Picture a Few Good Shrubs With French Accent
Those in search of a few good shrubs might consider a half-dozen that come from our sister climate in the sunny south of France.
This dry countryside is celebrated in a series of recent French films based on the books of Marcel Pagnol--”My Father’s Glory,” “My Mother’s Castle,” “Jean de Florette” and “Manon of Spring” (these last two are available on tape)--and Californians may be surprised to see how similar the hills of Provence are to our own (they may also better appreciate our own hills after seeing these hauntingly beautiful films).
Gardeners will surely recognize rosemary growing in the spotty shade of allepo pines in one scene from “Manon,” a scene easily duplicated in our own gardens, and they will catch brief glimpses of the other familiar plants.
These plants grow in what the French call the maquis or the garigue --the shrubby vegetation that covers the hillsides of Provence. It is very similar to our own chaparral and scrub, and many of these plants have close cousins in California.
Many of the better shrubs have found their way into gardens, some a long time ago. They were in Roman gardens, were an essential part of the grand Italian Renaissance villas, and later cooled Spanish courtyards. They arrived early in California, some right along with the missionaries and are still considered some of our toughest, most useful landscaping plants.
They are just the thing to plant around new homes that mimic the stuccoed architecture of Provence, or around older Mediterranean- or Spanish-style homes. They add a little authentic seasoning, complete with fragrance, to Mediterranean-inspired architecture.
Because they are native to the dry maquis and garigue, these shrubs need little irrigation once established, so they can be the backbone of any drought-resistant design, whatever architecture the garden happens to adjoin. For the most part, these are cast-iron, carefree plants.
Most of these shrubs are best used as background or for screening. They are not known or grown for their flowers, even though the flowers are pretty. They are valued in Mediterranean gardens for the deep, shadowy green of their leaves, considered quite cooling in those seasonally hot climates.
They make a substantial green mass that can soften architecture or the glare from bright walls, or they can block an unfortunate view (even most of a utility pole in some cases). A few can be clipped into hedges.
They will grow anywhere in Southern California (except in the high mountain areas, such as Big Bear), even in the desert, and they are unusually tolerant. They shrug off hot sun and poor soils, but they will not curl up their toes and die in good soil with irrigation. Although they revel in the sun, most tolerate a little dappled shade.
Here are six to consider:
Rosemary is probably the best known and should be in every California garden. Although there are ground-hugging kinds valued in hillside gardens for slope covering, the plain old blue-flowered Rosmarinus officinalis makes a handsome deep-green shrub six feet around. Nearly as tall but much narrower is the upright cultivar ‘Tuscan Blue.’ A pair of these looks very elegant flanking a path or guarding a gate or entry, where their fragrance can be enjoyed every time they are brushed against.
Mytle, Mrytus communis , is one of the oldest hedge plants, having been grown for at least 2,000 years. It looks a lot like boxwood, but with sweetly aromatic foliage and scented flowers. Though the “Western Garden Book” calls the various forms “some of the most useful, basic evergreen shrubs for California,” it is not often planted nowadays and is more likely to be found in older gardens. ‘Compacta’ is the cultivar most often used as a hedge, but the ordinary myrtle can be pruned to almost any size.
Lauristinus is the classic name given the one viburnum native to the Mediterranean, Viburnum tinus . Leathery, dark-green leaves make it a perfect screen or background plant that keeps its leaves right to the ground and grows to about 6 to 10 feet tall by half as wide. ‘Compactum’ only grows to 3 to 5 feet and is more rounded in shape; it can be used as a hedge. Mildew may be a problem at the beach, but the variety ‘Robustum’ is supposedly less prone.
Strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo , is one of the most elegant of all shrubs, though it grows slowly to tree proportions. Typically seen as an 8- to 10-foot shrub, it can make 25 feet. ‘Compacta’ stays shrub-sized at about 6 feet and ‘Elfin King’ is a true miniature, growing only several feet tall; it is very handsome in a large container. The bark is unusually attractive--reddish and similar to our native arbutus, the madrone. The leaves are toothed and a deep, glossy green and the bumpy red fruit is decorative and edible, though not very.
Pomegranates, Punica , on the other hand, are extremely edible (ask any child whose hands and face are stained red) and just as tough a shrub or tree, though the foliage is deciduous (they turn bright yellow in fall). ‘Wonderful’ is the edible variety and the names says it all. It grows slowly to 10 feet and makes a handsome, bright green, large shrub, or it can be trained as a tree. Fruit comes after four years in the ground. There are many other forms of Punica granatum , all useful shrubs usually with very bright orange flowers.
Italian buckthorn, Rhamnus alaternus , is a Mediterranean cousin of our handsome and useful native coffeeberries. This plant from the maquis is coarser, but it grows rapidly to 10 or even 20 feet. Leaves are a bright green, and birds love the black fruit. Can be trained into a tall, clipped hedge. “Grows in full sun or part shade, takes heat, wind, drought or regular watering,” says one reference, as do most all of these tough plants from the sunny south of France.
