JEARRARD'S HERBAL
17th September 2023
Nerine 'Sir Peter Smithers'
The hot weather at the start of September ended this week without really ending. We didn't have a weather system that moved in and displaced the heat, I just woke up on Monday morning and it had gone.
Then it came back, and then went again. By the end of the week it was hot, the garden looked dry and only the leaves on the Liquidambar hinted at autumn. I awoke this morning to the sound of rain.
There is a cheerful tinkling coming from the water tanks in the greenhouse as they fill and a welcome (if unwelcome) drip from the side of the house where the gutter overflows.
In the garden the autumn anemones are marking the season. This morning's rain will give them a burst of life and extend the flowering season for as month. I don't have many, but they fill
an important gap in the garden. I want to plant some more in the new herbaceous border, but I'm frightened to in case they misbehave.
The season has really been marked by the arrival of the autumn bulbs, both literally and in terms of development. In the Nerine house, flowers have started to appear.
N. 'Sir Peter Smithers' is fairly new in the collection but is making an impact.
In a more literal sense, bulbs of Narcissus 'Rijnvelds Early Sensation' have arrived and been planted.
There is a gap in the meadow where they grow and I wanted to fill it. Only time will tell if I have managed to plant them in the right place.
17th September 2023
Colchicum autumnale 'Alboplenum'
I would like more Colchicum in the garden, but I don't know where to put them. Every now and then I fall for their promise, and the plump beauty of their golden bulbs
in the sale season. Then I can't find anywhere suitable to grow them.
Colchicum autumnale 'Alboplenum' is a perfect example. At the back of the new herbaceous border I laid a strip of ground cover plastic mulch to control the weeds.
I have planted some palms in it. One day they will be magnificent (perhaps). The future is full of possibilities. To hold the plastic down I put some tubs of soil on it,
which have kept it in place despite the wind. I couldn't find anywhere for the Colchicum, so it went into one of the tubs. It isn't a good solution, but it has given me a couple of years to think about
something more permanent. Inspiration has not yet struck.
On the plus side, the Colchicum seems perfectly happy, and the palms aren't going to overshadow the space for a decade or so. I can worry about it another day.
17th September 2023
x Amarcrinum memoria-corsii 'Fred Howard'
It has been a remarkable year for the flowering of Amaryllis here. One of them did!
Carried away with enthusiasm by their bounty, I have started to clear a space in front of the house to plant some more. They will be in full sun, they will be dry, they will be protected.
It is bound to be a sensation. 51% of me believes that, the other 49% of me looks at the rubble that has to be cleared from the soil and wonders if it is worth it.
However, the decision has been made, the bulbs are sitting in the hall needing to be planted. With or without the rubble they will have to go into the ground soon.
x Amarcrinum 'Fred Howard' is a second success for the year. I have grown x Amarcrinum under a range of names for decades, and my experience has always been that they don't flower.
Suddenly, in the last few years, I have seen some blooms. Possibly I am getting better at cultivating them, but I'm not sure. I think it is just as likely
that they have simply taken forty years to settle in.
I will try to make some new hybrids with the x Amarcrinum. They will flower at the same time as the new bed of Amaryllis.
I'm not even 51% convinced of that.
17th September 2023
Galanthus reginae-olgae 'Blanc de Chine'
Are gardeners more forgetful that everyone else? Does weeding empty the memory?
The garden follows the seasons with clockwork regularity, yet I am always surprised. Two things have caught me off guard this week. The first was Utricularia subulata.
I have been trying to get a decent picture of it. I have never bought the plant, but I get an occasional flower stem that appears in a pot of Utricularia dichotoma.
I spent an hour yesterday trying to photograph it. As I left, I turned around and realised that it had seeded through one of the water beds, spangling the surface with golden blooms.
It's a weed; I know it; it has been demonstrated; it was wonderful.
The second surprise was the arrival of the snowdrops, I wasn't expecting them until October. I grow the autumn snowdrops among the Nerine, protected from the worst of the western wetness.
They whisper very quietly among the cacophony of colour. It's the sort of whisper that you can hear from 100m away.
G. 'Blanc de Chine' has settled in, the flowers are pure white after a green-dotted establishment period.
I have stacked wood in the woodshed. Last night I put my winter duvet on the bed.
A Comma butterfly rested in the late sunshine on the burnished purple Liquidambar leaves. I shouldn't be surprised.
I blame the weeding.