JEARRARD'S HERBAL
28th April 2024
Camellia 'Spring Festival'
It has felt like a big week. Nothing much has happened but the world got bigger. The introspective mists and cloud of winter lifted. In the far distance, sunshine lit the coast
and the landscape expanded in its light. The tectonic plates of spring and summer ground together in the sky and the first swallows slipped between them.
It has been hot and cold, bright and dull. Yesterday an unexpected torrent of rain briefly turned the road into a mountain stream to the despair of cyclists and the delight of 4x4 drivers.
Through the drama, the camellias have continued. It has been a good season, the early flowers came very early. Mid-season flowers were well protected from frost
and the late flowers have plastered the landscape like an explosion in a blancmange factory. C. 'Spring Festival' is celebrating the partial removal of a large
Clematis montana that had fallen on it from the tree above. I haven't managed to remove it all, there is still an elephants nest dangling above it, but I have removed all that I can conveniently reach.
Perhaps in the summer I will get the scaffold tower out and remove the rest. Perhaps I will continue to hope for a strong breeze, enough to remove the dead Clematis
without knocking over the dying Liriodendron that is holding it up.
28th April 2024
Iris Pacific Coast Seedling
Down in the greenhouse the Disa are rising up, intent on flowering. There isn't any colour showing yet but it can't be long. As they stretch upwards in anticipation, the Pacific Coast Iris
have stolen their thunder. Last week I had a couple of stray blooms hinting at the colour to come, this week the bench is alive with charms, some old, some new.
Through the winter I looked at the untidy plants and wondered if the time had come to thin them out. They come into flower and all is forgiven. The display
doesn't last for long but as it fades the Disa burst onto the scene like the announcement of a much anticipated election. Suddenly everything that was happening before
pales into insignificance.
This is an open pollinated seedling from Iris 'Laureles'. I like the netted veins in the falls. I intend to use it as a parent, I will probably get around to
pollinating it. I might not remember to harvest the seed in autumn. Last years seed all fell onto the floor while I fussed with Disa. There is a dynamic tension between the two groups.
I am wondering if I can make it easier by simplifying things in the greenhouse. It's a thought in progress.
28th April 2024
Pleione Stromboli 'Fireball'
Beyond the Iris are the Pleione. I have been experimenting with cultivation techniques in the greenhouse. People think I am mad and very politely don't say it.
I think that I am learning something and very slowly refining my technique. If the plants think anything, they keep it to themselves.
It has been a moderate season for the Pleione. They all needed repotting last year and there simply wasn't time. Part of the plan in the greenhouse is to reduce the complexity
and make things easier to manage. In the process, something will have to go. That is the sticking point.
Pleione Stromboli 'Fireball' has been in flower for several weeks. The last flowers just about hung on for the local Orchid Society show yesterday. It was touch and go.
One of the plants I had picked out faded overnight before the show was staged. Pleione fading, Disa not yet in flower. The Pacific Coast Iris fill the gap nicely for me
but I don't think the Orchid Society would have welcomed them.
28th April 2024
Camellia 'Margaret Davis'
Camellias have not featured heavily on the blog this year though they have been impressive in the garden. There is a problem with camellias that is difficult to grasp.
They go on for too long. Every time I pick out a picture I put it aside. It will still be there next week, I will use it later, there might be nothing else to show.
The camellias are endlessly being put off for another day, until the season is ending and I have had enough of them.
In November last year the first flowers on 'November Pink' were a delightful promise that winter might be dark but it wouldn't be dull. The same cultivar still flowering at the end
of April has outstayed it's moment. It only had two flowers this week, I was tempted to remove them.
As the season warms and the brambles start to grow again, I have been hacking around at the top of the garden clearing camellias from their prickly embrace. I have released 'Margaret Davis'
from obscurity. I damaged the flower in the process but since I had forgotten the plant was there it is a small indignity. The flower should fall but it probably won't.
The problem with camellias is that they don't know when to leave.
I have a few camellia seedlings. I might name them after politicians but I'm not sure there is anybody I want to remember.