JEARRARD'S HERBAL
7th November 2021
Acer palmatum 'Azuma Murasaki' .
Autumn is slowly getting to the point in the garden. Like a scene change on stage, the lights have gone down and in the gloom strange shapes can be seen moving around.
Eventually it will become clear, the leaves will finish falling and the lights will come back up. For the moment, the season is obscure.
I have a small collection of Acer palmatum cultivars at the top of the garden. I acquired them by chance when I was offered a selection of first year grafts very cheaply.
I didn't know any of the cultivars, I still struggle to identify them, but as they mature they are developing charm as well as distinctive characteristics.
They are also getting bigger. When I planted them I thought that I had given them plenty of space. Time has shown otherwise and many of them will have to be moved.
I started the process last spring but hot weather intervened. Time to consider the situation through the summer has not produced any better solutions and I'm planning to dig up the largest of them
as the spring weather permits next year.
Acer palmatum 'Azum Murasaki' is one of the largest. I am looking for a sunny corner where it can develop into a large shrub without further disturbance.
It has coloured well in the last weeks but it lacks the glowing translucence of some cultivars. I continue to hope that a sunny autumn will fill it with luminous
colour but in the meantime I am enjoying its red solidity.
7th November 2021
Hedychium 'Gardner Waters' .
It has been a good year for the Hedychium. A slow summer and plenty of rain have helped them to develop. A mild autumn is allowing flower spikes to open.
H. 'Gardner Waters' has produced a mound of good folige and a few flower spikes to round off the year. It is a selction from the USA and I wasn't expecting
it to bloom in my climate. Growing the evergreen Hedychium in the garden is a gamble if you expect flowers but I am happy with good foliage and the occasional
spectacle of bloom in November is a bonus.
I have a number of cultivars that fall into the same general pattern with pyramidal heads of yellow flowers at the very end of the year. I assume that the colour
and quality of the flowers comes from H. gardnerianum but there are rarely any relible breeders records, it is all just speculation. None of them produce seed in my garden,
probably because the temperatures drop too low as the seed should be developing but it may be a shortage of effective pollinators in November. Certainly my plants
don't buzz with the cheerful soond of bees making merry with the flowers. It would be nice to breed some new seedlings but I think I will have to leave it to growers
in milder climates.
7th November 2021
Nerine 'Natasha' .
As the autumn weather trembles indecisively in the garden, the greenhouse becomes a favourite refuge. For a few weeks it has been filled with the exuberant colour of Nerine.
The colour will continue for several weeks yet but the peak of the N. sarniensis cultivars came in October. Now there are as many fading stems as there are flowers.
I tidy up in there a couple of times each week which improves the look of the display but reduces the overall impact.
N. 'Natasha' is a hybrid that includes N. humilis peersii in its ancestry. It seems to have inherited large, wide spreading flowers and sturdy flower scapes as a result.
It is one of my favourite cultivars, opening quite early in the season but lasting well. The flower stems are just in their prime now. I have tried to use it as a parent many times
but I have never seen it set seed and I have never seen seed develop when using its pollen. It is unfortunate because it is a splendid thing.
N. undulata forms have just started to open flowers and I have a small group of hybrids between N. undulata and N.sarniensis that will continue to flower for the
rest of the year. Once the last flowers fade, spring will be well underway.
7th November 2021
Primula auicula 'Pinkie Dawn' .
Some hint of spring can already be found in odd corners of the greenhouse. The autumn Galanthus offer an image of spring snowdrops though they are not the same species.
The genus Primula hurdles the tedious gap between autumn and spring in a much more direct fashion. 'Pinkie Dawn' feels the allure of spring as the daylength falls
and has produced a flower scape to cheer the dark nights. As the nights get cooler it will last for several weeks. By that time Primula allionii and the first of the Narcissus
will be flowering. Spring will have moved from promise to reality. As the temperatures rise, 'Pinkie Dawn' will have another burst of flowers to celebrate the fact.
With the Nerine starting to fade the first of the spring snowdrops showed a shoot above the ground this week. It wasn't a big gesture, even by the demure standards of
snowdrops, but it meant a lot to me to find it. There will be plenty more to find as the weeks pass.