JEARRARD'S HERBAL
7th September 2025
The week has been dominated by autumn. It is difficult to pin down but autumn has been changeable. Light rain has flowed into heavy rain and then the sun has come out. The light has been dimmed, even mournful at times
and then the sunshine has returned and the garden seems bright again though gilded with nostalgia for summer passed. In short, September has been very Septembery.
The other major force in the week has been the Tremenheere Plant sale. I had a small stand but it has taken most of the week to put it together. I had one afternoon this week wandering around the garden taking photographs,
I have cut down some September brambles and then gathered together some plants for the sale.
In the end it was well worth it, a well supported sale with a frightening quantity of good plants. I came home with Aesculus wangii that I have wanted for many years
and a Pteris that I hadn't realised I wanted until I saw it.
7th September 2025
Hibiscus syriacus 'Notwoodtwo' WHITE CHIFFON .
One of the vendors at the sale had brought a few forms of Hibiscus syriacus. It is a brave choice for a Cornish garden but when it works it is magnificent.
For many year the cottage opposite my garden had a plant of H.s. 'Blue Bird' clipped so that it hugged the outline of the garden wall. There, it basked in the sunshine and the reflected heat from the wall
producing an abundance of flowers for months through late summer.
In my garden H. s. 'Notwoodtwo' fills with promising buds but rarely delivers. It is too dank on this side of the road, two shady for flowers to open properly.
It is a semi-double and the few flowers I get are delightful but they are delivered grudgingly, without delight. This year has been its best, the hot summer suited it well, and it has had many flowers open simulaneously.
I could almost believe it was worth growing some more. The vendor had some very appealing full doubles.
Further up in the garden I have H. s. 'Notwoodone' LAVENDER CHIFFON. It flowered for me once in the greenhouse but since it was planted out it hasn't even managed buds.
It dislikes the climate here, it's had enough, a point that it makes abundantly clear.
I have enough as well.
7th September 2025
Hedychium 'Annette' .
The garden is bouncing through autumn with all the energy of a punctured football. Fortunately I have the Hedychium. They have enjoyed the heat of summer and now they
are enjoying the water of autumn. If there are two things that Hedychium love they are heat and water. They would prefer them to arrive together
but they aren't too fussy about it.
Hedychium gardnerianum is one of the reliable species here, flowering on most of the adult canes, lasting well and putting on a good show. H.g. 'Annette' is planted on the south
wall of the house, because I didn't know what to expect when I was given it, but I am sure that it would do well almost anywhere in the garden. It is a bit dry at the foot of the wall
and the plant may be a bit short as a result but it flowers reliably and looks good.
7th September 2025
Iris lazica 'Turkish Blue'.
In a few weeks the temperatures will start to drop, dew will form overnight and then last through the day. The Hedychium will start to look cold.
They will keep trying until the first frost, but they will look cold.
The heavens opened at the same time as the Tremenheere Plant Fair just to remind us all that even in balmy Penzance the winter will come.
As evening fell in the garden on Wednesday I found the first flowers on Iris lazica 'Turkish Blue'. It was dark enough to mean that I had to rely on the flash from the camera to get a picture.
I think of it as a winter flower but last year it strayed quite a long way into spring and was all the more magnificent for that.
I'm going to take these autumn flowers as the first promise of spring. It isn't as shocking as a snowdrop (the first ones aren't due for a few weeks yet) but it is quite shocking.
Septembery weather can be mournful and gilded with nostalgia but I would like a few more weeks of it.
Not least because I went to a plant fair, I have some planting to do.