JEARRARD'S HERBAL
21st July 2024
Disa
The week has been hot. Not the revitalising heat of an overwarm bath that wakes you up and hydrates you before it sucks all the energy out. This has been the sort of heat
that creeps into your bed in the morning to stop you sleeping and then takes away all your energy to stop you getting up. Several times this week I have found myself
lying in the bed thinking motivating thoughts of all the lovely things waiting to be done and discovered that motivating thoughts do not always lead to motion.
Sleepy stasis aside, it has been a week of action, a week of getting on with things before the time runs out. For a couple of weeks I have been sorting through
the Disa seedlings. Which am I going to keep, which am I going to register. It's a sort of thumb-twiddling in bright colour. Suddenly it felt more pressing.
The first flowers are fading. If I don't get it done now I have missed the chance for another year. This picture shows what I have selected.
I have gone away for the weekend so that I don't change my mind. Fortunately Wisley have a fern and carnivorous plant show on which has distracted me.
It was hot in Cornwall but it was scorching in Surrey.
21st July 2024
Crusea coccinea
Gardening here follows a simple process. Plants are grown in pots until the time is right to put them into the garden. Sometimes the time doesn't become right for a decade or so
but planting out is the ultimate plan. At least it is most of the time. Clivia and Nerine and Pyrrosia and ... well quite a lot of things actually,
will all be staying in pots. However it is quite clear. Things in the garden are looking after themselves. Things in pots are either alive or dead.
There are a few things that evade simple classification. Crusea coccinea was once in a pot in the Agave house but it escaped and now it runs around the floor as it pleases.
I can't imagine anything more charming. However there were some weeds in there and they were getting out of hand. Last year I took action and sprayed the ground with a herbicide.
It has brought the weeds back under control but I was afraid that I had taken out the Crusea at the same time. I should have taken cuttings first but I prevaricated.
In the end herbicide was the only way forward. A couple of scarlet flowers are a great relief, a delight and a prompt to finally propagate some more.
21st July 2024
Hoya carnosa
It never hurts to have a spare plant hanging around somewhere. I look forward to the flowering of Hoya carnosa every year.
I was sold this one as a "hardy form" and it has proved to be so. The only one I have heard of in a genus that you would not expect to have any hardy members.
I did wonder if the hardiness of the genus was simply overlooked. I tried a few others, all dead now. It may be that this is indeed a remarkable exception
in a genus of tender tropicals.
It was always a precious plant to me, but the realisation that it might be very special indeed sharpened my affection. I only have one plant,
it is vulnerable, I should grow another. I should do some proper cuttings and root them and pot them up carefully and all those sensible things.
Fortunately events overtook me. I tore a stem off accidentally while weeding around it. Placed in a pot, I think it has rooted. It isn't the
perfect technique of a skilled professional but it will do.
21st July 2024
Roscoea purpurea 'Red Sultan'
The greenhouse has been whispering all week that time is rolling on. Up in Surrey the earliest of the autumn daisies are in flower. Summer is high.
Roscoea purpurea started to grow new shoots a couple of weeks ago. The first of them is now flowering.
R. purpurea 'Red Sultan' has the sort of crimson flowers that you just don't see at the start of the year. They are reserved for dignified
tapestry gardens and the low late-summer sunshine.
I was enjoying this one in the greenhouse and speculationg about how jolly they would look when the plants outside started to flower. Then I
discovered that the plants outside had already started to flower. Time has been flying, the season of milk and honey is passing, it could be quite a sombre feeling.
On the other hand I was right, the plants outside did look jolly. I should plant some more in the garden and get them out of their pots at last.