JEARRARD'S HERBAL
15th January 2023
Nerine undulata 'Winter Sun' .
Weather forecasters will be pleased to note that their jobs are safe: the weather has continued. The week has been dominated by rain. I don't remember opening the back door
this week without seeing the rain coming down. I'm sure that it must have happened, but I don't remember it. The path down to the greenhouse has reached total squelch.
The next phase is seeing rainwater flowing down it in a stream.
I managed to weed the Pleione pots, anticipating the colour to come, and I spent a couple of hours clearing herbaceous detritus. There must have been dry spells,
but they weren't memorable.
The greenhouse is protected from the rain but the contents still manage to look dejected. It's some sort of vegetable empathy I imagine. Nerine undulata 'Winter Sun'
has come into flower. It has only just started but already it's looking sad. The pollen goes mouldy on the anthers almost as soon as the flowers open. The buds start out looking bravely pink,
but as the flowers open it pales with shock and ends up looking horrified. If I had any other Nerine in flower then I would hybridise it, just so that I could call the
seedling 'Aghast'.
15th January 2023
Lachenalia bulbifera 'George' .
I have a few Lachenalia in the greenhouse. I prefer those that rapidly fill the pot with fat, round bulbs. They are a joy when they are growing, and when they are re-potted in the summer
they drop out of the pot like a compressed block of pickled onions. There is something very satisfying about it.
L. bulbifera 'George' is a selection of the species with pinker flowers. It is a strong red when it opens but it is another plant easily horrified by dull weather.
The colour has drained from its cheeks in the last two weeks. It is becoming paler and in the next couple of weeks the flowers will drop off. In a warm year it sets some seed
but I'm not holding out much hope this time. It is very tolerant of cold weather and was undamaged in the run of radiation frosts we had in December, but it hates being rained on.
It isn't even that it prefers to be dry, it grows perfectly well if it is watered through the winter. It just hates being rained on. I can empathise. The last ten minutes
of clearing herbaceous detritus happened in the rain. I was determined to finish if I could. The weather was determined to soak me if it could.
I managed to finish, and it managed to soak me. A happy outcome for everybody you might think. It didn't feel like that.
15th January 2023
Cymbidium Nagalex 'Hatsune'.
I don't have a dog at present, and when I did have a dog it didn't have a kennel. We would garden in the sunshine, and if the weather turned unpleasant we would go indoors.
However I am starting to understand the emotional satisfaction of a kennel. I have a greenhouse. There are times when I think they perform the same function. They
provide a place to go when the world is a bit tiresome.
For a couple of years I have been enjoying an orchid bonanza. One corner of the greenhouse has been filling with delightful orchid herbage of doubtful hardiness. The frosts in December
have clarified the situation somewhat. Some things are untouched, some things have been lightly touched and some things are dead. My kennel is less emotionally satisfying at present.
It is time to stop hiding from it and start clearing up. It isn't a catastrophe, just a reality check.
The Cymbidium have all sailed through. C. Nagalex 'Hatsune' is a hybrid of the super-hardy C. goeringii. It inherits the greenish flowers and short spikes of its
Asiatic parent as well as a tolerance of winter cold. The flowers have been marked by the chill but the plant is undamaged.
15th January 2023
Ambrosina bassii .
The garden has filled with camellias. There are a couple of cold nights forecast for the coming week, the display might be ruined, but it will only be for a few days.
The plants have started to flower, and there are new buds all around waiting for their opportunity.
There are snowdrops popping up in most of the beds, small white surprises crown every corner. The hellebores are stirring the ground in their
haste to emerge. Spring is proclaiming itself with confidence.
Meanwhile Ambrosina bassii is flowering shyly under cover. Joy rarely appears in camouflage shades of brown and green. It is a tricky combination, but the Ambrosina
manages it with elan. I parted the tiny leaves to see if there were any tiny flowers: there were. I went and got my glasses so that I could see them.
I like the arum family, it contains some thrilling things, but there is a gentle satisfaction in finding the Ambrosia flowering in my kennel in January.
I will tidy up the orchids this afternoon. Everything will be fine.