JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
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... out in the garden.
12th December 2010
Pansies .
Last weeks snow melted as expected and then we had a series of clear nights and sharp radiation frosts which have caused some damage in the garden
(not to mention the house, where pipes have frozen again). These winter pansies are sitting by the front door, and doing their cheerful thing. There isn't a lot in flower in the garden,
so it is good to have something large flowered and exuberant. They get a bit droopy when there is a heavy freeze, but they bounce back.
I don't very often grow annuals, but I have had pansies all year and they have been a great success.
It is also good to have something to photograph with pale flowers. Light levels are shockingly low now in the run up to the winter solstice and it will be good
to get into the new year when focus will be a little more forgiving!
12th December 2010
Hepatica nobilis var japonica 'Hakurin' .
This Hepatica has been struggling to open fully in the cold for a couple of weeks, and I think this is as good as it is going to get. Plants growing outside are looking much healthier,
but not producing any flowers yet. Those still in the greenhouse will go out as soon as time permits (and the dumper truck has been mended and the fallen timber cleared
and the pipes mended and you know how it goes. We will get there, possibly not at the optimum time, but eventually).
Most of the plants still in pots are dormant, but there are odd signs of growth about the place. If the festive period is mild I will give them all a
thorough soaking and they will be ready to go in January.
12th December 2010
Ranunculus ficaria
Most of the Celandines are in pots - I planted a few of them out last spring, and more will go out this year, but most are in the greenhouse. Nothing much
showing above the ground outside, but in the greenhouse most of them have leaves. They will also burst into life when they get a good soaking, but
I have this odd flower already and spring should be magnificent. The plan is to get them all out into the woodland borders and then to use the space in
the greenhouse for the burgeoning Nerine collection.
This one has rather striking green reverses to the tepals but it will be heading to the compost heap when the spring comes - there are already far
too many single yellow flowered Celandines. If I am going to make space for another it will have to be quite exceptional (and this one isn't).
12th December 2010
Disa bivalvata
The greenhouses are draped with fleece and black plastic to keep the worst of the frost from the plants and it has been reasonably successful so far.
The weather has been very severe very early in the season so the rest of the winter will probably be challenging.
For the most part the Disa are surviving but this has been the first of the major casualties.
I bought it last winter, still in a sterile flask. It adapted well to life in the greenhouse and being moved into compost.
In September it started to produce a flower spike and I have been watching it with growing excitement for the last few weeks. Unfortunately
it has become clear that it is not frost tolerant.
I doubt it has enough growth below ground to try a comeback and I
think it is unlikely that I will be able to locate another. Unfortunately, for Disa bivalvata the fat lady has sung!
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