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JEARRARD'S HERBAL


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

A great week, the weather has moderated and everybody is settling into the groove of autumn (I am so trendy - makes me want to say "Yo!"). Fitted a window into the space in the Hedychium house designed for a window and then immediately closed it to catch the last of the heat. It is smelling fantastic out there - pity you can't share!
Spent some time fighting with the weeds and then started to dismantle a ramp I built in spring to get the lawnmower up into the front garden - and so that I can get a JCB through to the back garden. It took weeks to build and I wrecked it in about 24 hours, but it will save time in the long run.
It has been a week for delightful oddities, so here they are...

16th September 2007

Kaempferia rotunda .
There has been plenty of recent comment among the exotica cogniscenti about the supposed hardiness of Kaempferia rotunda but I am afraid it is all just hogwash. The problem is not so much the damage that they sustain through the winter (although there is plenty of damage) but the time they take to start into growth again the following year. These flowers have just opened and are the first signs of growth. The leaves will follow, probably in October, and then they have a full seasons growth to fit in before winter. There just isn't enough time (I know the feeling). These flowers are nice enough but the plants are coming in and being kept as warm as I can through the winter.


12th September 2007

Roscoea debilis .
The Roscoea season has passed its peak, but there are still a few good things coming along. This came to me as R.blanda , but I think it is R.debilis. Rather a splendid plant, with a decent number of flowersd open at one time - and I am still waiting for the white R.purpurea to show a bud!


14th September 2007

Chlorophytum (krookianum x comosum) .
A couple of years ago I started growing the hardy C.krookianum and before very long I started to pollinate flowers with the common Spider Plant. I have a selection of hybrid seedlings with various intermediate characteristics, I think they are all interesting, in a visually dull sort of way. I am still waiting to see how hardy they are and if there is any point to them.


16th September 2007

Pecteilis radiata .
When I first started trying to grow this little charmer I was fourteen and it was still called Habenaria radiata. Some things change. Back then, bulb merchants were importing the dried rootstocks from mJapan and saelling them off cheaply. I doubt that many survived. Certainly mine never did. Some things don't change so much. I still have problems growing it and this nis the first time it has ever flowered. It isn't talent I'm afraid, it is sheer pig-headedness. I think I have sorted out what it really requires, in spite of all the published fiction, but I may just be talking out of my ... well lets just say that pigs have one of those as well at the other end! (How did I manage to get from delightful Japanese orchids to pigs arses? It has been a strange week).


Acorus Alocasia Anemone Arisaema Arum Asarum Aspidistra Begonia Bromeliads Camellia
Carnivorous Cautleya Chirita Chlorophytum Clivia Colocasia Crocosmia Dionaea Drosera Epimedium
Eucomis Fuchsia Galanthus Hedychium Helleborus Hemerocallis Hepatica Hosta Impatiens Iris
Liriope Ophiopogon Pinguicula Polygonatum Ranunculus ficaria Rhodohypoxis Rohdea Roscoea Sansevieria Sarracenia
Scilla Sempervivum Tricyrtis Tulbaghia Utricularia Viola odorata 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.
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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.