JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
To navigate this site use the links above or the detailed links at the bottom of this page.
... out in the garden.
22nd June 2025
Digitalis purpurea .
The garden is still moist, the grass is still growing but after a brief respite the vision of dryness is slowly emerging again like a spectre from the morning mist.
I think it will probably rain again before long but the forecast is an unreliable prophet. It feels like rain and, despite the dire warning of the prophets,
it doesn't feel like thunder.
The garden is burgeoning but there is an elephant (not) on the page this week and that elephant is Puya. The first two species are in flower
(P. assurgens and P. spathacea), P.chilensis scratched me savagely as I tried to free it from weeds (naughty elephant)
and I moved the pot of P. raimondii to give it more space. In return it spiked my hands in triangular spines. The last one went into my little finger and defied removal.
It has just festered into a boil, burst and been expelled. They are the elephant in the garden and I'm not going to indulge them this week.
Instead, I am going to be perturbed by Digitalis purpurea. I like it but I don't really want it. The secret is to spent and hour or two going around and removing them
once the first flush of flowering has matured. Pull them out and leave them to wilt before the seed sets. That is probably the most important job for next week.
22nd June 2025
Iris ensata .
The week has been dominated by plants that perform well. Like the Digitalis, they may not make headline acts but their contribution is
significant.
Iris ensata is a lovely thing. I have spent twenty years growing them and trying to sort out their names. A few years ago I took a step back
from the chaos to allow the shreds of understanding that I had gleaned to settle into something more solid. When I came back to it, all pretence to understanding had dissipated.
I planted them all out and wished them well in obscure anonymity. Finally, free from the constraints of prissy horticulture, they are showing their quality.
I think this is probably 'Ruby King' but I don't care and it doesn't matter. I planted it in the new herbaceous border, not expecting to see it again. That border has an uncompromising
management regime, a big clumpy Iris seemed unlikely to survive.
I was wrong, it has proved its worth. I'm still not going to do it any special favours. Mow the border in November, kill everything green with a herbicide in January,
leave it to get on with it for the next 10 months. Iris ensata has been an unexpected and welcome survivor.
22nd June 2025
Hypericum 'Allmadne' MIRACLE NIGHT.
Most of the really reliable plants are old friends. There is a reason that some very old cultivars persist in gardens, they are good.
Sometimes when I see collections that conserve feeble old things I wonder why? We can't conserve it all, shouldn't we focus on keeping the successes
and shouldn't we judge success by the ability to survive? That is to say, shouldn't we let gardens decide which cultivars should be conserved for gardens?
That said, I am a supporter of Plant Heritage, chairman of the local group until recently, and grower of an excess of historical daylilies. I am just concerned that
a fixation on the old blinds us to the new.
Among new things there is a of of old tat. Things that will be stars of the garden centres for a few months and then never seen again. Just occasionally there is a genuine wonder.
Hypericum 'Allmadne' is one such. These Hypericum hybrids have arrived with seemingly endless variation on the theme of yellow flowers followed by ornamental fruits.
I am told that the florist trade like them. I have no time for them myself, they are dull and potentially weedy.
H. 'Allmadne' is the exception. It is the one that stands out and suddenly says something new and significant. Good purple foliage through most of the year and
soft orange flowers through the summer. In future times we will say 'Allmadne', that was what all the Hypericum craziness was about.
22nd June 2025
Hosta 'Frances Williams'.
The genus Hosta has erupted in a slug-strewn volcano of decorative promise in the last few decades. I tried to keep up but every year seems to produce a
new crop of slug-salad, in the end I planted them all out in a garden banquet.
That is when their real quality started to show. H. 'Frances Williams has been magnificent in the new herbaceous border. I planted two more this spring to keep her
company. She s a very old cultivar but she has survived. Still going strong, still looking good.
H. 'Guacamole' is performing well beside her. Down in the herbaceous border, 'Sum and Substance' and 'Robert Frost'
have earned their place. I am just about to plant 'Blue Cadet', parent of the astonishing 'Blue Mouse Ears'. Time will be the final judge
but I think these will all deserve a place in gardens to come.
Meantime the summer solstice has passed, it's all downhill from here to winter! I'm not bothered, next week is looking good, the pustulous boil is healing.
I might even find space for the elephant.
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.
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