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JEARRARD'S HERBAL

Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
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... out in the garden.

5th July 2026

Roscoea purpurea rubra .
An overcast, cooler but very heavy week. We have had some showers which have kept the ground moist but no strong rain. Perhaps that would be too much to hope for in July. Walking through the wet grass to get pictures yesterday my boots filled up with water it was so damp.
At first sight little had changed in the garden. Agapanthus are producing flower stems but nothing is flowering yet. The first orange Crocosmia have opened but the labels are now buried so deep in the clumps I have no idea what they are. Some Crocosmia are distinctive, these are not. I keep promising myself that I will throw away all the ordinary ones, but Crocosmia are tenacious and not easily removed.
Only Roscoea purpurea rubra was new, the first two flowers open in the new herbaceous border. Nothing in the greenhouse yet but most of the plants are badly in need of division. There just wasn't time this spring and I think it might be too late now.


5th July 2026

Carmichaelia stevensonii .
This is a horrible picture but it marks the flowering of Carmichaelia stevensonii in the Agave house. It was planted up there decades ago and there is has remained, lurking like a pile of thin twigs assembled by a spider. It is a favourite plant of mine for no very good reason. It gives me a thrill when I see it in a garden and I would plant one outside - I have no idea where in my shady garden - if I could get another. Unfortunately it doesn't root from cuttings and my plant barely flowers and has never produced seed. I had hopes last year but the single pod burst with a little puff of derisory air when I squeezed it a bit.
Hopeless picture or not, this records its flowers and gives me a chance to wallow in irrational joy. It isn't very hardy, it barely flowers and all you can really say of it is that the leafless twigs cascade in a moderately cute fashion, unless the spiders have been in charge.


5th July 2026

Lomatia ferruginea .
I have a long border by the road that I fill with moderate evergreen shrubs, partly for privacy and enclosure, partly to have somewhere to put them. There are a lot of Camellia but for some reason I decided to plant a Lomatia as well. It is a moderately shaded border at the bottom of the slope with a wall that probably traps a certain amount of drainage water. Not ideal conditions for a sun loving Lomatia but as I recall my large shrub was on its last legs - they never get to be very old here - and I wanted another. There was a space.
This one has grown tall, it is leaning a bit and in recent years the foliage has thinned and flowering has been profuse. All signs that is one might also be approaching old age after about 15 years. I would try cutting it back but its a protea at heart and thay don't generally appreciate gardeners who meddle.
If it dies I will look for somewhere to plant another. There are a few sunny gaps now that Storm Goretti has felled trees so there might be somewhere suitable.



5th July 2026

Nymphaea 'Xue Fei' .
Water lilies have been perplexing me this week. In the tub with Nymphaea 'Xue Fei' I had a small white flower appear. It might have been 'Pygmaea Helvola jumped across from the adjoining tub - I have no idea how - or it might have been a stray piece of rhizome in with 'Xue Fei' when I bought it.
It was followed by the large red flower I was expecting which was reassuring.
When I bought 'Xue Fei' from Lincolnshire Pond Plants at Hyde Hall plant fair I was assured that it was one of the best dwarf red cultivars. It's a nice thing, though I would say dark pink, but in their defence they were trying to sell a bit of rhizome in a plastic bag on a hot summer day. I admired their boldness and made allowances for a little hyperbole. Buying plants is more about cheerful hope than jaundiced practicality. That part comes later when you try to work out what to do with some unlikely fragment. Muehlenbeckia plattyclada comes to mind, what am I going to do with that in the winter? A nostalgic purchase, I grew it as a child on a windowsill and I felt like revisiting both the plant and the memory.
When I bought the Nymphaea I didn't even have a tub for it, that cost more than the water lily and I had nowhere sensible to put it.
Gardeners, salt of the earth.


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Acorus Alocasia Anemone Arisaema Arum Asarum Aspidistra Begonia Camellia Cautleya Chlorophytum
Clivia Colocasia Crocosmia Dionaea Disa Drosera Epimedium Eucomis Fuchsia Galanthus Hedychium
Helleborus Hemerocallis Hepatica Hosta Impatiens Iris Liriope Nerine Ophiopogon Pleione Polygonatum
Polypodium Ranunculus ficaria Rhodohypoxis Rohdea Roscoea Sansevieria Sarracenia Scilla Tricyrtis Tulbaghia Watsonia

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.
I have a lot of good intentions when it comes to updating this site, and I try to keep a note about what is going on, if you are interested.
If you want to contact me, the address is incompetentjohnMONKEYjohnjearrard.co.uk
When typing the address in, please replace MONKEY with the more traditional @ symbol! I apologise for the tiresome performance involved, but I am getting too much spam from automated systems as a result of having an address on the front page.
Perhaps my MONKEY will fool them.

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