JEARRARD'S HERBAL
9th October 2022
Brugmansia sanguinea .
The garden has been autumnal this week in a satisfying way. There has been a bracing chill in the morning air and the early morning dew has been sparkling over the ground.
By mid-morning the sun has appeared and the garden becomes warm and dry. It is a leisurely time of year, things are growing slowly and the days are still long enough to get things done.
It will change, the rushed chill of winter will arrive by the end of the month. Nothing will get done and the days won't be long enough to not-do them properly.
For now it feels like Fuchsia weather. Plants that have spent the summer preparing for an autumn show are enjoying the warmth and flowering.
Brugmansia sanguinea fits the pattern. I was surprised that it survived outside, but last winter was very mild. It got a good start in the spring.
A burst of hot weather in April curtailed planting but it allowed the Brugmansia to produce some early shoots. It has flowered in time to catch the last of the sun,
and with luck it will have several weeks to be wonderful.
Cold weather cannot be ruled out, we might have a sharp frost before the end of October. On the other hand we might not see any cold weather until January.
It is a game of chance, and for the moment the Brugmansia is winning.
9th October 2022
Nerine (exbury copper 1 x Dingaan) clone.9 .
It has been a week for sorting out the Nerine house. It should probably have been done in the summer when everything was dormant, but it was too hot and too dull.
I try to be organised, to arrange everything systematically, convince myself that I am on top of things. It's an illusion, I know that. There are always pots of
oddities that don't seem to fit in anywhere. I end up putting them on a bench somewhere and before long I have filled the bench with things that don't really fit anywhere.
Last week I sorted out the bench of chaos, planted some things out and made some space. It gave me room to pot up a lot of N.sarniensis seedlings
that should have been done four years ago. A few have flowered already and so far there is nothing outstanding among them. Most will not be retained.
Seedlings that were potted last year are another matter. I did a lot of hybrids involving N. 'Dingaan', hoping for rich purple colours. Now I have a lot of purple
shaded Nerine seedlings. So far I have kept all those that have flowered. I am going to have far too many. I will have to be more ruthless but not just yet.
This seedling is a cross between 'Dingaan' and a copper coloured seedling from Exbury. It has a good stem and a good head of flowers. I like it.
Unfortunately, when it comes to purple Nerine flowers, I like them all. Some decisions will have to be made before it all gets out of hand again.
9th October 2022
Iris lazica 'Turkish Blue' .
It is very pleasant to walk around the garden at the moment. There is enough going on to provide interest but not so much that it feels like I have to rush to see everything
before it fades. The Colchicum are standing up. It's a little detail but it shows that we haven't had heavy rain or strong wind for a few days.
I know that in the abstract, but didn't give the absence of wind or rain much significance. Colchicum standing upright on their thin flower stems
are a very practical reminder of a spell of moderate weather. It is good to catch them at the right moment.
The same can be said of Iris lazica 'Turkish Blue'. It has spent the summer as a number of tousled clumps of ordinary leaves. When I passed it on
Friday there were two perfect flowers, the first of an irregular display that will stud the days of winter and spring with occasional astonishment.
I caught it at the right time, by the next morning both flowers had been eaten by slugs.
9th October 2022
Galanthus reginae-olgae 'Rachelae' .
Despite the marauding molluscs there are signs of the change of seasons all around the garden. The Cyclamen hederifolium that produced a few tentative flowers in August
are now flowering with enthusiasm under the Sycamore trees. There are some other Cyclamen species starting to grow in the greenhouse. I am particularly pleased to see them this year,
I was convinced that they had all died in the summer drought. After years, probably decades, as a cyclamen-killer things may be changing.
The autumn snowdrops also worried me this year, but G. reginae-olgae comes from Greece and Turkey. I'm sure that it gets hotter and drier there in summer than it did in my greenhouse.
G. 'Rachelae' is one of the first selections of G.reginae-olgae to be introduced, or at least it might be. Discovered by Professor Mahaffy in 1886, it was grown sporadically
at the end of the 19th century. Then it seems to have vanished, at least from the literature if not actually from cultivation. The name reappeared a couple of decades ago as the current wave of snowdrop mania
took hold. It may well be the same thing. With spring around the corner I'm not going to be cynical.
Is it too early to think of spring? I don't think so. We will have some cold spells to endure but the autumn snowdrops will be followed by the earliest forms of Galanthus elwesii
and shortly after that there will be daffodils and the frantic florid lunacy of a new year.
Cheerful weather and a cheerful prospect.