JEARRARD'S HERBAL
12th September 2021
Colchicum x agrippinum .
Autumn is hanging in the air like the promise of Monday morning. Somewhere there has been thunder and lightning - it didn't happen here. The first sign of rain
was the forecast of light showers that didn't appear. The following day we had a couple of hours of light drizzle that had slipped under the radar. It all
helped, the garden isn't dust dry anymore. It isn't moist but it has saved plants from wilting.
At the end of August I cut down some trees in the top woodland. I needed to let more light in and the trees were sucking all of the moisture out of the ground
in spring. I finally cleared the last of the debris on Friday night ready for the appearance of the Colchicum at the start of October. I hope.
No sign of buds yet, I was a little concerned that they would appear in a rush, after the drizzle, while there were cut branches all over the ground.
Colchicum x agrippinum is the first to appear for me, and it grows down in the snowdrop beds. There isn't a good reason, I just had a space when the bulb needed planting.
My initial plan was to fill the ground beneath the trees with C. 'Waterlily' but I have added a few other things since those days of simple clarity. I could move the C. x agrippinum
up there as well but it would take a couple of weeks off the time I get to maintain the trees, everything would be a few weeks more rushed. On consideration, it can stay where it is.
12th September 2021
Gladiolus carmineus .
I'm not sure that Gladiolus carmineus is in the right place either. It grows in a tub in the Nerine house and gets very dry through the summer. I keep getting the urge to split it up and move it
to a pot where it will be watered through the spring and summer even though it has done very well where it is. So far I have had the sense not to meddle. It is a winter growing species
from the southwestern Cape. I started watering the Nerine at the end of July and the Gladiolus was soaked at the same time. It has responded by producing
flower spikes. The leaves will follow from separate growths as the flowers die. I have tried a number of winter growing Gladiolus with the Nerine but so far this has been
the only really successful one. Many of the others have flowers in spring at the end of the rainy season, when I am cutting back the water supply and allowing the Nerine foliage
to die back. I am left with an occasional bright Gladiolus flower in a field of dead leaves. A bit of research might suggest some other more suitable candidates to try.
12th September 2021
Cyclamen mirabile .
Over the years the greenhouse has acted as a digestive system for chaos. All sorts of nonsense is fed in but over time the system takes over. Those things that fit in tend to survive,
those that don't fit in end up on the compost. In the process a series of problems get addressed, sometimes to little avail but occasionally I make a small step forward.
My journey with Cyclamen has been long and, for the most part, frustrating. I live in a wet climate, grown outside they freeze and rot. Grown under cover they succumb to vine weevil
and my erratic approach to watering.
I was having the same vine weevil problems with Saxifraga fortunei forms. The biological control works very well, but you have to remember to apply it when it is warm - I have forgotten again this year
and I think the temperatures are now too low. Therefore I did a trial with mineral composts. The intention was to use a cold, hard medium that the vine-weevil larvae would find unpleasant. It seemed to work
so I extended the trial to the Cyclamen. I now grow them in 10mm limestone chippings in tall pots, standing in water. I haven't seen any vine-weevil problems since I made the change a few years ago.
I have to remember to feed them when in growth and I worry every summer that they won't appear again, but Cyclamen mirabile has popped up and is looking really cute. I
my have found a system that works for me.
The next challenge will be C. libanoticum. I have lost count of the times I have killed it in the past. Perhaps an unforgiving compost will be more to its liking.
12th September 2021
Hedychium 'C. P. Raffill'.
The Hedychium have been a reminder to keep trying new things. I had them in the greenhouse for many years, worried that the evergreen ones would be too tender to grow outside. It was
only frustration and overcrowding that forced me to start planting them out. There are plenty still inside, but the plants outside have been better than I ever managed in the greenhouse.
More light and more moisture has suited them very well. The last plants indoors will come out as soon as I can find suitable spaces.
Hedychium 'C. P. Raffill' is an old, Victorian selection. I find it almost indistinguishable from H. 'Tara' though perhaps flowering a week earlier. It may be my imagination,
but I think it is also a shade less raucous in flower, more faded Victorian splendour than 70's pop art sensation. I have a feeling that it will eventually take over the entire bed
but I will probably let it, it's a good thing. A couple of feet away, 'Tara' will offer some significant competition. Inevitably they will become mixed but I have decided that
I don't care. Both plants are thought to be stabilised hybrids between H. coccineum and H. gardnerianum, neither of which are as good as this for me.
Eventually autumn will fall out of the air in torrents, the soil temperature will drop and I will return to the greenhouse for the winter. In the meantime it is nice to sit
in the garden watching the Hedychium and musing on the progress of a curious year.