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 August 2010
Magnolia sieboldii .
A hot week that has felt wet, but there hasn't actually been much rain so a few things in pots have needed more water than they got.
It is a quiet time in the garden, all the spring flowers are over and I have been enjoying other peoples Eucryphia in flower
and wondering why I don't have more (the perfect choice to replace some of the unwanted Field Maples). This Magnolia was a surprise -
I might easily have overlooked it but I am working on the border immediately underneath it and it is quite powerfully scented.
I seem to have as many flowers now as I had in spring. Perhaps the long dry spring inspired it to produce a second flush of buds,
ot perhaps it is one of those species that always sputter on through the summer. More Magnolia should also go on the list.
I planted a second one of these in spring, but now I am looking for a place to plant a grove.
8th August 2010
Anemone x hybrida .
Last week I had no Cyclamen, this week I have a dozen or so, with the promise of hundreds. I went out with the camera just to get a picture
and discovered that on a sunny day in the middle of august there is not enough light under the tree canopy for the camera to work without a flash.
I had been meaning to thin out some of the branches, and it is clearly time.
The Anemone was an unexpected reminder of autumn. I have seen them about in nurseries, but I had forgotten these ones, planted among the
Hellebores to extend the season of interest. It seemed like a good idea at the time. In theory I can mow the whole bed in October when the
Anemone finish flowering without doing any harm, and clear the ground before the Hellebore flowers start to emerge. It's a theory.
I planted three, but so far I can only see one, so they may not approve of the mowing!
8th August 2010
Crinum x powellii 'Album' .
A sensational bulb, the white form has much better shaped flowers than my pink one, but they are both excellent at the moment, and doing much
better now they are out of pots. My pink ones came from a garden in Sussex (thank you Irene) where the great clumps marched in ranks down the
garden like Burnham Woods. The owner said I could have as many as I wanted to dig. I managed five bulbs - they went down eighteen inches
through solid clay. I can be quite determined, but as I was slowly coated in thick grey mud I finally had to admit defeat. I could have had
them marching in their hundreds along the herbaceous border, but at an hour per bulb, I would still be excavating.
The white one I bought from Bob Brown. Much more sensible.
8th August 2010
Platycodon grandiflorus 'Astra'.
I'm not a great lover of campanula-purple. It is a very long reminiscence about my grandmother (if I can have a reminiscence about someone
who was dead before I was born?) Fortunately it isn't relevant because I do like Platycodon. I grew it as a teenager when anything
that sounded greek was exotic and alluring. Over the years it has come and gone a few times, but a brush with a magnificent clump at Kew in
July inspired me to try again. This is a pink version of 'Astra', which is a stunted little pot plant strain, but I think it is lovely.
I have had it for two days, and I wouldn't normally show a newcomer on this page but slugs and rabbits both like it as much as I do.
I planted it on friday night and I wasn't expecting to see it on saturday morning, but it's still with me.
It is possible that planting it in a bucket of sand has temporarily confused the slugs, and the rabbits are clearly occupied
reducing my Phlox to stumps. Unfortunately, that job is now almost complete so they will be looking for employment elsewhere...
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.
If you want to contact me, the address is infoMONKEYjohnjearrard.co.uk
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.