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.
8th June 2008
Disa aurata .
I was delighted to find this in flower this morning. A terrestrial South African species with small but perfectly formed yellow flowers.
I was cheerfully lying in the bath this evening , looking back at the day and enjoying the orchids when I was rather shocked to realise
that I was growing orchids again, and there are probably a couple of dozen species around the place. Now, I last grew orchids before puberty,
and I pretty much stopped when my testicles dropped and I found better things to do. I was lying in the bath pondering this curious quirk of fate
and wondering why I stopped chasing orchids once I started chasing people when a second bombshell hit me, and I realised I have never met
an attractive orchid grower, and that was why I shunned them at puberty!
They vary from perfectly ordinary to dropped straight out if the ugly tree. I don't recall ever meeting an attractive one, and bugger it, I've joined them!
8th June 2008
Arisaema erubescens .
Grown from seed I sowed in 2004. This is the second year of flowering and they are getting better all the time. It seems unlikely that
it is actually A.erubescens, it looks more like A.ciliatum but I'm not going to quibble over identity! I'm still trying to
find a way of producing moist shaded conditions in the greenhouse - I keep drying them out too much, but I will get there in the end!
8th June 2008
Ixia viridiflora .
A wonderful pale turquoise flowered bulb from South Africa. The colour isn't produced by a pigment, but by refraction of light from the
cell walls, so it can be a little fickle. The best forms have bright greenish flowers, but mine seems to be rather pale.
It may be genetic variation, but it is more likely to be growing conditions (I have it in a lightly shaded greenhouse). Even in
South Africa they recommend growing it in pots, although in their case it is to stop the corms being eaten by porcupines!
Easily grown from seed, but it is becoming quite rare in the wild so it is important to keep stocks going in cultivation.
8th June 2008
Oxalis laciniata .
Another one like the Ixia that could be bluer than this example, but in this case from the 'gaucho' end of South America. All of
them are pretty, they have little scaley rhizomes that creep about at the surface of the compost, and need to be rather dry through the winter.
I am still looking around for a good blue flowered stock. I may even have to grow some from seed!
In the rest of the garden it has been hot. The assorted ginger species are starting to grow and there isn't enough time to get everything done!
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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