JEARRARD'S HERBAL
22nd September 2024
Crusea coccinea
I am, on consideration, a "winter-denier". With any luck the cold weather will be brief and an extended autumn will slowly transform into an early spring without
the need for a lot of interstitial nastiness. As a consequence I am forced to acknowledge that the long spring here transforms, almost without a break, into an early autumn.
I'm sure summer was lovely, I barely remember it. It was fleeting, it has certainly gone. Last night as the darkness fell, the garden filled with mist, the mist turned to rain
and by the morning the house was surrounded by tiny sparkling puddles. I wanted to stamp in them as I brought in some logs but I'm a grown-up now.
Up in the Agave house, Crusea coccinea is hanging on, spreading in loose trails over the floor. It was planted up there because it comes from Mexico and might not be particularly hardy
(and because there was a space). It has romped around, cheering me with sporadic scarlet flowers. It has suffered a bit in recent years because the weeds have been running riot up there.
Weeding amongst the Agave is not a pleasant job. I solved that difficulty by getting rid of most of the Agave. They now make weeding difficult in the garden. There is a part of me that wouldn't
mind if they all died in a wet winter. I feel like I have done Agave, certainly they have done me on occasion.
In their place I have a Crusea house. "Come up and see the Crusea house" I shall say to people grandly.
22nd September 2024
Cyrtanthus 'Edwina'
For a couple of years I have been sorting through bulbs working out which I want and which I simply have. Bulb collections are strange things. For much of the year you have an empty pot to look at.
Part of the sorting process has involved looking at empty pots and trying to remember when I last saw anything (except Oxalis) growing in them. Tipping out pots and throwing away the empty ones
is very settling. The uncertainties of survival are suddenly clarified.
Cyrtanthus 'Edwina' is a simpler proposition. The necks of the bulbs stick out from the surface. I can see she is there, I can see she is increasing. I bought it in 2017
and it took a while to settle in, but now it flowers reliably in early autumn. Although it would seem to have C. elatus in its parentage, I know nothing more about it.
There does not seem to be any internet record of its origin. For a few years Dutch bulb merchants sold a yellow flowered Cyrtanthus under the name 'Edwina' but even that
seems to have vanished. One day I will be reading an obscure newsletter and the mystery will be solved. Until then, it is a good plant and that will have to be enough.
22nd September 2024
Roscoea purpurea rubra
During the week I had a couple of boxes of bulbs delivered. It is time to think about planting again and the garden isn't ready. Filled with determination, I cut down the Hellebore border.
Last year I inter-planted half of it with Narcissus 'White Lady'. The hope was that I would get a second show of white flowers, after the hellebores had finished but before the bluebells took over.
It seemed to work. This year I want to plant the other half of the border and the bulbs have just arrived. Now the foliage has been cut down, I can get in there and start planting.
It is going to be wonderful. At least, I am moderately confident that it is going to be wonderful.
Things aren't so easily organised in the new herbaceous border. I want to add more tulips and daffodils. The bulbs have arrived. The problem is that the new herbaceous border is maintained in December
and then it is left to its own devices for the year. It is filled with interest, but by this time of the year it is also filled with bindweed. I am tempted to cut it all down early and plant bulbs,
but the Nerine are just starting to shoot and the Roscoea are still looking good.
Every year I make some selected Roscoea crosses. In some years I remember to collect the seed and sow it. From time to time I have an abundance of surplus plants and they go into the
new herbaceous border. They provide some jolly scarlet punctuation among the white bindweed. Planting tulips and daffodils in the tangle is going to be a slow, frustrating process.
22nd September 2024
Nerine 'Pixie Thunderhead'
While I muse on the difficulties of squeezing a couple of hundred bulbs into a border that is already packed full and rioting, I can retreat to the Nerine house and watch the autumn entertainment
emerging. In a casual moment I had convinced myself that this was the year to catch up with the repotting. It didn't happen. I made a start and I cleared some space, but I haven't really made a dent in the problem.
Four years ago I started going through the seedlings to decide which I was going to keep. Hundreds went out into the garden but every time I empty a bench I pot on a group of new seedlings and the space vanishes.
As well as filling the garden with strange coloured flowers, I have selected a few seedlings that I really like. 'Pixie Thunderhead' has been outstanding for a couple of years now.
It has a good, dark flower and it blooms early. More importantly it has a good strong stem. I have started throwing out Nerine with leaning flower stems, it has made the selection process much simpler.
I am fed-up with flower stems that fall over or dangle from the pot. If they won't stand up for themselves, I am not going to stand up for them.
I raised a lot in the purple colour range, I have selected about 20 for further evaluation. A number of them have already received a final warning. As an abstract concept, I would like to think that three of four might make
the grade but if it is only 'Pixie thunderhead' I will be satisfied.