JEARRARD'S HERBAL
22nd October 2023
Galanthus 'Kinn McIntosh'
It feels as though the pantomime season has started. The garden has been warm but cold weather seems to be lurking unseen. "It's behind you", although of course it is really
still to come. I have started to watch the weather forecast with interest. A clear night could see a sudden drop in overnight temperatures and at the end of October
a quick overnight frost is not out of the question. I read a statistical review where the Met Office were patting themselves on the back at their accuracy.
92% of their forecasts predicted temperatures to within 2deg C. It's not very helpful when half a degree more or less is the difference between a frost-blasted garden
or another day of autumn.
Sometimes I wonder whether I need to grow the autumn snowdrops in the Nerine house and then thoughts of the happy forecasters bring me to my senses.
Galanthus 'Kinn McIntosh' is very comfortable there and is bulking up in a very gratifying way. Outside it would have to grow in light shade and I
don't think it would appreciate the cold, wet mornings. It has developed carol-singer poise as a clump, which was unexpected. Some snowdrops form choirs, others
make rowdy mobs. It has a significant influence on their effect in the garden.
22nd October 2023
Hedychium
A long, warm end to summer has helped the Hedychium. The weather has also been wet, which suits them very well. This is the lushest year they have had since they were planted out,
it has also been the best year for flowering. For the first time ever I have been able to look down the bed and see a scattering of flowers through the whole thing.
I don't grow Hedychium for their flowers, I grow them for the sustained exotic thrill that lasts from the first red shoots in spring to the final frost-shattered finale.
I even enjoy the dead stems in exhausted piles as they turn to yellow and brown, but the flowers are a welcome extra.
I'm not so thrilled by the boiled-cabbage stink of the frosted growth. When they were in the greenhouse it was overwhelming. I used to pop in and out after a frosty day
just to be disgusted in a proud, hedychium-grower way. Nobody else in the village has a winter greenhouse as repulsive as this!
Now they are planted out, the smell is dispersed. My Hedychium are planted along the road boundary. If we get a sharp frost I will share the smell with the world.
Gardening brings us together.
22nd October 2023
Dendrobium Candy 'Mornington'
I am over-sensitised to frost this year. I know it has happened and I try to keep it in mind. I live in a mild climate where damaging frosts are uncommon.
Last winter was uncommon and I am still smarting. A couple of severe radiation frosts caught the garden, and the gardener, unprepared. After that the winter was relatively mild
but two hard frosts at the start of December did some serious damage.
Out in the garden plants were knocked into dormancy, some may even have been set back by the experience. The real trouble came in the greenhouse where plants that were still in growth
got fried overnight. Many of the Clivia got badly damaged leaves. Fortunately a warm summer and some determined care have allowed most of them to recover.
The real tragedy struck among the orchids, and particularly the Dendrobium. All were hit, many were badly damaged, several were killed outright. I haven't cleared the dead ones away yet.
I have been clinging to hope but the time has come to let go.
Dendrobium Candy 'Mornington' flowers in the darkest days. It always struggles with low temperatures and mildew attacks but last year the flowers were destroyed and the plant defoliated.
Things didn't look good, but through the summer it produced a good new shoot, and one of the old canes has flowered. I am over-sensitised to frost this year, but feeling hopeful.
22nd October 2023
Galanthus 'Santa Claus'
There is a shocking price to pay for hope and the universe seldom misses an opportunity to exact payment. However, the price is often fixed at the outset. I have planted 15 Crocus speciosus
under the trees at the top of the garden. It is quite dry up there, and quite sunny. They may survive. There is nowhere else in the garden that they persist but they may survive up there.
I would like them to, I hope they will but if the universe becomes malicious then the price has already been set at £3.49 (at a garden centre near you)!
Snowdrops are not as easily shrugged off. With a name like 'Santa Claus' I had hoped for a Christmas treat. I like the snowdrops that flower before Christmas, they dispel the sense of foreboding
that hangs over late autumn. Cold is coming, it's going to be terrible, oh look the snowdrops are here, nuts to it all then.
With November looming I went looking for 'Remember Remember' to hasten away the awful anticipation of winter and instead I found 'Santa Claus'. Not before the slugs had found him,
but they had left enough for me to enjoy. I assume that the warm weather has hastened it into flower out of sequence. The arrival of snowdrops in the garden as the
Hedychium have reached a crescendo is very satisfying.
I have had my Christmas present early, so this year my letter to Santa Claus will say:
"Dear Santa, mind out for the slugs"!