JEARRARD'S HERBAL
5th March 2023
Rubus spectabilis .
Drought has crept silently into the garden, we had hardly any rain in February. Like so many things that don't happen, there was no fanfare as it didn't happen.
I was paying attention to other things and the dry weather was only appreciated at a subliminal level. I have been clearing brambles from a corner of the garden
and I have been able to get on with it. If I have a few minutes spare, I go and clear a bit. I will do a little bit more tomorrow. I have been taking the dry weather
for granted, confident that the ground will be firm again tomorrow.
It was the greenhouse that demonstrated the drought. The roof gathers rain which flows into the water tanks and the overflow from the water tanks fills up my watering can.
During the winter, the watering can overflows onto the floor and a trickle of water wanders down the slope and out of the greenhouse.
I have been re-potting Calanthe and I ran out of water. The watering can didn't refill itself magically overnight, I had to do it. Drought in February.
An incidental benefit of clearing brambles has been the emergence of Rubus spectablis. I had no doubt that it was in there, it is a vigorous, suckering shrub
quite strong enough to resist the invasion of brambles. I knew it was in there, but I couldn't see it, and now I can. I have had it for a long time and I cherish the early flowers.
They can appear in January when the garden seems greyest, coloured only by snow and snowdrops. Suddenly the bare Rubus twigs produce a thin scattering of
the darkest cerise flowers. The plant is a thug, almost a weed, but there is a moment in January when the startling colour lifts the spirits like
the scent of winter heliotrope.
5th March 2023
Narcissus 'Spring Dawn' .
I have a plan to keep the daffodils in the garden simple. The intention was always to grow a few cultivars in large swathes rather than a mass of cultivars in
little clumps. It is the difference between the garden and the greenhouse. In the greenhouse there is space for endless detail but the garden needs a
sense of cohesion to hold it together. The garden also needs to be easy to maintain, and endless detail destroys that practical aspiration.
I'm not very good at restraint, there are a lot of daffodils that I would like to grow. 'Rijnvelds Early Sensation' is the best of them. I have it planted in the meadow
where it is easy to manage and it gives me flowers in December. The last of them are just going over now. I originally planted it with N. obvallaris
mixed in, to give a second flush of flowers later in the season. I lived with it for a decade but I didn't like it. A clever idea, but it always looked messy.
In the end I took a spade and dug the N. obvallaris out.
I have been more cautious with Narcissus 'Spring Dawn'. I bought it in order to have a pale daffodil that flowered in January. It has performed very well
in a tub. It is flowering a month late this year but it has been a strange winter. I am considering planting more 'Spring Dawn' in the garden, but I'm not going to rush.
Digging daffodils out is hard work.
5th March 2023
Ficaria verna 'Martin Gibbs Progeny' .
When I moved into this house there was a large patch of Ficaria verna growing through damp grass at the bottom of the slope. Things have become more complicated.
Over the years I have added a lot of selections
of the species, there is hardly a corner where the cheerful yellow flowers do not appear on spring. The leaves are endlessly variable and they start to appear on October
just as the dark winter nights loom into reality. The leaves are endlessly beautiful, variable and collectable. Hundreds of cultivars have been named and I have grown a lot of them.
In the garden they seed around with fecund freedom producing a kaleidoscope of spring colour. Most of the named forms have submerged silently into the swarm of beauty.
I still have white flowers, and primrose and orange as well but they wander about the garden at will, I no longer expect them to be tethered to a label. I have a few exceptions
and 'Martin Gibbs Progeny' is the best of them. It is a yellow variegated form and I doubt it would compete very effectively in the garden. I keep it in a tub
and I have never seen seedlings. I find it needs some encouragement to prosper, the hurly-burly of the borders would be too much for it.
There are other variegated forms now and perhaps they will also spread their colours through the population in time. For the time being I keep them in tubs, safe, sound and
very firmly labelled.
5th March 2023
Helleborus x hybridus 'Taurus' .
At the top of the garden I have a corner that grows aquilegias. I don't know how they got there, I must have moved seeds about at some time, but however they got there
they seem to be happy. I do nothing, they flower, it is a good arrangement. The best garden plants are those that look after themselves and that usually means
those that seed around gently. I would like the aquilegias to spread into the hellebore border to add a touch of interest as the hellebores go over, but
the aquilegias are not inclined to move. They like it where they are, they see no reason to change. I have accepted the status quo.
Change is happening among the hellebores. Just as I released the Ficaria verna into the garden, I have started to mix some of the named hellebores
in with the seedlings in the border. This is 'Taurus', an Eric Smith selection dating from the Plantsman Nursery days. It has historical interest
but modern breeding has moved on a long way. A plant like this would not get a second glance today. In the border it will be cheerful and vigorous. I will bury
a permanent label under it. If it ever develops historical interest it can still be identified reliably, otherwise it will flower in gentle, old-fashioned obscurity.
We haven't had rain, but the ground is still moist. It is good planting weather.