JEARRARD'S HERBAL
21st September 2025
Gladiolus carmineus .
The rain has arrived and it has done it with a cold, drippy insistence that characterises autumn. At the start of the week, on a cold dank night
with the wind howling around the roof, I lit the stove for the first time. I crouched comfortably in front of it and turned my back on the
seasonal weather.
The temperature has dropped and although the nights are drawing in there have been some advantages. The greenhouse needs a lot less watering
and the hydrangeas have un-wilted.
We were threatened with a storm at the start of the week but it passed us by for the most part. I lost a large branch from a hawthorn but it was one scheduled for removal.
It was blocking one of the paths, job done. The drama in the garden has moved into the nerine house where the promise of colour has snaked up from the ground.
The first signs are showing now but there is a sense of tension like a bobbing balloon. When it bursts it will be rather sudden.
In anticipation, Gladiolus carmineus has flowered. It is increasing slowly and I am encouraging it to seed about the place.
It is responding with demure moderation.
21st September 2025
Hemiboea subcapitata .
Hemiboea subcapitata has enjoyed the year. Early heat helped it to throw off the shackles of winter and there has been enough moisture to keep it happy.
I have finally put my ego aside and found a place for it that we are both happy with. Although I have grown it for many years, I have also killed it repeatedly
by planting it in unsuitable places. I was convinced that it wanted some protection, it made it quite clear that it didn't and I was very slow to
pick that up.
In the end I planted the last clump on the shady side of a wall and kept it watered. We are finally both happy.
With the zeal that comes from finally accepting the obvious I have added a couple more Hemiboea species to the garden this year. The next few months will
reveal if I have learnt a useful lesson or just got lucky.
I have a similar situation with Dendrobium moniliforme. My plant has been sliding downhill for a couple of years. In mid-summer
I acknowledged that whatever I was doing wrong, something had to be changed. I have moved it into the section housing my Bletilla
(despite my intellectual conviction that it was in the best place already) and winter will be educational.
21st September 2025
Dregea sinensis 'Variegata' .
It could be argued that, like the mythical elephants graveyard, gardens are places where plants come to die. I have certainly planted hundreds (thousands?)
of things in the garden that aren't there now. I would like to say that the pixies spirited them away in the magical moonlight, but the truth is much simpler.
I killed them. Generally I killed them by neglect, sometimes by stupidity. I ran over Eucryphia milliganii with a digger and it didn't recover.
Often the (stupid) plants idea of what it would like is at odds with my (superior) opinion. Akebia longeracemosa would have been delightful growing out of deep shade
and over the large shrub creating it. The Akebia was not of that opinion.
Dregea sinensis 'Variegata' was treated similarly. It is too fast growing (I thought) to keep in a pot for long, so I planted it in the warm dry embrace of the Agave house.
It wasn't happy. By the time I realised that it wasn't just suffering from transplant sulkiness, it was too late. All cheer had gone.
I thought that was the end of it, it's not an easy plant to replace, but a chance encounter in a garden centre returned it to the garden.
It is in a pot and there it will stay until it demonstrates beyond question that it needs more space.
21st September 2025
Hedychium wardii
In my defence, in a complicated garden it is difficult to know where things will grow well. When I planted out the Hedychium it was more out of desperation
than from any conviction that they would be better off. I had misgivings but, they had to go out, there was no space left. In the final analysis, half of the collection was planted out
and half of the collection has grown vigorously. Against my expectations it has been the same half in both cases. Those that remained under cover
have been too dry, too starved and too difficult to manage. When the opportunity has arisen I have planted them out but the opportunities have been few.
The garden doesn't have many spaces left for large herbaceous plants.
Consequently when Hedychium wardii was planted out it didn't go into a perfect position. There was too much shade, I needed to clear some lower branches from a conifer.
I really must get on with that. For a decade it has survived there, producing a few more small canes every year. Finally it has produced a few canes strong enough to flower.
This is a simple yellow celebration, the return to form of an old friend.