JEARRARD'S HERBAL
20th November 2022
Liquidambar styraciflua .
The seasons hurry along faster than an elderly billionaire moving in on a supermodel. The garden is feeling the call of spring (as is the elderly billionaire I assume).
Not that I have noticed it this week. The rain has fallen with a protective zeal. It is keeping me from that awkward moment when the autumn has slumped into the ooze
and the spring has yet to follow the example of the lotus, bursting in sparkling perfection from the sludge. Some might call it winter. I prefer to think of it as the
season of frustration for elderly billionaires.
The writing is on the wall for autumn, or at least on the trees, and it is falling rapidly. Unlike Goildilocks, I have three Liquidambar rather than three bears.
Bears would be nice but it's probably not practical. Liquidambar styraciflua 'Aurea' is too pale; this one is too dark and 'Worplesdon' is just right.
Or at least it would have been just right if the wind and rain hadn't stripped the leaves during the week.
This is a seedling that can produce astonishing black leaves but doesn't always manage. I view it with a smile but without exhilaration, like a supermodel
surveying an elderly billionaire.
20th November 2022
Dahlia tamaulipana .
A long, mild autumn has had some advantages in the garden. My cutting of Dahlia tamaulipana languished in a pot in the greenhouse for several years.
A space opened up near the house and in it went, with relief. It was the right thing to do, I can't even remember what I threw away to make the space.
It was clearly something unwanted. In its place I have a few species dahlias. They have all grown well, but this one has been outstanding through the summer.
The fickle sun glints from its dark shiny leaves in the gentle breeze to match the glistening ripples on the water lily pool.
Naturally the reality lacks the abstraction of poetry. The water lily is in a black plastic bucket and one good gale from the wrong direction would flatten the dahlia.
It doesn't do to fuss over the details. The water lily flowered, and the dahlia has eventually followed its example. At present it has a few
open blooms and a tiara of waiting buds. A week or two of warm weather will be the difference between a spectacular lilac crown and the black sludge of frost.
I have my fingers crossed, aware that I cannot influence events.
20th November 2022
Camellia 'Nobilissima' .
The Dahlia has been slow to produce flowers. The camellias are early, taking advantage of the last warm weeks to swell their buds.
C. 'Nobilissima' often produces a stray flower or two before the New Year, using a warm week in the depths of darkness to express its enthusiasm.
This year there has been warmth in abundance, and it has taken full advantage of the opportunity. This is no stray flower unable to contain its excitement any longer.
This is one of a group of joyful youths wandering down a street to a party where the music will be loud, the lights dim and there is an outside chance of getting laid.
In short, 'Nobilissima' has bloomed as though spring was here, and I am happy to support that idea.
Around the garden there are half a dozen camellias determined to celebrate the season. Forms of C. sasanqua are to be expected during the autumn.
My plants are just getting into their stride after a move into the sun a couple of years ago, and they are starting to produce a good display. I have them planted
by my bananas and in years to come the bright flowers will enliven the heavy Musa leaves. That is the current plan anyway, these things don't always
work out as intended.
Camellia 'Takanini' is in full flower, looking better than I have ever seen it, but the surprise of the week has been C. 'Showgirl'.
One of the delights of the lazy week between
Christmas and the New Year has always been a walk around the garden to see the 'Showgirl' but she is flowering early. I don't know what I will do to amuse myself this year.
Eat too much, I expect.
20th November 2022
Galanthus 'Remember Remember' .
I have been cowering indoors away from the rain for a week. I had a quick dash into the garden between storms to see what the snowdrops were doing, and found
the buds on G. 'Remember Remember' dashed to the ground. It is the first to flower of the G. elwesii cultivars that I grow
and is therefore the first of the truly spring flowering snowdrops to appear. Like all trailblazers, it doesn't have an easy time.
Last year a hungry slug discovered it in the first days of November and that was the end of this snowdrop's fireworks for the year. I thought
that the storms had delivered a similar blow when I found the buds flat on the ground, but the weekend has been warm and mostly dry.
They have stood up again and opened in the early sunshine this morning. Last year I didn't have two flowers, this year I already have five with more buds likely.
The plant has grown vigorously which is very satisfying. Last year I was not convinced that it would survive, the hungry slug
was not sated by flowers and moved on to the leaves for its main course. Things looked dark, but the season rolled on.
All being well, snowdrops will line the path through spring.