JEARRARD'S HERBAL
3rd October 2021
Galanthus reginae-olgae 'Pink Panther' .
Autumn arrived like a sudden summer downpour but colder. I'm not sure what the distinction is between torrential summer rain and torrential autumn rain but the distinction matters.
They are separated by a couple of weeks, possibly not even that. Heavy rain a fortnight ago felt like a release of tension as summer rehydrated. Heavy rain yesterday gripped the house with cold fingers.
I lit the fire and hid away from it. Perhaps the difference lies in the effect the rain has. In summer a sharp shower clears the atmosphere of dust and the garden sparkles.
Yesterday the rainfall filled the garden with mist and unwanted dripping.
Fortunately I have a greenhouse where the rain drums in the roof in interrupted gravitational frustration. The autumn snowdrops grow in tubs beside the Nerine in the greenhouse. I have tried them
in other places in the greenhouse and I have tried them outside but they only seem happy standing beside the Nerine. I have stopped thinking that I know better and they will remain beside the Nerine.
Last week the tip of the bud was just showing on 'Pink Panther', this week the first flower has opened. There is a second to come, there may be others. I am hoping for some increase this year
but I'm not counting my chickens. The pink tinge in the flower varies from slight to speculative but in a few days there will be pure white cultivars beside it - 'Blanc de Chine' has just emerged.
When compared with a pure white flower the colour is clearly closer to 'slight' than 'speculative'.
3rd October 2021
Globba saltatoria .
A few feet away in the greenhouse the summer monsoon has reached a peak in the shape of Globba saltatoria. It is worth noting that the identity of the plant is unresolved, it is sometimes
placed in the genus Mantisia but Williams, Kress and Manos (The phylogeny, evolution, and classification of the genus Globba and tribe Globbeae, American Journal of Botany, vol.91 issue.1 2004)
showed that Mantisia is entirely nested within Globba. So as far as I am concerned this is Globba saltatoria which is a later synonym for G. radicalis and my plant certainly isn't that.
As I say, the identity of the plant is unresolved. I got it from Paul Barney at Edulis and the picture on their website isn't of my plant either. Once again I have stopped thinking I know better,
indeed I have stopped thinking that I know anything.
The important point for me is that it seems to be hardy, at least with respect to cold in winter. I haven't tried it in the garden but it has been untroubled by the cold growing in a pot in the greenhouse.
I have grown a few Globba species in pots, beguiled by the idea that they might become dormant tubers in autumn and survive the winter in that state. Well, they manage the first part at least.
This is the only member of the genus that grows for me. It isn't the most spectacular but it amuses me, flowering quietly under the thunderous drumming of autumn.
3rd October 2021
Nerine humilis breachiae .
Last week the garden attracted my attention. It was warm and dry, the last hydrangeas of summer ware fading like the blue skies and the trees were rustling with impatience for a cleansing gale
like summer sheep itching for the shearer. This week things are much simpler. It is the Nerine house, nowhere else is as warm, dry or spectacular.
The cultivars of Nerine sarniensis are starting to flower and it looks as though it is going to be a good year for them. Many of the other species have also flowered well this year,
I am especially looking forward to N. gaberonensis. It grew erratically in the main collection but which has prospered much more in a moister compost on a bench to one side.
N. humilis has also done well with more moisture this year. The species is quite variable, taller plants such as this one seem to come from the eastern part of the range in South Africa.
It has grown slowly over a number of years, being interesting but easily overlooked. This year it has decided to flower with great freedom - I haven't counted the scapes, there are plenty -
and I am expecting it to be magnificent in just a couple of days. I can't wait and indeed that I why I have included it here. I can't wait.
3rd October 2021
Sternbergia lutea .
A greenhouse full of Nerine regularly leads me to the conclusion that I can grow autumn bulbs. I am not deflected from that belief by the cool wet summers of the southwest. I have Nerine, I can do anything!
Experience has shown that it isn't the case. I grow a few Colchicum outside, a few Cyclamen under cover and I have more-or-less given up on everything else. A couple of years ago
I planted out a tub of Crocus speciosus under the trees at the top of the garden. They will never flower out there but it got rid of them. They never flowered in the greenhouse either.
Sternbergia lutea behaved in a similar way, filling a pot with leaves but never flowering. The silver lined turf looked at me through the winter with baleful blindness until I tipped them out into the garden.
Growing at the base of the south wall of the house it has produced a flower that is almost unspeakably precious to me but which teeters on the edge of irrelevance. A single flower isn't a great performance
from a dozen bulbs. Still, I am enjoying it. The slugs will as well before very long.
In a worrying development I have started to tuck surplus autumn growing bulbs into the side of the Nerine tubs. It offends my sense of order, I huff and puff at my own lack of discipline.
I'm rather enjoying it.