JEARRARD'S HERBAL
24th March 2024
Magnolia 'Star Wars'
It is very clear that spring has arrived. I am drawn into the garden at every spare moment and there are very few spare moments. I don't know what happens to time during the spring
but something happens. During the winter I can sit in the garden and stare contentedly at a patch of bare soil, enjoying the prospect of things to come.
Now things have actually come, I am lucky if I get to glance at them as I pass by. I can't believe that it's just because I go to more flower shows in the spring.
It seems to be something about the nature of Spring. I went to Falmouth Spring Show this morning and discovered that in Falmouth it is already summer. People were wearing shorts or sun glasses.
It's an either/or thing, Falmouth can be quite racy.
Back home and the garden is suddenly full of Magnolia. 'Star Wars' is performing well, it is recovering slowly from damage a couple of years ago (I felled a tree that landed on it).
The flowers are unmarked by frost or rain. I planted a few new plants in the garden today and hope we get some rain shortly. It seems ridiculous to suggest that the soil will dry out
but that is going to happen over the next few weeks. On the optimistic side, the fine lawn around the bandstand in Falmouth was a quagmire of mud and despair. Summer may have arrived but there was nobody
brave enough to sunbathe on the grass.
24th March 2024
Erythronium hendersonii
It has been a good week for the large Magnolia. Last year I planted almost a dozen more. Some will survive and some won't, so this year is for taking stock
and seeing what happens. It has also been a good week for the early Erythronium, flowers have been opening by the day. If I took a camera up to the Erythronium bed
today then I would find things that I hadn't noticed yesterday. Cool weather now would cool their passion and keep the display going for longer.
Erythronium hendersonii has been a splendid thing that has made a good clump over the last few years. I am wondering if the time has come to split it.
I didn't have a plan for the surplus that would be produced, but I am thinking about planting them among my E. 'Pagoda'. It flowers two or three weeks before the
'Pagoda' really get going. Perhaps I could have more in that bed without compromising the effect. If the E. hendersonii set seed then the matter would be taken out of my hands.
I would have raised a hundred by now and they would have to be planted somewhere. As it is, the decision is to split or not to split?
24th March 2024
Fritillaria meleagris
If I look back at the things I have planted over the years, it is clear that most things have died. It's not a bad thing, it's a sorting process.
Those things that are suited to the garden have prospered and the feeble things have gone. In the process there have been one or two surprises.
In 2007 I planted a handful of fritillary bulbs in the meadow. It was just a test to see if they would survive. They flowered in the first year
and then dwindled away. I wasn't heartbroken, it was a test to see if it would work and it didn't. The meadow is shaded and sloping and not as moist as
I would like. I abandoned hope of a sward of fritillaries.
Things are rarely that simple. Two plants survived from the original group. A decade and a half later I have three plants, they are increasing.
So yesterday I bought three pots of Fritillaria meleagris in flower and planted them in the meadow. Perhaps they will survive after all. I may have judged the situation
too hastily. The vendor assured me with conviction that they would love the conditions in my meadow. Perhaps they will.
24th March 2024
Pleione Jorullo 'Long Tailed Tit'
Spring has coaxed me out into the garden and it means that the greenhouse has been neglected. I need to spend some serious time out there sorting things out before the summer warmth
gets out of control. Without me noticing, the Pleione have started to flower. I meant to repot them all through the winter but somehow the time never appeared.
It is one of those jobs that you just have to get on with. If you wait for the right moment it never happens and that was how things went.
Now I have to decide if it is better to leave them alone for another year or pot them up carefully at the wrong time.
P. Jorullo 'Long Tailed Tit' is looking good but a number of others are looking a bit tired. In the event I will probably repot the worst of them
and leave the rest. It's an untidy compromise, but that is often the way.