JEARRARD'S HERBAL
24th November 2024
Liquidambar styraciflua 'Worplesdon' .
Gardens are unpredictable. Last week it felt as though autumn had turned the corner into spring. The first spring snowdrop had arrived,
the first flush of spring camellias had opened. The garden felt full of progress, cold weather had loomed and the garden had responded
with a great leap to the other side.
This week the garden has been more equivocal. The snowdrop survives, indeed a few more buds have appeared, but it looks isolated.
Noses from the bulk of bulbs remain buried beneath the surface. They will appear shortly, the ground will fill with visible expectation,
but for now it is just a carpet of fallen leaves. Summer's residue crunching underfoot.
With storm Bert huffing and puffing, the ghost of the Liquidambar will have been exorcised by now. This picture was taken on Wednesday
when the scarlet outline of former times still haunted the shape of the tree like an exquisitely constructed hairdo on a thinning head.
The wind will have stripped the last delusion of youth from the evident baldness. When the wind drops I will share my condolences with the
Liquidambar, we can be bald together.
24th November 2024
Hedychium 'Tai Sunlight' .
Wind does not trouble the Hedychium. The stems are fully grown, they have their hands in the air and they are waving like young people on
a dance floor. Wave to the left, sway to the right, part and join. I don't think they are actually having fun but they put on a good show of pretending.
The Hedychium that is, not the young people. I have no doubt that the young people are deeply miserable. They are young and worried about everything,
that's what it means to be young.
The Hedychium will suffer when the first frosts arrive. If the cold holds off they will continue to try and flower into the new year. Perhaps we will have a
long, mild autumn. Perhaps this early stormy snap will dissipate into mild mediocrity again. It has always been difficult to see far into the future.
I offer that as consolation to the worried young.
You will always have worries. They will always seem central. Find a way to get over it.
In the meantime I was basking in the relative warmth of the mild south-west. I travelled north to Bodmin moor on Thursday, two inches of snow still lay on the ground,
the landscape was white. In the summer it looks like such a charming place for a garden but appearances are deceptive.
The dancing Hedychium have something to be happy about.
24th November 2024
Fuchsia 'Genii' .
The Liquidambar treats summer as fine art. It frames the season on an immaculate canvas and presents it in gallery quality. The last show of autumn
is more Monet than duct-taped banana but the essential spirit of intention remains.
Fuchsia 'Genii' handles the changing season to great effect but in a different way. This is a finger-painting held in place by a fridge magnet.
There are gardens where fuchsias have become unmentionable. No lusty lanterns dangle midst the lavender and burgundy show. The grasses of the prairie autumn
are untroubled by the 'Genii' locorum. It's a pity. There are some really good fuchsias and 'Genii' is one of them.
Unfortunately, in addition the crime of unfashionability, F. 'Genii' has yellow leaves. It will never be forgiven by the xanthophobic majority who seem
to see yellow as the work of the gardening devil.
If we follow Nietzsche beyond good and evil, then F. 'Genii' is an excellent garden plant. It started flowering almost as soon the tide of frost receded
and it is still going as the tide returns. It has been bright, floriferous and (whispered hopefully) has resisted fuchsia gall mite attack so far.
Sadly, for all its strengths it is a yellow foliaged Fuchsia and it has a place reserved for it in the pit of horticultural hell.
24th November 2024
Dahlia purpusii .
There is hope of redemption. I remember the days when all dahlias were seen as a laughable satire on the 1950s garden. Do you remember the 1970s
when dahlias passed for stand-up comedy and sitting rooms were painted orange or purple. That magical age when "magnolia" was seen as evidence of
comfortable maturity. Since then the colour has become the staple of polite society. New words for beige have been wrought from the
reluctant lexicon to maintain the colour's fashionable status.
Christopher Lloyd rode into town and saved the dahlia-damsels from distress. Dahlias are acceptable garden-guests again and species dahlias
are 'cat-walk' fashionable.
Like Fuchsia 'Genii', Dahlia purpusii is a jolly good thing. Beyond the windswept whim of haute couture it delivers a reliable garden display.
The name might be a little 1950s, the colour a little 1970s but the garden value is undeniable.