JEARRARD'S HERBAL
30th June 2024
Gladiolus cardinalis pink form
With barely a silver shimmer of mist, the garden has slipped from the cool memory of spring into the dead drought of summer. A deluge last week filled the Disa tanks, but I had
to do them again on Wednesday. The water level was looking a bit low, and when they dry out they do it very suddenly.
I have also been carrying cans of water into the garden. I wouldn't water things generally, but for some reason the garden centres have been stocking some very interesting trees
this summer. I have wanted the yellow leaved Lime, Tilia europaea 'Wratislaviensis' for a long time. The end of June is not the ideal time to acquire one
but you have to take the opportunity when it arises. It went straight into the ground. I could have kept it in a pot until autumn, but it wouldn't have been happy.
Planted out and watered, it does at least have grounds for a proper sulk.
The Nerine house got its first serious watering of the season. It needs some serious weeding as well before the flower spikes start to emerge but I'm sure there will be some cool evenings.
Outside the Nerine house door, this Gladiolus has flowered. I got it as the pink form of Gladiolus cardinalis from an unimpeachable source, but it is clear that it is just a pink
G. nanus seedling. It is lovely, but it can do outside.
I have modified my opinion. Almost unimpeachable source.
30th June 2024
Typhonium horsfieldii
Under the heavy shade of summer, little things are sputtering with discreet charm. Typhonium horsfieldii came to me from China decades ago when such things were possible.
I can't remember what it was called at the time, but it certainly wasn't Typhonium horsfieldii. The plants arrive, the proper names follow later.
It grows very easily, it isn't particularly fussy, and at one point I had a great tub of it in the greenhouse. Slowly it went backwards and a couple of years ago I thought that I had lost it completely.
A single summery leaf emerged, the last sign of its existence in the pot. I rescued it, hoped that it wouldn't object to being moved in full growth,
and repotted it. Vigorous growth has resumed. It seems to have more flowers than leaves.
My plan is to grow it on for a bit, and then start planting divisions outside. Hopefully it will prosper and be less liable to the vicissitudes of life in a pot.
30th June 2024
Rubus fruticosus 'Reps'
It is the time of year when the long arms of the brambles reach out over hedges and paths. It is a burst of enthusiasm for growth that doesn't last for long.
As the heat of summer builds the tips of the shoots turn to flower buds or bury themselves in the ground to produce new plantlets. They are allowed to reach out, and in a few weeks they can be cut back.
They are unlikely to try a second expansion on the same scale.
In the shady corridor at the back of the house I grow two selected brambles. R. fruticosus 'Variegatus' is a charming old variety. It isn't very vigorous
and it is pretty enough to deserve a protected space. The yellow leaved R. fruticosus 'Reps' is much newer. Collected by Bob Brown
from a roadside in Albania, it seems to be more vigorous. It might even hold its own in the wider garden. For now I am content to let it fill a tub in the shade of the house.
When I took photographs a fortnight ago, I noticed some distinctive feeding notches in the leaves. This week the culprit is out in the open.
Unarmed stick insects from New Zealand are naturalised in Cornwall, though in forty years I have never found them feeding on the brambles here before.
Perhaps it walked here by itself, but I suspect some entomological skulduggery has occurred.
30th June 2024
Cyclamen hederifolium
The most poignant arrival in the garden this week has been the flowering of the first Cyclamen. Down in the greenhouse, the last flowers of
C.purpurascens are fading. I think of it as the last of the Cyclamen to flower.
Further up in the garden, under the Sycamore trees, the first C. hederifolium are in bloom, announcing the start of a new autumn season.
I usually mow the border under the Sycamores in the first couple of weeks in July so that it is tidy for the Cyclamen when they emerge at the end of July or early August.
A heavy downpour last week has convinced them that the autumn rains have started. The first flowers emerged a day or two later.
They have produced the first leaves as well, so mowing the border will have to wait until next year. I will make a mental note to mow earlier next year
and not wait for the last possible moment.
The other bulbs of autumn will be preparing to flower. Perhaps I should prioritise weeding the Nerine before I get caught out.