JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
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... out in the garden.
12th July 2026
I started this garden decades ago, filled with youthful innocence but rather short on cash. As a consequence I had a single push-along petrol mower and four acres
of 'natural' garden. I mowed a path around it every now and then. Youthful innocence made things possible that I wouldn't try now. Astonishingly I didn't get a ride-on mower
for almost ten years. It was a forty year old second hand model and it changed the world.
I was reminded of this when the current mower broke down four weeks ago. Despite the hot dry weather, the garden has lost no time reclaiming its natural credentials.
The mower is back now, I have started the process of restoring paths and grass. As quickly as it fell apart, it will come together again.
In the meantime I have enjoyed the change.
12th July 2026
Cyclamen hederifolium .
Hot and dry have characterised the week. Yesterday at last a breeze started to blow and perhaps that is a portent of change to come. Some rain would be very welcome,
as it is I am going to have to fill up water tanks this evening from the mains before the greenhouse fries to a crisp.
Without the mower it has been impossible to maintain the cyclamen border. I mow it in June, use a herbicide while the corms are completely dormant, and wait for the first flowers at the end of July.
Unfortunately the mowing didn't happen. I should have just used the herbicide but there wasn't really time or energy in the heat. As a result the border is going to be a little untidy this year.
The plants have started to flower early so I will live with it. We can call it an example of flexible management.
12th July 2026
Hydrangea macrophylla 'Hortmagreclo' .
Hydrangeas have been out of fashion for as long as I can remember. I don't really understand the start of the collection in the garden. I used to run a small nursery from the site here
and I was always looking for something easy and quick to propagate that sold well. I built up a decent range of hydrangea cultivars. They were deeply unfashionable,
customers would come in, look down their noses and then walk away with three tucked under their arms. Deeply unfashionable but they sell well.
I think it is because in this climate they are very amenable. Like camellias, they just fit in and get on with it.
When I closed the nursery I planted the spare stock around the garden. I can't think of any that have survived since then but I expect there is something I have forgotten.
My first hydrangea revelation came from seeing a selection of pure blue flowered forms shining under the trees in Fox Rosehill garden. I wanted some of that, I planted a blue border of them. It has been magnificent.
Since then I have planted good new ones when I have seen them. Experience has shown that there are some splendid things being produced. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Hortmagreclo' is an example, despite its silly name.
Green flowers and magnificent structure and poise. Hydrangeas are still deeply unfashionable and they still sell really well.
12th July 2026
Watsonia 'August Pink' .
Early summer has changed to late summer over the course of a baking hot week. The Hemerocallis that looked so fresh and bold last week are still producing bright flowers
but they glow like embers from the ashes of the spent stalks and the foliage has started to droop.
In their place the first of the Watsonia have started. I'm not sure how many I have now, they have been slowly shaded out and overgrown, but that is the nature of change in a garden.
I could go out with a slash-and-burn mentality and restore some open space for a while but it seems more sensible to develop with the times, try new things, have new adventures.
Watsonia 'August Pink' burst into flower before I was aware of the spikes emerging. It is blooming a few weeks earlier than usual but making a spectacular show.
Yesterday was too bright and breezy to get a decent picture but I managed this one this morning and it captures the essence of the plant.
I'm not sure what there is to come in the garden before the rains of autumn enliven things. The hydrangeas are starting to droop and the crocosmias are flowering
very fast in the heat. No doubt there will be something and with any luck it will be rain.
To find particular groups of plants I grow, click on the genus name in the table above. Click on the "Index" box at the top of the page for the full list.
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