JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
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... out in the garden.
26th September 2010
Hedychium 'Tai Pink Princess' .
It seems to have been a week of rushing frantically from one place to another cramming in the sort of cultural delights that are reserved for the middle aged in autumn.
Meantime, the garden hits a peak, and I still haven't mowed the meadow that the daffodils will shortly appear in. I still haven't removed the felled
tree trunks that landed on the grass in the meadow that I still haven't mowed that the daffodils will shortly appear in. It has been busy.
In the greenhouse, this Hedychium was in flower before I realised it was in bud. It is one of a number of hybrids raised by Doyle Smittle. I have always assumed
that they were hybrids between H.coronarium and H.gardnerianum with some H.coccineum and H.maximum thrown in
for the laughs, but I have never seen the parentage confirmed. This one clearly has H.coccineum in there somewhere. It is the only one of the pink hybrids he raised that flowers here,
so I assume H.coronarium plays a big part as well - in the last 20 years I have flowered it once!
The creamy yellow ones all flower easily enough. They are generally taller than 'Devon Cream' but otherwise cast from the same mould.
26th September 2010
Nerine 'Canasta'.
It's Nerine season. I don't have to sit around watching the autumn colour fail to appear and telling myself how lovely and mellow it all is,
I can sit in the greenhouse amid the reckless colour of bulbs that cook in the late sun like pensioners in Florida.
I can tell you nothing about 'Canasta' beyond what you can see. I got it from Bob Brown, and he describes it is 'easy'. I don't think he was talking about the pensioners,
but you never can tell.
26th September 2010
Geranium procurrens and Senecio jacobaea.
If I was in the mood I would have taken credit for the less than subtle interplay of colours here, but I'm not. It was an accident.
I stop and look at this combination every time I pass but my mind isn't occupied with the higher aesthetic issues. I am wondering what I will have to do to kill them both.
The Geranium has survived repeated spraying with herbicide, and excavation of the front garden to a depth of 10 inches to level the site. In the spring I had a short section of runner
appear, and now it is back attempting world domination. Whatever I do, it must be soon. It's a pretty plant, don't buy it.
The Senecio is a bit easier. I pull it up before it seeds, and the population is reducing slowly. Horse owners hate it because of its reputation for killing their pets
but horses aren't stupid enough to eat it in the field. It is only if we cut and dry it for them as hay, and then serve it up in a nice warm stable that they mistake it for
edible and get poisoned. Who make's hay these days, even when the sun shines? (Pensioners in Florida, I hear you mutter!)
26th September 2010
Salvia elegans 'Golden Delicious'.
Salvia elegans is a lovely plant. It would be nice if it was a little hardier, but you can't have everything. 'Pineapple Sage' is a little overly optimistic,
but 'Fruity Sage' would be perfectly reasonable. I bought the golden leaved form last year, the idea of large lush golden leaves and magenta flowers
was just too wonderful to ignore. Unfortunately I kept it in a pot through winter and killed it (it might have made it in the ground). This spring I
replaced it, and then through the summer I have watched it in a series of other gardens looking woefully dull. The only good ones I have seen were in a greenhouse.
I was delighted to find that mine was doing a bit better and almost looking lush and leafy. Now for the magenta flowers part of the deal. There's still time for some late summer warmth.
There's still time, and I'm going to hang on in there till it comes!
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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