JEARRARD'S HERBAL
8th September 2019
Hibiscus syriacus 'Notwoodtwo' WHITE CHIFFON
I wilt in the sun, so my experience of summer is characterised by flashes of illumination followed by a rapid scurrying for the shade. It all becomes rather frantic.
I can understand the idle joy of those people who smother themselves in lotions and lie motionless in the sunshine for untold hours. I don't think it is a good idea, and I certainly couldn't do it,
but I can understand it. The clear sunshine in September can be a revelation. No squinting, no suffering, just the wonder of the moment.
Hibiscus syriacus has been waiting for such a moment. There is a trial of them running at Wisley at the moment showing their many delights. They don't have the colour range of
H. rosa-sinensis but they are just as delightful. Modern selections have larger flowers and cleaner colours. As with H. rosa-sinensis there have also been some
real howlers introduced. The clientelle at Wisley are far too polite to stand in the rows roaring with laughter but if you need cheering up you could do worse than visit the doubles,
and then see where the fancy takes you.
The species does well with a hot summer, and I can't supply that, so 'Notwoodtwo' was unlikely to do well here. It survives and by the end of summer it has a jolly good go at flowering.
Well done, eh.
8th September 2019
Nerine masoniorum
Nerine masoniorum suffers from exactly the opposite problem at my hands. It is an evergreen species, it doesn't like to be dried off too much in the summer, and yet
I grow it in the Nerine house where it will inevitably be forced into a grudging dormancy. There is something about having a Nerine House that leaves me feeling obliged to grow
all of the Nerine in there despite knowing that some of them would be better elsewhere. I tried in my little alpine house and it loved it.
Unfortunately I couldn't cope with the idea. It had to be moved back to its nominal home.
In a big pot it tolerates the seasonal summer drought that the other species delight in. It responds the the first watering in late summer by throwing up a mass of flower stems
that will be followed by the round, maroon seeds. It hasn't started to invade the other pots yet but I wouldn't mind if it did. There are a number of other small bulbs that
are spreading through the Nerine. I tolerate them, they add interest to the collection out of season. My best clump of snowdrops in the garden comes up in a pot of
N. sarniensis. I don't know how it got there, I was probably recycling old compost, but it is harmless and welcome in the spring as the Nerine give up for the year.
8th September 2019
Hedychium 'C. P. Raffill'.
Both life and September have moments of icy showers. There is one going on at the moment. I went to the door, looked at the rain falling and decided against going out in it.
The Hedychium here have experienced both sorts. The large leaves are glistening with silver droplets, I can see them as I look out of the door. They are also starting to feel my age.
There was a time when I could move the pots around on a whim. Line them all here, move them all there, whatever I fancied. Now I look at them and wonder if they wouldn't be
better left exactly where they are. Wherever there is least carrying involved.
They have to go out into the garden, they are far better out there, they love the rain and the moisture and I would love the space back in the greenhouse. All those good reasons,
but I still have to move them. It will all happen, eventually.
'C. P. Raffill' has prospered since it was moved out. In the greenhouse I would have said that it was indistinguishable from 'Tara' but growing in the ground it is clearly shorter, paler,
and flowering a week later.
8th September 2019
Colchicum agrippinum .
The temperature has dropped, the rain has moistened the ground and I still haven't mowed under the trees. In a few weeks time the Colchicum will appear and I like the
ground to be clear for them. This is a critical year for the 'Waterlily' that I planted three years ago. In the first year they were magnificent, the waiting flowers burst
from the buds almost as soon as they were planted. In the second year flowering was reduced. I have put that down to the time it takes for the corms to establish and get a good growing season.
This is the third year. If I have more flowers then the experiment under the trees has worked. If I have less, then I need to rethink what I am doing. Thinning the trees will be the first
modification to try, removing anything spindly and anything too thuggish. The Colchicum 'Waterlily' are about to flower, and once they are done I will have a month
to work on the trees before the snowdrops appear.
I know the 'Waterlily' are on their way because C. agrippinum has flowered. Last week there was no sign, I even sprayed its bed with a herbicide, forgetting that it was there.
Suddenly I have a cluster of flowers, a pinkish splash on the ground that I took for wind-blown litter from a distance. The flowers are small and rather ragged in appearance.
I look the same in my gardening clothes, a pile of wind-blown litter from a distance. Perhaps I should abandon my usual dull green in favour of pink checked shirts. Add a little
panache to my shambling practicality.