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 February 2009
Clivia miniata 'White Lips' .
In spite of appearances, it has been a week of snowdrops and hellebores. The sun has come out, and both have reached a peak of perfection
(well, the snowdrops have hit the peak, I am hoping that the hellebores will get there next week). Last week I followed a somewhat circuitous
route looking at hellebores, and I ended up at Wisley (though if I am being literal, and I rarely stoop that low, I followed the M4 which is not really circuitous).
While I was at Wisley, I bought a new Clivia. I have seen the 'White Lips' seedlings for sale from a Belgian grower, but this is the
first time I have seen them for sale in the UK. This is the largest flowered one I have seen, and one of the most striking. I am not sure
that I like the pattern, but it is certainly distinctive.
22nd February 2009
Eranthis hyemalis pale flowers. .
Yesterday I was determined to enjoy the sunny weather and go out and enjoy some snowdrops, so I went up the the Garden House near Tavistock. The snowdrops were
magnificent - I was lucky with the weather and the season. I could show some splendid pictures here, but so far I don't have names for any of them. To be fair,
I don't have a name for this Eranthis either, but it was such a beautiful thing that it deserves a picture. I have tried time and again to establish
Eranthis hyemalis in the garden here, and seeing them growing in the open at the Garden House made me think that I am keeping them a little too shaded
and woodlandy. This year I will try some where they are in the sun in springtime.
All that aside, I won't be trying this pale form until I can keep the normal yellow one alive. I haven't yet sorted out a name for it, but I am leaning towards
'Schwelefglanz' (a fairly new German cultivar) through it could be 'Pauline' or 'Zitronenfalter'.
22nd February 2009
Crocus tommasinianus .
Among the snowdrops in the woodland I have a few pale lilac spears of Crocus tommasinianus poking up through a ghround cover of Ivy. I am trying to copy
the carpets of lilac under the trees when I was a student. Twenty five years later I still have a few scrawny clumps of bulbs under the trees.
I spent the morning yesterday at the Garden House looking at Snowdrops, and then though I would move on the Rosemoor to see the Hellebores! The Winter
Walk has definitely become a spring walk and flowers are bursting out all over. These Crocus tommasinianus are exactly the effect I have been trying to achieve
. Rosemoor have succeeded and I have failed. In the face of these flowers the only adjective that describes my failure is dismal! I had already decided to take out
a rather cramped fastigiate Hornbeam from the woodland, and if I do it will let a lot more light fall on the Crocus, which should help.
22nd February 2009
Romulea bulbocodium leichtlinii .
Nice to get back to my own garden. The Romulea have been producing extremely dull grassy leaves all winter, but in the last couple of weeks
there have been little knobbly buds forming in seemingly incomprehensible locations among them. Suddenly they have burst open. This has been the first to flower,
but there will be a selection of white, blue, yellow and purple forms to follow (and possibly red if my seedlings are true to name). There will also be a selection of
species that I have never seen flower before (the joy of growing them from seed). Some will be weedy, some will be ugly but with luck one or two will be delightful
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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