JEARRARD'S HERBAL
23rd July 2023
Agave mitis .
Gardens are ruthlessly accurate. Perhaps it is just evolution in action, there are no spare resources, but gardens tell the tale without mercy. I am a little tatty around the edges
and my garden makes it very clear. I also have a bald patch, but perhaps that is carrying an analogy a bit too far. Gardens reflect their location without regard to the gardener's
conceit. I grew up gardening in Essex. I moved forty years ago, many of the plants moved with me (in a big van), but there is a little part of the idea of the garden that is still stuck in Essex.
Part of me still doesn't believe that this Agave is flowering outside. I am planting ridiculous plants in the garden and still discovering that it isn't the plant that is ridiculous, it is me.
Nerium oleander is flowering in the top of the garden. I dumped it there to die when it became impossibly infested with pests in the greenhouse. A dozen years later it is thriving,
and deserves a decent location. I had three Agave mitis planted in the greenhouse when they were small. They didn't stay small for long. This one was only planted out beside the house
because it was being squeezed out by its neighbours. It has been a great success, I wish I had put them all out. The other two haven't flowered, and they're too big to move now.
Gardens develop without pity. All the pity is all concentrated into the pictures. Pictures of gardens show the glory, and distract attention from the tattiness and the bald patch. The sun is always shining in the garden,
as it does on the sea and the surf. Cornwall is paradise with pasties.
Despite the pictures, it rained this week. The sky has been grey, the wind gentle but cold. The schools broke up, the holidays started, the roads have been impassable at times.
Cornwall in the garden in summer, with an Agave.
23rd July 2023
Hemerocallis 'Chicago Apache' .
As the shrubby elements in the garden develop, the herbaceous plants are pushed aside. The herbaceous border has needed serious attention for years, but there is never time.
Slowly the trees and shrubs around it are expanding, the shade is increasing, and the herbaceous border is becoming generic 'undergrowth'. I don't object to the process,
it is solving a problem that I wasn't dealing with, but the past still echoes. There is still a trace of yearning for Hemerocallis, like a niggle or an insect bite
that mustn't be scratched. I had a big collection of very old day-lilies when I moved here. I still have many of them asleep along the paths like forgetful old-folk, many have forgotten their names
or lost their sense of purpose. They sit in the soft sunshine casting shadowy memories of the past. I have good records, I could probably reunite them with their names,
but is it humane? Their gentle anonymity protects the wonder of their times.
And the times have changed. I scratch the itch occasionally. I bought H. 'Chicago Apache' in 2007. It was raised in 1981, a very modern cultivar by this garden's standards.
It is bright and brash and floriferous. It is wonderful, and unfortunately it puts the old-folk in the shade. I try not to swamp the garden with bright young things, they are unproven in this climate.
They are full of verve, but do they have staying power?
This year's addition was H. 'Arctic Snow' (1985). The old-folk are clicking their teeth and tut-tutting.
23rd July 2023
Hoya carnosa .
Every Good Boy Deserves Favours but Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. Others had more interesting lives. King Phillip Came Over For Good Sex.
You've got to speculate to accumulate, and you might find that reckless planting delivers results. It makes you think, doesn't it. That is the whole point of mnemonics, I haven't just gone mad.
Ok, perhaps a little mad, but it does lead me to Hoya. It is a large genus from Asia that grow in warm woodlands, sometimes as climbers and often epiphytically.
The recent upsurge in interest in house plants has carried them back into the limelight because they do well on warm windowsills.
The urge to plant recklessly led me back to Hoya carnosa which I have killed repeatedly in the past. I was promised that this one was special and had survived in an unheated poly-tunnel.
It seemed unlikely for a plant that includes East India, Malaysia and Fiji in its distribution, but reckless is as reckless does. Try it and see. I can report that it does very well for me in a cold greenhouse.
it flowers well every year, grows enthusiastically and sails through winter without damage. I must root one and see it it grows on the south wall of the house. That would be a thing to brag about.
Hoya carnosa has been such a success that I have tried a couple more. Perhaps I have judged the whole genus unfairly. H. c. 'Tricolor' is a variegated form that seemed worth a try.
H. australis comes from the same parts of Queensland as some of my Dendrobium and I hoped the same greenhouse would suit it. Both died at the first sign of an autumn chill.
Hoya carnosa, How Outstanding You Are.
23rd July 2023
Roscoea nepalensis .
Dull and overcast weather has delivered delightful conditions for photography. I have spent a lot of time in the evenings this week photographing the Disa.
It is much easier to get good colour reproduction in dull weather. When the sun shines, the pale flowers get over-exposed. I can meddle with the camera settings
to correct it, but who has time to mess about when there are several hundred Disa to do. In dull conditions the camera does it well on automatic. Point and click,
my sort of photography.
I have been growing Roscoea nepalensis since 2005 and in all that time I have scarcely managed a decent picture of it in flower. It has a very short season in the middle of summer.
My pictures end up showing a pure white blob in a sea of green. Rainy weather gave me a chance and I took it. Not the best picture, but I have done much worse. If I get any more flowers next week I will
have another go.
It would be nice to think that I might get some rainy weather to help the process, you won't notice it in the pictures.