JEARRARD'S HERBAL
8th December 2024
Grevillea victoriae .
It has been a week of two halves, though they were somewhat lopsided. The first five days continued the theme of dank and mild. I have been lighting the stove in the morning and enjoying the way it dispels the
cold clamminess of the house in moments. The garden has appreciated the mild weather and the small number of plants that flower in this season have been taking full advantage of the opportunity.
Grevillea victoriae is an Australian, more used to winter sunshine than a season of drippy sludge, so I am amazed that it still performs well in the winter. Planted in full sun
and protected a little at the base of the Agave house, it flowers well in mid-winter and will continue to produce occasional blooms until March.
It has been joined in the garden by the first celandines and the first primroses. I might have expected those common natives to tolerate the wet weather but they have both suffered.
The flowers open and start to look bedraggled almost immediately. The cold rain lingers in the centre of the flower and almost as soon as they open, they turn to wet mush.
The Grevillea has fared much better, perhaps because the flowers are made of stronger stuff, perhaps because they are held in the open, above the ground.
Whatever the reason, the Grevillea stands proud while the primroses squirm obsequiously in the turf and seem to exude slime.
8th December 2024
Camellia yunnanensis .
The whole garden is retreating from grand spectacle and hiding in small details. The greenhouse is no exception. The show of Nerine has passed. The pots are full of limp green leaves smothering
their surroundings. One or two large flowers are still hanging on but the vibrant pink glow of autumn that filled the place with rosy optimism has passed. A couple of late N. undulata
cultivars are still throwing up their flower spikes. They will open in the new year, more telling as a memory of the past season than as a highlight of the spring.
In my small propagating house, the first of the autumn Pleione has flowered. A kindly slug has ensured that it is more telling as a promise for the future than as a highlight of autumn.
Several years ago I was given a seedling of Camellia yunnanensis which has been overlooked in the corner of a bench. When I have noticed it, I have noted that it has been growing slowly.
There is still time before I need to find space in the garden for it. During this year it seems to have sped up and crowned a busy year with a couple of flowers. It's a very striking thing
and the 5cm flowers demonstrate that it is true to name ( something I had started to worry about).
I have a much larger plant in the garden. It amuses me that this baby in a pot is already flowering better than the big one, which has been in the ground for a decade or so.
8th December 2024
Narcissus 'Viridi 5' .
Behind the house I have an awkward terrace that I have been using to grow a few bulbs in tubs. Most of them should really be scattered through the snowdrop border but there are two problems.
First, I would like to have the plants close-by so that I remember to pollinate them and also collect the seed. I regularly pollinate plants in the snowdrop border,
I have never yet managed to collect the seed when it ripens. The second problem is that I am too lazy to carry the pots uphill.
As a result there are a small number of autumn flowering daffodils that I tend to forget. When I say a small number, I had six of them and now I have one-and-a-half. I had Viridi 1-5
but only 'Viridi 5' seems to have survived. The greenhouse was too hot and dry for them, the terrace is too wet and possibly too shady for them. I have attempted to rectify that by moving them to the south side
of the house. 'Viridi 5' represents the "1", 'Cedric Morris' is the half. It is hanging on but it isn't flowering. Hopefully it will also appreciate a bit more sunshine.
Perhaps Viridi 1-4 are still with me. I am hoping for some leaves in the spring. If they come up I will look for somewhere else to try them. In the meantime 'Viridi 5' is flowering
and it might even be increasing slowly.
8th December 2024
Camellia 'Winter's Toughie' .
Winter can be a trying time. I try to avoid it. I spend the autumn in denial - it's not winter yet! I spend the spring in celebration - look at the lovely snowdrops, winter's over!
It's a simplistic strategy, but it works for me. In the darkest days I hide in the house and complain about Christmas. Fortunately I have never quite grown out of a fascination for sparkly lights
and I have several strings of them that I can get out if the darkness become too depressing.
I am lucky, others get much worse winters. A series of cold winters almost destroyed the Camellia collection at the US National Arboretum (Washington, D.C.). Dr William Ackerman responded by producing
a number of hybrids with C. oleifera. I have a few of them in the garden. 'Winter's Snowman' started flowering a week ago and I hope it's the only snowman I see this year.
'Winter's Interlude' opened this morning. It's an optimistic name, I have my fingers crossed. 'Winter's Toughie' has flowered this week, a reminder if one were needed, that it can be a difficult time.
I would plant others but they aren't widely available. 'Winter's Joy' has eluded me.
8th December 2024
Musa 'Tibet' .
The second lopsided half of the week started yesterday. The garden has been dominated by the winds of storm Darragh. There was a brief lull in the strength of the wind yesterday afternoon.
I took a short walk into the garden to see if Iris lazica had flowered. It had, the slugs had visited, there was nothing to see. The most striking thing was the
effect of the wind on Musa 'Tibet'. Earlier in the week they still looked lush. In the sunlight they could almost have passed for summery (despite the daffodils emerging at their feet).
The first blow of Darragh reduced them to tatters. A sharp frost now will strip them of all semblance of perkiness.
As we walked past, the row of Leyland Cypress behind them was swaying and rattling. Time to get out of the garden, Darragh has a bit more to give.
8th December 2024
x Cuprocyparis leylandii .
Overnight one of the Leyland trunks snapped. It isn't surprising, this row are quite exposed, but it is always a worry. Fortunately the wind was blowing from the north,
the snapped trunk fell back into the garden rather than out towards the road. It wasn't tall enough to cause an obstruction but I would have had to do something about it.
As it is, I have noted that it has fallen, will deal with it in good time.
I'm not sure how one trunk in the middle of the row snapped. I'm hoping that it hasn't opened a gap that leaves the others vulnerable.
8th December 2024
Liriodendron tulipifera .
It wasn't the only casualty. Further up in the garden my old Liriodendron came down. It has been an unfortunate tree right from the outset.
I planted it towards the end of the 1980s, a spare sapling that I had allowed to become overgrown in a pot. I shoved it in a space in the garden on the principle that if it survived
then it would help control the brambles and that I could always garden around it.
It was well established before I decided to extend the camellia walk in a straight line across the whole site. The path missed the Liriodendron by inches.
It wasn't ideal, but I could live with it. In retrospect I wish I had cut the tree down while it was still small, and planted another six feet further back.
The tree got bigger, the path became more cramped and there was no practical solution.
Last year the tree died. There are all sorts of fungi growing on it, including Honey Fungus, but I think a couple of years of summer drought took their toll as well.
Whatever the cause, it was too big for me to remove. One day it will fall, lets hope the damage isn't too great.
Storm Darragh did the job for me and it has gone well. A couple of hydrangeas have been 'compressed' but they will grow back. Camellia 'Gwavas'
is not as portly as it once was. It will put the weight back on. The Liriodendron is safely on the ground, the clear-up is manageable.
This has been a good outcome.
8th December 2024
Pinus radiata .
The loss of the Liriodendron was not a surprise. In many ways I am pleased that it is no longer hanging over me. This Pinus radiata was more of shocking.
The wind got to it yesterday and snapped the trunk just above ground level. I didn't hear it fall, so I was saved the worry of wondering what had happened.
For the last few years I have been clearing the scrub around it and using the shelter of the pine tree to protect some plantings of Agave and Puya.
In my simple world, my greatest worry was that the pine would not provide enough shelter.
On the plus side, it could have done a lot more damage as it fell. I think the branches can be cleared, the trunk will lie where it fell for now, it isn't in the way.
There might be a camellia underneath it, Buddleja loricata might have experienced a set-back.
The details will become clearer in time.