JEARRARD'S HERBAL
6th October 2024
Galanthus peshmenii
A quiet week, the weather has been unexceptional for the time of year until last night when the rain arrived. It is expected to clear later in the day.
At the top of the garden the Colchicum are starting. I am hoping that they are mostly in bud and will not have been affected by the rain.
I have spent the week lying on the couch while my leg recovers, so I haven't seen them in person. I am very grateful to the people who have brought me pictures to show what is going on.
Down in the greenhouse the autumn snowdrops have all come in a rush. It didn't feel like a warm week but it doesn't take much sunshine to push the temperature up in the greenhouse
and the snowdrops have certainly responded. Galanthus peshmenii has distinctive stubby flowers and until recently there wasn't much variation to be found among them.
I had selected out an "early" form and a "late" one, flowering about a fortnight apart but through the last few years they have switched places repeatedly and this year
they are both in flower together. I have come to accept that the difference is not real. I have recently acquired a form with green tips on the outer segments
but it hasn't been very vigorous to date.
6th October 2024
Hyacinthoides lingulata
I am rather fond of small bulbs that flower in the autumn. It is an affection that has never become obsessive but I have slowly accumulated a small collection more by chance than design.
I have looked for somewhere suitably delightful to grow them without any result. As a consequence they are clustered on a bench in the greenhouse corridor.
They are protected from the wet and very well ventilated. The conditions seem to suit them.
I am sure that I have two forms of H. lingulata. The first is early and pale blue,
this is the second, coming about a week later and with slightly darker flowers. It is vigorous here, rapidly filling a pot with bulbs and flowering profusely.
I look forward to its arrival, though it is one of the signs that winter is approaching. The time has come to look around and see what needs to be protected.
There is a Strelitzia in the Hedychium house that will suffer if I don't do something to protect it soon, and Rhaphidophora peepla has grown so well that it is now exposed.
They will both need some protection before the end of the month in case we get an early frost.
6th October 2024
Impatiens stenantha
With the opening up of China in the 1990s a wealth of new Impatiens species appeared that could be suitable for gardens. I got caught up in the flurry
of excitement but the passage of time has shown that not all are good garden plants. I had almost overlooked I. stenantha among the abundant delights that were introduced
but I would now rank it among the best performers. My first plant grew in the shade at the back of the house where it seeded around gently and made a display for several months.
Changes to the way the back of the house was managed (new sewer connection) meant that the population died out and I was left with a single plant at the back of the greenhouse,
covered in red spider mite. I had the good sense to plant it outside. It grows in the shade of a large Leyland Cypress which is not ideal.
However, it is making the best of it and has started to get stronger. I am hoping that it will produce seedlings and slowly move itself to the most suitable conditions.
It may be that the ivy undergrowth is too dense for it but I have a feeling that it can be quite determined.
6th October 2024
Nerine bowdenii 'Mollie Cowie'
The Nerine are flowering in the greenhouse and it is very frustrating that I can't get down there to see them at the moment. I'm going to have a gentle
expedition this afternoon to see if I am up to it yet.
Meanwhile N. bowdenii has started to flower in the garden. I planted a lot of seedlings in the new herbaceous border so that its final spectacle of the year would
be a blaze of sugar pink. I am sure it is happening now, I haven't been up to see it. In my mind I can enjoy a blaze of pink, in reality the planting is still too young to be performing.
Somehow not seeing it is better than seeing what has happened.
N. bowdenii 'Mollie Cowie' has come to a peak of flowering. The blooms are fairly typical for N. bowdenii but the cultivar is exceptional in a couple of ways.
I bought it originally because it is the only Nerine I know with a stable variegation. My plant is a bit variable in that regard but decades later it is still variegated.
It has taken time to realised that it is also an exceptional parent. Most of my best hybrids between N. bowdenii and N. sarniensis have 'Mollie Cowie' as a mother.
This year I have a scarlet seedling flowering for the first time that I am particularly pleased with.
The time has probably come to select a well variegated bulb from my clump and move it back into the greenhouse. A good parents is a precious thing to a breeder.