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.
4th January 2009
Camellia 'Show Girl' .
All around the garden there are buds swelling, but as usual Camellia 'Show Girl' is the first to open. I think of it as the first Camellia
of spring. Much as I love the Camellia saluensis forms, they come in autumn when it is still warm, and serve as a warning that winter will shortly
be arriving. This is a hybrid between C.reticulata and C.saluensis, which accounts for its early appearance, but with snowdrops and daffodils in flower
, it is certainly the start of spring.
Although it is a rather loud colour, it is welcome when there is so little in flower, and I find it very reassuring.
I am no longer the only fat pink thing in the garden!
4th January 2009
Cyclamen coum .
This has been in flower in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks, and looking really fabulous, but the plants in the garden have just started. They grow in a patch under
an old sycamore and have grown into much larger plants than they do in pots.
Outside, I prefer these blood-curdling colours to the paler pink and white forms.
There is something very opulent about the deep magenta blooms pushing up through the fallen leaves, which the paler forms just can't match.
4th January 2009
Cyclamen alpinum .
In the greenhouse, Cyclamen alpinum has started. It used to be part of the great Cyclamen coum family and has flirted on and off with the name trochopteranthum,
but it seems to have settled down here.
Distinctive splayed petals show off the colour well. I want a group of them in the garden, and got as far as pollinating the parent plants in pots,
but then forgot to collect the seed, so I'll have another try this year.
4th January 2009
Helleborus x hybridus .
It has been cold and windy for the last fortnight, and I have been up among the Hellebores, improving the beds. In this case that means removing some large pine trees
that are drying the soil and creating too much shade. I am hoping that when I am finished I can add some Magnolia as a deciduous canopy over the top, and get
twice the flower power. A bit of a rush at the moment - some of the trees have to fall on the Hellebore beds as trhey come down, and I'm trying to get it done before
too many of them start to grow.
This pale pink seedling has opened in the last couple of days and managd to dodge the falling timber!
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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