JEARRARD'S HERBAL
15th September 2024
Nerine sarniensis
It has been a quiet week. The sun has shone but it hasn't been warm. Enough rain has fallen to mean the ground is moist. The badgers are having a wonderful time ripping up the grass
looking for worms, or treasure, or whatever it is that badgers look for. Yesterday I had a short drive on the lawnmower to explore the badger-corrugated ground.
I assume that if they keep tearing it up into smaller pieces it will eventually become level again.
The colour in the garden is escaping like the early morning vapours of autumn, rising up into the trees. The colour is leaving the Hydrangea flowers
and being replaced with dull, earthy tones. Meanwhile the colour is being trapped in the trees. Liquidambar styraciflua 'Worplesdon' has turned deep copper-orange at the top.
In the coming weeks it will turn red and then purple before the leaves finally fall.
In a bed by the house, Nerine sarniensis is flowering. For several years I have been dumping the unwanted seedlings in the garden to take their chances.
It is very cheering that they survive well enough to flower. This is one from my purple breeding group, judged not 'special' enough to retain. In the garden it looks stronger and richer
but this is no time for reconsideration. It is hard enough to part with seedlings without changing my mind every year. If it prospers outside for a decade than it is special,
otherwise it remains an 'also-ran'.
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15th September 2024
Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Blackfield'
Through the last twenty years my hair has thinned and become patchy to the point that it is now more of a garnish than a head covering. Over the same period of time
the herbaceous border has done the same thing. When I planted it, it was the first time that the garden had been sufficiently under control to risk herbaceous planting.
I had a whale of a time filling the space with every delightful little scrap that I could find. It soon became clear that I had overfilled it, there was no way to get in and do any maintenance.
I started the process of removing things and simplifying. Many of the things I had planted were not happy in the Cornish climate. Asters were too damp, saxifrages got eaten by vine-weevil.
Phlox were eaten by deer and lupins simply vanished overnight. Twenty years later the border has thinned and become patchy to the point that the plants are now more of a garnish than a covering.
Slowly I am addressing the issues. Some of the spaces are being filled with shrubs and trees. Some of the successful species are being spread more widely. Amongst the triumphs of the border
has been Persicaria amplexicaulis (yes, I know the name has changed again) and I have seriously considered handing the whole border over to its various colour forms. It is strong growing,
reliable and in flower for months through summer and autumn.
If they were all as compact and floriferous as 'Blackfield' them I would be more tempted to try, unfortunately some of them are much taller and more thuggish. I might try a subtle blend of
Persicaria and Hedychium to see if that makes an unexpected cure for baldness.
15th September 2024
Hedychium 'Tara'
The Hedychium bed has been a joy. Once I had got used to the idea that it spent six months of the year asleep, I started to enjoy the raunchy seasonality of its growth.
Sometime at the end of May, the new shoots finally appear and make their mark. After a long winter period, the fallen stems from last year melt back into the undergrowth.
Hedychium have astonishing flowers that command attention but the Hedychium border works because of their leaves. The flowers provide a sensational flourish for
a week at the end of the year (if you are lucky).
'Tara' has been in bloom for a fortnight and is one of the most reliable in the garden. I have many others that I have grown for years and never seen in flower.
I am sure they would be lovely, but they have yet to prove it. The point of growing Hedychium is the stems and leaves. For me, planting them outside was a revelation.
The leaves form perfect ranks up the stems and the sunlight weaves in and out of them, illuminating and shimmering. It has the same attraction as rippling water in the garden.
I don't have a stream, but I do have a Hedychium border. For six months of the year it is a joy. I should probably extend it, throw in some Persicaria, have a laugh.
15th September 2024
Nerine (masoniorum x Catherine)
As the colour leaves the autumn garden the ground is clearing. I have sprayed off the annual weeds in the snowdrop bed, the ground is almost ready for their emergence.
Down in the Nerine house, the autumn activity has started. Yesterday I spent a happy half hour peering at the gravel topping looking for the first signs of autumn snowdrops.
I couldn't see anything, but it is still early. In the next few weeks the noses will appear and shoot to flower in a couple of days.
Around them, the Nerine are bustling about busily. Among the seedlings there are new flower spikes emerging and the excitement of expectation is strong.
This is the first flowering of a cross between N. masoniorum and 'Catherine'. It's a lovely little thing, about 30cm tall with delicate pink flowers.
Beside it I have pots of seedlings that I had intended to split up and repot this year. It didn't happen, pot supplies and compost problems got in the way.
Now they are starting to produce flower stems, it is going to be chaos. Fortunately Nerine will survive being moved in flower so all is not lost. A couple
of days work should solve the problem and then I can enjoy the new hybrids while wrestling with the anxiety of which to keep.
Fortunately there is still plenty of room in the garden for the rejects.