JEARRARD'S HERBAL
31st December 2023
Rosa x odorata 'Viridiflora'
The winter solstice marks a change in the yearly cycle. Light starts to return to the garden and spring recovers its boing!
That isn't the way it has happened. The last days before the solstice were filled with a sparkling low light that slid down onto the ground like a flock of ducks landing in a lake.
Since then the skies have grown darker, the clouds have built and all of my pleas for rain in the summer have finally been answered. Hmmm!
Best not walk on the ground, best not think too much about the puddle on the floor of the conservatory. With luck it was a cat and not a leak. It seems unlikely
since I don't have the former and I do have the latter. In an update to the policy of 'Don't ask, don't tell', I'm going to go with 'Don't look, don't worry'.
The pot by my front door had a plant of Helleborus niger that has decorated the festive season for a few years, but it had grown tired. It has been replaced by a Polypodium
that should flourish in the shade and bring some welcome fresh green leaves to winter. I have to look further into the garden for fresh green flowers.
Rosa x odorata 'Viridiflora' will have to be my Christmas Rose.
31st December 2023
Correa alba 'Pinkie'
The week between Christmas and the New Year is a no-man's land of inactivity. Anything that was unfinished in the garden at Christmas is going to remain unfinished.
Anything that needs doing will have to wait until the New Year. I have a week of looking at things as they are rather than as I need to make them,
or as they are going to be unless I intervene. The only exception I make in this lethargic last week is among the Sarracenia. This is the week for cutting back the old growth
and preparing for spring. There was a time when it was a week-long job but the collection has been streamlined, the work reduced. I got it all done on Boxing day.
Correa alba 'Pinkie' fits the mood of the week perfectly. It flowers throughout late autumn in a cheerfully relaxed way. It will continue for several weeks into
next year, but this week is a pinnacle of casual lethargy.
Still here, still flowering, no bother mate.
31st December 2023
Grevillea victoriae
Grevillea victoriae has a similar after-the-party glow about its flowers. The main event happened in November but it will continue to produce a trickle of
flowers through until March. These few flowers have a richer, more powerful impact than the main display. They are the half bottle of wine that you finish off the next day.
Warm, mellow and enticing, they haven't the power or purpose of the main event, there is no sense of expectation or obligation. This is just a rich garden garnish.
It is nice to have a flash of scarlet at the top of the garden. There are enough camellias and snowdrops up there, flowering in tentative tones, to welcome spring.
A burst of Australian summer sunshine is a very welcome touch of globalisation.
The new herbaceous border is ready for the new season. In the last few days before Christmas I was able to pile a couple of inches of top-soil over the whole thing.
The terrace it is built on was cut out of the hill with a digger. The border is mostly wheel ruts and rock. I am slowly planting things in it that can tolerate the conditions
but they will all be happier with a bit more soil. I added the earth and filled in the ruts with days to spare. The management plan has me off the bed by the end of December
to let the first crocus emerge safely. Yesterday I saw that the Tulipa sylvestris shoots had appeared through it. Just in time!
31st December 2023
Utricularia reniformis
Last week the greenhouse was sleeping. There are a few Nerine still hanging on and the last of the Stenoglottis are still flowering but they
are slow to sleep rather than early to rise. Most of the plants in the greenhouse are cold-haters, things that perform best in the heat of summer
and then rest as peacefully as they can through the cold of winter. The orchids are shivering a bit, the Clivia are holding their breath.
Both groups would appreciate some bright sunshine. They wouldn't appreciate the cold nights that followed. January is looking a little colder. It isn't welcome but it is inevitable.
Despite the uncertainty of the season, Utricularia reniformis has flowered. This is a seedling plant that started to produce a flower spike in September,
for reasons best known to itself. I have watched it develop, assuming that a cold night would finish it off. I am amazed that the flower opened properly this morning.
The species is quite tough. I have seen it growing rampantly in tropical grow-cases but it also tolerates a frost or two, dropping leaves of it gets grumpy but bouncing back
with vigour in the spring. I see its behaviour as a sign of the weather to come.
Unpredictable.