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.
28th February 2010
Hamamelis x intermedia 'Orange Beauty' .
The Hamamelis have spent the last few weeks slowly building to a crescendo, and although my plants are all quite small, there is already
a fair bit of flower power on show. I bought this on a whim last year, even though I think the orange forms are usually rather dull, but this one has large flowers
with a good yellow colour, the red tinge is confined to the calyx. I am expecting it to produce a couple of vigorous shoots this year
and I think there is a fair chance it will not flower for a while on the new growth, but it will be movement in the right direction. However lovely it is,
it will not make much of a windbreak at 45cm tall.
28th February 2010
Narcissus asturiensis Van Tubergen Clone .
A delightful little daffodil - I grew a great potful of it many years ago but eventually it waned . I was delighted to get hold of a small bulb last year.
I think this is the same clone and although it will be slow to increase, it is well worth the wait.
The tiny flowers are about 2cm long, although in every other respect it is a perfect trumpet daffodil, it is originally from the mountains of northen Spain.
In the local gardens there are very few daffodils on show, even 'February Gold' is still just february sticks, though they will open very shortly.
'Rijnvelds Early Sensation' has reached the peak of its display now. A few days more and the old flowers will start to outnumber the new
and I will have to dead-head the meadow or live with the tattiness.
28th February 2010
Pieris japonica .
I have been under the impression that the season has been slow to get going so I was surprised to find that a number of the Pieris have started to flower.
I usually expect Pieris japonica to be among the last to flower, but there are two forms open now. This is a fairly typical
representative of the species, I also have one of the forms with red tips to the flowers, but I have forgotten the name and I was too cold to fossick around
looking for a scarcely legible label, so it doesn't appear here!
28th February 2010
Galanthus 'Atkinsii' variegated .
I grow a number of variegated plants and have sought them out over the years. They are not always beautiful but they are always interesting.
Snowdrops, however, always seem perfect in their own right, so I have not particularly tracked them down. Fate, however, seems to have had other plans for me.
As a teenager I found a couple of variegated forms of G.elwesii with thick white slashes through the leaves. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I remain undecided)
these variegations are notoriously unstable, and they did not regrow the following year.
More recently I had a plant of G.woronowii with broad gold leaves and a narrow central patch of green, which may have been infected with virus,
or it may have been variegated. After two years of multicoloured perfection it has divided this year, and both shoots are green, so I think its glory has faded.
While poking around in a batch of G. 'Atkinsii' at a nursery last year I saw one with a pale stripe through the leaf and brought it home with me.
This year it has confirmed my view that it is variegated. The new shoots are all slightly different, but all with yellow-cream stripes through the length of the leaf.
The pattern is typical of the Amaryllidaceae and will probably be inherited by its seedlings (something I have yet to master with the snowdrops) and if enough of
the shoots are sufficiently variegated, it will be a good plant.
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.
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about what is going on, if you are interested.
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