JEARRARD'S HERBAL
28th July 2024
Disa
The garden is alive with the bright colours of summer and yet the whole place seems drenched in heavy green shade. I went out with a camera in the low, landscape-slicing sunshine of
Friday evening, hoping that flowers would glow like illuminated jewels. I got back into the house with a camera full of blurred and overexposed pictures where low light levels and strange
angles had defeated me. Good idea, poor execution.
If I want colour, the best place is still the greenhouse where the Disa chromoparty is slowly dancing its way to exhaustion. I finally had time to do some pollination during the week.
One more session and I will have more than enough pods to cope with. Without my assistance the plants are already setting seed. I have never seen it happen, but pollinators are clearly carrying
orchid pollen from one plant to the next. I haven't seen it happen, but I know how easily the pollen masses are detached. If I walk along the paths between the plants I come out with
orchid pollinia stuck all over my t-shirt, attached by their viscidia. They are remarkably adhesive. It takes quite a tug to remove them. Any that are missed pass through the washing machine
still attached, though I doubt the pollen is still viable.
These are the last weeks. There are still a lot of late flowering plants to bloom, but they will flower like irritatingly enthusiastic young people still dancing in the after-party detritus.
Don't you know tomorrow is a school day!
28th July 2024
Hemerocallis 'Bess Vestal'
The Hemerocallis have had a good year. They flower reliably but they aren't always good. Low temperatures and wet weather help them to make good stocky clumps of foliage
through the spring and they had plenty of both this year. Good light as the buds form leads to rich colours. It was quite dull as the season started but the sun has come out now
and light rainfall has kept the soil damp. Conditions have become perfect.
I have pictures from a couple of weeks ago of 'Red Marvel' failing to live up to either part of its name. This week it has fulfilled its promise. Unfortunately 'White Temptation' has followed its example
and flowered red. It is very frustrating when you buy a dormant plant and get the wrong thing. I understand how easily it happens but it is still very frustrating. I guess the only answer
is to buy them in flower but the spring catalogues are so tempting.
'Bess Vestal' has been growing here for a long time. Like 'Red Marvel', she was less impressive a couple of weeks ago, but the sun has come out. She is quite old (1949)
but she is a good red and makes a reliable display. 'Stafford' (1959) is possibly more compact and possibly a better red, but the flowers are held deeper between the leaves
and the whole thing is less showy.
28th July 2024
Acis autumnalis
Last week, Prospero obtusifolium appeared in flower. This week I finally got around to clearing the weed from the pots of autumn flowering bulbs. Barnardia japonica
has flower spikes forming but so far there is little else in growth. A couple of late onions are thinking about action but if previous years are anything to go by,
they will carry on thinking about it for a couple of months yet.
Just a single pot of Acis autimnalis has appeared to reinforce the autumnal message. I'm not quite sure why it is here. I have been slowly controlling it as it spreads by seed from pot to pot.
Rather like Habranthus tubispathus and Freesia laxa, it will invade other pots with enthusiasm if then opportunity arises. I don't want to destroy any of them
(although I wouldn't miss the Habranthus if it all died) but I don't like them getting into pots of small bulbs. Things get very muddled and confused.
This pot, for example, is labelled Acis nicaeensis. I don't know when the A. autumnalis got in there, but it is the only occupant now.
It's a pretty thing. It gives advance warning that the seasons are moving along. I have been down to the Dendrobium bench pointing out the facts of life.
Get on with it, you've only got a couple of months growing time left this year. Slothful, every last one of them.
The pot of Acis will be moved so that the ripening seed heads don't cause any more trouble or confusion. Perhaps they would be safe among the Sarracenia.
28th July 2024
Nerine
The time has come to start watering the Nerine house. I did it a fortnight ago, and I did it again yesterday. Already there are some signs that the bulbs have started to move.
A few leaf tips have appeared among the N. sarniensis forms. I have the first flower on an early hybrid and I searched among the grassy foliage of N. masoniorum
for signs of their thread-like flower spikes. Nothing yet, but it won't be long.
The greenhouse itself is looking very yellow. Last year's foliage is still lying in bleached masses over the pots. Any day now I will remove it and start the process of getting the place tidy
for the new flowering season. The peripatetic party of colour will move to a new location.
The large pots of Nerine will perform for many months through the autumn but when they are dormant there isn't much else going on in the greenhouse. This is where the stray Acis
bulbs end up, dibbled into the side of the Nerine. The Habranthus live here as well, fitting into the regime without difficulty. There are a couple of Gladiolus species
in there and a handful of Freesia to add variety. Narcissus romieuxii wouldn't grow but Cyclamen coum has prospered. As the complexity of the bulb population in the Nerine house
increases, my job has been to leave it alone.
The Nerine will start to flower and with them the autumn snowdrops will begin. Is it too early to think about winter?