JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
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... out in the garden.
2nd January 2011
Hamamelis mollis .
The big freeze of December has finally lifted and the garden has been basking in the warmth of seasonal average temperatures, which has been a great relief.
Early spring plants that have been delayed by the freeze have made great strides forward in the last few days and if it lasts a few more then there will be
a carpet of bloom across the garden (a rather threadbare carpet, but I won't complain).
For another week I have escaped showing pictures of sturdy evergreens, though I was tempted to show a very relieved Wollemia. It has enjoyed the rise
in temperatures, but it is especially happy that the season when I might drape it in pink fairy lights has passed!
This Hamamelis grows next to the Wollemia and produced a couple of flowers before the freeze but is now doing it with enthusiasm. I
can't say I noticed any scent but it is nice to have some colour.
2nd January 2011
Camellia 'Snow Flurry' .
This Camellia also managed an odd flower as the first autumn snow fell, and I thought all the buds had been blasted by the weather, but
it has managed to open another. A number of plants went into the garden last year that have changed the usual order of spring. My first Camellia
has always been 'Show Girl' but the buds are barely swelling as 'Snow Flurry' comes to an end.
A few more Camellia sasangua forms were planted out last year as well, with the hope of autumn flowers, but the young plants were overgrown with
weeds during summer and they haven't shown any enthusiasm for flowering though hopefully those that survive will do better next year.
2nd January 2011
Cyclamen coum
This pretty Turkish Cyclamen has always been a reliable performer in January. This one is growing in a pot in the greenhouse and I would have
expected the first flowers at the start of December. During the freeze I went poking around in the snow to find the leaves of the plants outside, but
there was nothing. The first leaves appeared at the end of last week, and today I found the first buds. They will be a much stronger colour than this
poor pot bound knobbly old corm can manage and I should really plant it out - but then I would have no flowers to show.
It was kept indoors to produce seed so that I could have plenty more for the garden, but somehow I never get around to sowing it
and it might be easier to just admit my lethargy and buy a few more.
I don't suffer from the strange insanity that often affects Cyclamen
growers and leaves them yearning for pink reflexed petals all through the summer. I have always blamed the Vine Weevil. The larvae tunnel up the poor growers
stems and eat out their brains. Too much ginger in my blood I think.
2nd January 2011
Ipheion uniflorum 'Froyle Mill'.
The Ipheion in the greenhouse were the first things to signal the distant vista of spring. Sometime back in November when I was weeding among
the empty pots all promising invisible bulbs, I stumbled across the lush new oniony foliage of the Ipheion. Nestling among the leaves were the first buds
and the warm spell has pushed them into flower.
This is a rather dull and pale example. I'm not sure if the colour requires more light or more heat to develop properly. In March this will be a deluge of
saturated purple. This isn't March, this isn't a deluge and this isn't purple.
Fortunately I planted 'Wisley Blue' outside, and it won't be showing for weeks yet.
I'm not sure how that one could possibly get duller or paler and I'm happy not to watch it try.
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