I have a favourite quotation from Gertrude Jekyll "A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust." It is a quotation that has real meaning for me as I do genuinely believe that gardening has taught me more patience than I (and others) would have believed possible. Do not get me wrong, I am still an impatient person; but when it comes to the garden it turns out I can wait quite a while for what really matters.
My Forest Pansy tree, more formally known as Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy', has been a supreme test of that patience. I bought this tree in 2006 from a visit to Gardeners World Live. It was about 12 inches tall at the time and a bargain. I had been looking for a Forest Pansy as I had seen a picture of one in a pot that belonged to Dan Pearson. I am easily led and I decided I wanted to grow one in a pot as well. The purchase was made and for the first few years it lived happily in a pot. When I moved to this house I found a place I thought it would be happy and released it into the ground. In my experience I have found that this tree is rather brittle. By which I mean I have every now and again accidentally broken a bit off it as it snaps easily if you walk to closely to it. This tree also suffered from the great '
huge chunk of Poplar falling from the sky' debacle. The tree developed a rather horizontal habit; so a year or two ago I gave it some support (tied it to a cane) and it has responded to this well. Despite all this the tree has survived. Anyhoo, last year was a bit of year and things ended up being dug up and put into pots just in case. The Forest Pansy was one such plant that was carefully plonked into a pot. It was high on the list of not getting left behind.
It turns out it likes being in a pot. I know you are looking at the above photo and thinking 'but I cannot quite see it'. It is now much larger than when first purchased but remains what I would tactfully (or tactlessly) call 'spindly'.
The foliage is beautiful, these heart shaped red leaves are a total joy. From the moment they start to gleam through in bright scarlet to as they age sanguinely.
This year my patience has been rewarded. It might have been the shock of being uprooted, it might have been gratitude for some fresh compost, whatever it was it has meant that for the first time ever my Forest Pansy has flowered. There have not been many flowers, but a few have managed to open. Now I am hopeful for more flowers next year and I shall keep the tree in its pot for the foreseeable.
