately, before their roots dry out so Doc set to work the next day and we now have a stick in the ground rather than a stick in a box.  Bare rooted trees need less attention ie watering, than their pot-grown cousins so basically all we do now is wait for the vision to be realised ...and wait...because Sorbus Sargentiana is a slow growing tree.

A neighbour has told us that a friend of theirs planted the very same tree and it sat in the soil for two years without so much as trying to grow even an inch, let alone reaching anywhere near its potential.  They dug it up and put it on the bonfire which was such a waste and all because they lost patience.

We do wonder if we have enough life left to see our Sargent reach perfection but that is what having a vision is all about, isn’t it?  It is not about now, it is about an indefinite point in the future.  It is an act of faith.  Still, it would be nice to have something nice to look at when we are drinking our coffee.  I wonder if we should drape a few fairy lights around it for Christmas?
 
Note to self:  when buying a tree as a gift, choose a pot-grown specimen because the chances are it will be older and look like a tree, with arching branches and leaves....