JEARRARD'S HERBAL
30th October 2022
Liquidambar styraciflua 'Worplesdon' .
The characters of autumn have been shouting loudly all week. The wind has been rattling things, and through the evenings I have heard distant crashings, as though something important had just collapsed.
I haven't found anything of note the next morning, but it is disturbing. On Wednesday morning I discovered that the garden chairs had blown over. I had wasted good worrying time the night before
wondering what the noise had been.
Mist has haunted the mornings like the residue of sleep, softening and obscuring reality. On some days it cleared into sunshine and on others it coalesced into rain. Either way the humidity
lurks coldly in the air, bursting into the house when I open the back door in the morning.
Driving around in the last weeks it has seemed like a fabulous year for autumn colour. The long hot summer has topped up the metabolic reserves in the trees and they have started to burn them
in celebration of the season. I have been watching my big Liquidambar, expecting something exceptional. It is a perverse tree, colouring well in a garden where nothing else can manage to.
It's perversity is confirmed. This years colour is very moderate in a year when even the Field Maples have turned mustard with glee.
I think we had the wrong sort of wind, the leaves are being stripped before they colour. Further down in the garden a smaller seedling sheltered by a Magnolia is almost bursting with
dark purple enthusiasm for the season.
30th October 2022
Musa basjoo .
The bananas are coming along nicely.
When I moved into this house the scrappy hedge by the road was composed of privet and sycamore seedlings that had been held in check by the munchings of a hungry cow. It wasn't ideal.
Scattered through it were nests of wind blown litter and old beer cans, one of the drawbacks of living on the direct route to the local shop. As a keen gardener I took the obvious
step of pretending it wasn't there and dealing with other things. The old beer cans were perfectly happy but, freed from the cow-munching restriction, the sycamores got stroppy.
Something had to be done. I removed the whole lot and have been replacing it with a row of Musa 'Tibet'.
The first planting filled about a third of the length. Last spring I was able to split them and fill another third of the length. I also dug up a large clump of Musa basjoo.
I planted them further up the hill to add drama, depth and, to be honest, to rescue them from the clutches of a lime tree that was smothering them.
One of them has produced its distinctive flowers and they are all producing new shoots at the base. It is evidence that they have established despite the summer drought.
I haven't finished yet, but the bananas are coming along nicely.
30th October 2022
Nerine 'Australian Afterglow'.
There are Nerine everywhere at the moment. I raise a lot of seedlings in the greenhouse, looking for improvements on the plants I already grow. At some point decisions have to be made - is it good or is it not?
I have been doing a lot of choosing in the last two weeks, the rejects will fill the garden with the tactless pink of autumn flowers.
'Australian Afterglow' went outside for another reason. It is vigorous. After a couple of decades I had three large tubs of bulbs and there really isn't space for the duplicates under cover.
It may not be hardy, but there isn't anywhere else to put it.
This clump by the house has flowered well, another clump at the top of the garden will flower in the next few days, and a clump tucked in between some camellias looks a bit shaded
but has flowered anyway. It has only been in the ground for a year, but it has done remarkably well. One of its grandparents is N. bowdenii so it may have inherited some hardiness.
On the other hand, N.sarniensis may be tougher than its reputation.
I have been planting out the seedlings that didn't make the grade, it will be interesting.
30th October 2022
Hedychium 'Tai Savannah' .
The Hedychium have really appreciated the long, hot summer. Although they adore water, they are also very tolerant of drought and have shrugged off a couple of months without rain.
The warm autumn has allowed flower spikes to develop and there will be flowers on plants that haven't bloomed since they were in the greenhouse.
'Tai Savannah' is one such. In the last couple of years is has developed into a muscular clump of compact stems and most of them have flower buds forming. It is going to make a good show.
I will miss the 2m tall canes it produced under cover, but they weren't very practical. I spent hours with balls of string trying to prop them up discreetly. It was never very satisfactory.
Planted in the ground they have a natural poise that no amount of support could imitate.
I am hoping that the plant has grown sufficiently to flower every year. If it does, then it will be a good addition to the range of Hedychium that are hardy (at least for me).
The mist has dissolved, and it is the planting season. Time to get out there and put in some more Nerine.