Jearrard's Herbal

JEARRARD'S HERBAL


Disa Trevarth clone.4	Disa Trevarth clone.3	Disa Trevarth clone.12	Disa Trevarth clone.7	Disa Trevarth clone.21
4th July 2021 Disa Trevarth . It has been an exhausting week, the temperature has been high and the humidity has made the garden a sweaty place to work. A short nap around lunchtime has never seemed so appealing. A series of showers cooled the garden while they were falling but we really needed a good thunderstorm. It was promised but it didn't arrive, the clouds passed overhead as gently as sheep in a pasture. The Disa are flowering well in the greenhouse, it is time to start pollinating this years hybrids but I have been struggling to work out what I am doing. In frustration last week I set about giving all of the seedlings a clone number so that I could identify them. The next step is to pick out the best of them for further assessment. I have a feeling that once the good ones are together in a group it will be easier to see a way forward. Disa Trevarth exemplifies the problem. A handful flowered last year, enough to see that there were going to be some interesting plants. Almnost all of them have flowered this year and almost all of them are interesting. My task for this afternoon is to pick out the best and put them to one side. I might have a cup of coffee first to aid my ruthlessness.

Arisaema candidissimum

4th July 2021

Arisaema candidissimum .
During the spring I planted a new border through the garden. Preparing the space had happened in bursts over the previous two years but as the end came into sight, progress speeded up. Finally I was left with a space in the shade to plant things. It was surprising how much I found in the greenhouse that needed a shady space in the garden. I had a vague plan, but in the end plants tumbled out of the greenhouse and into the ground during April in a rush of planting while the ground was still moist. A certain amount of disorder crept in but I managed to get a lot of things in the ground before the drought of May took hold.
Most importantly, I found space for the Arisaema and many of the other tuberous aroids. They had been planted in tubs in the greenhouse for years and although they could have been described as growing at the start of that period, they were only just surviving when they were finally planted out. I wasn't expecting very much from them this year, a leaf or two and the suggestion of recovery would have been ample, however Arisaema candidissimum has produced a flower.
I may well have got it wrong, the new location might not suit them, a thousand things (not least a plague of deer in the garden) could scupper my plans but a problem group in the greenhouse has been given a fighting chance in the garden.

Drosera cuneifolia

4th July 2021

Drosera cuneifolia .
Gardens accumulate jobs like cowebs in a hallway. They just arrive, unnoticed and slowly increase until the space is cluttered. At least that is how things happen in my garden (and I'm not going to mention my hallway). They are all small jobs but they build in unstable layers until it is difficult to see where to start without the whole thing slipping into chaos. New planting opportunities in the garden gave me space to move in the greenhouse and once freed from gridlock, a number of problems have been solved.
One of the issues over the last year has been the sundews. I have a little problem with Drosera binata. It exists in a number of forms, all hardy in the greenhouse. It is probably the largest and stickiest of the Drosera species. It should be a magnificent thing, and from time to time it is. Every now and then I see one growing well and marvel at the cultivators skill and the quality of the clone. Often I beg a bit from the grower and I don't think I have ever been refused. People are surprisingly keen to get rid of spare pieces. There should be a warning in that and I know it, I'm just not very good at heeding it. The greenhouse is alive with unwanted seedlings.
Yesterday evening I had a moment of clarity. All of the wretched parent plants were dumped onto the compost heap, a moment that I will relish for some time. Eventually I will weed out their seedlings and get the problem under control. It feels like a liberation.
Drosera cuneifolia remains, it barely seeds about and has nice flowers. Is that too much to ask of the genus? All the other sundews have gone, my patience ran out.

4th July 2021

Iris x pseudata 'Aichi No Kagayaki' .
I have a much more complex interaction with Iris 'Aichi No Kagayaki. It is a beautiful thing and a wonder of perfect detail. It exists like a stone statue on a plinth, admired and outstanding but somehow looking down on you with cold eyes.
It is a hybrid between I. pseudacous and the Japanese I.ensata and a number of "pseudata" hybrids have been produced. I only have this one, I am a little frightened of them.
The two parents are not particularly compatible and 'Aichi No Kagayaki' treads the line between blunt thuggishness and Japanese precision with chilling self assurance. Clearing space in the garden and greenhouse means that I have finally got around to the Iris bed, overgrown and in need of attention. I don't know what to do. I have been putting off action for six months now in the hope that an answer will emerge. Now that it is flowering, nothing will happen until the autumn. 'Aichi No Kagayaki' sidles up to me affectionately while laughing triumphantly at my weakness. Our interactions are complex.
However I have Disa to play with, the tumbling puppy-dogs of delight. They are beautiful and straightforward, whatever happens they will be excited about it. I will stand back from the inscrutble Iris and return to them in the mournful calm of autumn.