JEARRARD'S HERBAL
1st September 2024
Aechmea caudata 'Bicolor'
It has been a week for looking at things and taking stock. The weather has been on a hot-cold switchback ride and the garden is looking pensive. A week ago I went out in the gloom
of late evening to plant a Canna. I'm not expecting much from it this year but it stands more chance in the garden than fighting for space in the greenhouse.
I am hoping that there will be enough warm weather left in the autumn for it to establish securely.
While I was there, I lifted and split Colchicum agrippinum. It has been performing well in a pot for a decade, it is time to give it a try in the rocky end of the new herbaceous border.
I went up there yesterday in case it had started to flower but it is sensibly dormant. A couple of weeks and some decent showers will give it the best chance.
The greenhouse is still very summery and Aechmea caudata 'Bicolor' has flowered. It is a spectacular plant. I have grown it for many years and in that time I have only killed it once.
It sailed through the Beast-from-the-East undamaged. I had promised myself that I was going to split it this year but it is very prickly and I lost my nerve.
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1st September 2024
Gladiolus carmineus
A few weeks ago some strange stalks appeared in a bare pot in the Nerine house. They looked like vegetable Grass Eels standing tall. They are the flower spikes of
Gladiolus carmineus which is one of the accidental bulbs I grow. Over the years I have grown many Gladiolus species. It's a bit like collecting stamps
or cashmere cardigans. If I saw seed of a Gladiolus species I would give it a try. Some of them fitted into the management regime here, some of them didn't.
Gladiolus carmineus has been one of the best. It lives in the Nerine house and it seems to prosper in the same wet-dry cycle as the Nerine. Over the years it has increased slowly
and this year I have found a seedling in another pot. It is spreading. If I was more organised then I would collect the seed and grow a lot more of them. I don't mind if it moves in with the Nerine.
It flowers when there is very little activity going on and the small leaves, produced in spring, are not offensive in any way.
When the Nerine house flowers it is a glorious mixture of detail. I quite like the idea that in the weeks before that happened the greenhouse could host a uniform field of pink Gladiolus.
Last year the seed was shed before I noticed. This year I must be more attentive.
1st September 2024
Hedychium 'C. P. Raffill'
In the garden the signs of autumn are gathering. The Liquidambar has started to colour, the top branches are burnished with purple. Baby badgers have ripped through all the grass looking for worms.
It makes a terrible mess but all I can do is smile and try not to trip. Cyclamen hederifolium started to flower at the start of August but in the last few days the ground where they grow has been strewn
with early falling sycamore leaves. The Hedychium garden has become lush, the bananas growing alongside are looking as magnificent as they can. An unfortunate storm
now would start shredding the leaves and the exuberant tropical look would start to crumble. For now they are looking fabulous.
Hedychium 'C. P. Raffill' has reached a peak. Every year it seems to get better. At some point I will have to pay it a visit with a spade to control its spread
but I think I can leave it for another year (or maybe two).
Not far from it, H. 'Tara' is coming into spike and I am looking at the rest of the border wondering which others will flower this year.
1st September 2024
Nerine 'Mrs Goldsmith'
The Disa have finished flowering. When there is time I must go through them cutting off the old flower spikes. After a slow start, the autumn flowering Roscoea
are coming to a peak. If the cold weather arrives they will fade quite fast but already the Nerine are preparing to take over. N. masoniorum and N. macmasteri
have both got flowers. Among the N. sarniensis cultivars, both 'Catherine' and 'Mrs Goldsmith' have opened. Last week they were the only two flower spikes visible. This week there are dozens
poking up from the bulbs. I find it very reassuring. Every year I wonder if this is the time that I have killed all the Nerine. Too hot, too cold, too much water, too little.
I know they are tough old things, but there are months of dormancy when nothing happens and I can't help thinking occasionally that perhaps nothing ever will.
'Mrs Goldsmith' has emerged rather early this year to trounce pessimism.