JEARRARD'S HERBAL
26th March 2023
Fuchsia 'Lechlade Magician' .
There is a sense of haste about the garden this week. Perhaps the clocks going forward has hurried things along. March winds have whistled along the paths, around the corners
and through the windbreaks. It is a cold wind, but it is cheerful. The icy, cutting winds of winter have given way to something softer. Magnolia x loeberi 'Merrill' is feeling their force,
petals lie scattered over the ground. It was good for a week, superb for a week, and now it has spent a week falling apart. I walk under it to get to the greenhouse
and there is a romance about the idea of being showered in its petals. Then they actually hit me and it is rather irritating.
The weather has delivered sunshine and showers. Both things emerged from the morning mist. Even in the wind, the garden has been humid.
A radiation frost in December brought the flowering of Fuchsia 'Lechlade Magician' to an end. A 'normal' cold chill will destroy the visible buds, but more will develop
and flowering usually resumes in January or February. This year the radiation frost killed the ends of the twigs and the plant has had to start again from scratch. In the shelter of a wall, the
first flowers have opened at last. The plant is almost always in flower, I take it for granted, but for a couple of months I have been missing it.
26th March 2023
Helleborus x hybridus 'Lucy Black' .
I was away from home for a couple of days last week and while I was away the garden changed. Things move fast at this time of the year. When I left, the last snowdrops were hanging on,
the early daffodils were flowering and the camellias were following John Cleese's example. Standing tall and being ridiculous. It was still the thin end of spring.
When I got back, spring was much fatter. The camellias are still in flower of course, but now they have strewed colour all around, the old flowers tumbling to the ground
in pink and brown carpets. The ground is alive with new shoots pushing through. Leaves are starting to appear on the trees, the translucent garden of winter is developing patches of light and shade.
I have been planting hellebore seedlings into the border. There is a short window of opportunity. I don't put things in during December, the ground is bare and I disturb too many dormant plants.
By February the hellebores are all showing and the snowdrops are up. For a couple of weeks I can see where there are spaces. Now spring has fattened. Every spare inch in the hellebore border has filled with
bluebell shoots. I don't mind digging them up, there are plenty, but they disguise the spaces and make the bed look full. 'Lucy Black' hasn't made it into the ground yet and it is getting late.
I might plants a few more hellebores out this afternoon, but I think the moment may have passed.
26th March 2023
Paeonia corsica .
The new herbaceous border has started to sprout. The red and brown shoots of peonies are appearing. They look stronger than they did last year, it is good progress.
I had considered planting a lot more cheap peony crowns this year to fill the space, but they are very slow to establish. I'm not sure that I have the patience.
Last year I planted out both of my P. cambessedesii. They needed to be moved, their original location had become too shaded through the summer.
They didn't approve of the process but I have a single bud developing. I am tempted to put a cage around it to keep it safe from the deer. I'm sure peonies are distasteful
to deer, but they probably have to eat one to discover that and I only have one.
In the Agave house, P. corsica has opened its first flowers, an early sign that summer is coming. It will also have to be moved outside eventually, but I keep putting the moment off.
This autumn would be a good time for the move, but I will probably prevaricate. When I was a child I was mystified by the fanatical attention of people playing Space Invaders. I didn't
understand it. Since January I have been watching the buds on P. corsica developing with monomaniacal obsession. Now I get it.
26th March 2023
Tulipa sylvestris .
The new herbaceous border is developing slowly. The intention was to have a simple management plan and then see what I could grow that fitted in with it. In November I cut everything to the ground
with the lawnmower. A few weeks later I spray any green growth with herbicide, and that is the management for the year. I have a problem with weeds at the end of summer
but I like to think that it is an establishment problem. As the herbaceous plants establish, the weeds will be crowded out. It is a slow process.
I thought that I could speed things along by planting dahlias to fill the space. It seemed like a clever idea until the deer ate them all.
Spring growth has been more successful. The clear ground allows space for a lot of spring bulbs. I could have planted daffodils, but I really wanted to see if Tulipa sylvestris
would survive. The results have been encouraging, this has been the third good year for flowers and it presents a problem. Dutch breeders are constantly introducing new cultivars
and it seems to me that recent developments are more reliably perennial than the old varieties. I would love a patch of scarlet tulips in the border. I should stick with T.sylvestris,
every adult instinct tells me that less is more. The small child in me is waving scarlet tulips in my face and shouting that more is more.
I have the summer to think about it.