JEARRARD'S HERBAL
3rd July 2022
Dactylicapnos scandens .
It has been a cooler week, there has been some rain and the tension in the garden has relaxed. I have started to adapt to the new season, staying indoors with the paperwork
through the middle of the day and playing in the garden in the evening. I have been celebrating the season.
As the last wave of spring flowers fade there is a sudden rush of growth, the garden starts to look like a contortionist climbing out of an impossibly small box.
Suddenly there is growth everywhere, shrubs and brambles are looming over all the paths, the meadow looks like a fluffy teddy bear that's been left out in the rain
and it's impossible to keep up with the mowing.
It's a short unruly season, the heat and dryness of summer kick in. Growth in the garden slows down and I get used to wearing a sun hat
and ambling around gently. It's a comfortable season and it's worth celebrating.
I have a white clematis by the side of the greenhouse. It has been consumed by brambles. I have refrained from cutting them out, knowing that the Clematis
would be destroyed in the process. It's a winter job for thick gloves and stout trousers, until then the bramble will menace me from the corner. The clematis came up through it last week,
decorating the miscreant mass with large white flowers. I was cheered to snatch some success from the mess. This week I have been delighted by the flowers of
Dactylicapnos scandens pushing through. I had assumed that it was dead, buried in blackberries, but it has emerged, a cluster of joy from the thorns.
3rd July 2022
Anigozanthus flavidus .
I have accepted that the Agave house needs some attention. A decade ago I planted Gynostemma pentaphyllum up there, a novelty cucurbit that is good for nothing.
I was warned that it was rampant but I didn't listen - I often don't, it is generally a mistake. It has justified the warning, spreading like a blanket over one end of the house.
The long stems root like bindweed into all the dark cracks (technically the shoot tips are negatively phototropic). I am clearing out plants to give myself room to
eradicate it. I will deal with the brambles in there at the same time. When I replant it will be with lovely soft fluffy things, I have had enough of being spiked in the shins.
Anigozanthus flavidus has been a welcome success up there. I was given a seedling and I didn't think it would be hardy. I planted it between the Agave so that I wouldn't notice
when it died. If I had paid more attention I would have kept it too wet and it would have rotted. Planted in the Agave bed it is never watered and it has been triumphant.
Last years flowering was spectacular and I thought that would be enough to kill it but it's back this year, a little reduced but still enthusiastic. I can find space up there
for a few more Anigozanthus, perhaps some peonies, a protea or two ... I don't think I will miss the Agave at all.
3rd July 2022
Dahlia merckii 'Alba' .
The flowers of summer are starting to make a mark in the garden. I have some Hemerocallis in bloom that I haven't seen for a decade, thanks to some scrub clearance
and replanting. I also have a few Dahlia species growing around the house. A number of things had made me grumpy with the species. Every time I planted
one in the garden the rabbits ate it, and they outgrew pots so rapidly that I couldn't keep up. Only Dahlia merckii persisted in the border, offering some cheerful promise.
It is a good thing, I had a plan to collect together a few different forms to grow with it. I got as far as 'Alba' and ran into trouble. I have had two attempts to establish
the commercial stock in the garden but I haven't managed to get it through the first winter. I had abandoned it as a feeble plant.
Last year I was given this plant with much larger flower and a hint on pink in the colour. It has grown strongly, it went out in spring and is doing well by the house where
the rabbits are easier to intimidate. It fills me with optimism. I am confident that it will come through the winter safely - and have a pot of cuttings coming along just to be on the safe side.
Summer has come and things are looking good.
3rd July 2022
Banksia blechnifolia .
Small successes fill the garden and the gardener with confidence. I will defeat the many headed Gynostemma and free the Agave house from its clutches. I will
mow the meadow, cut the brambles. The days are long, the weather is gorgeous, anything is possible.
I was in a benign frame of mind yesterday when I set out to weed the tender border on the south of the house. I had a comfy cushion to kneel on and a satisfying
metal tool to poke and probe with. Some people sleep-walk, I'm a dream-weeder. I settle down, pull out weeds and my mind wanders hither and thither.
I came back to earth with a (cushioned) bump at the sight of Banksia blechnifolia in flower. It went in as a seedling a few years ago and I have been grateful
that it has survived. It has very slowly increased in size. It isn't spreading across the ground yet but it certainly aspires to clumpiness. I regularly
admire the leaves, a wonder of determination.
The balled cluster of flowers left me confused. I had to go and get a camera to prove that it was real. I thought that I might have been carried away by dream-weeding,
that I would get back and find nothing.
It is small and it is a success but describing it as a small success would be wrong. It is a tiny and magnificent triumph.