JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
To navigate this site use the links above or the detailed links at the bottom of this page.
... out in the garden.
19th April 2026
Geranium phaeum .
It has been a week in April. We have had a bit of rain, falling apologetically from an impatient sky and we have had some wisps of mist lurking
around corners and looking rather embarrassed if you catch them. Mostly, however, the sun has shone. It has been light and crisp sunshine,
like home-made lemonade. It has sparkled. The greenhouse has been very comfortably warm without being sweaty. All things considered, it has been a week in April.
A few weeks ago I finished planting for the season. Everything was in the ground, the weather was drying and it was time to stop. Inevitably I was mistaken.
Last week I bought some new camellias and it's better that they go in the ground now than wait until autumn. In the process I found four others in the greenhouse that I had forgotten.
They are all planted now. It has been a bit rushed and I may have to move them again later but they will take the summer better in the ground than in pots.
The planting season has ended.
I know that because Geranium phaeum is in flower. I have a rag-tag mix of seedlings and strains in the garden and there isn't a single one that fails to delight me.
19th April 2026
Camellia rosiflora 'Rosaeflora Cascade' .
The snowdrops have finished in the snowdrop border. The daffodlis that mix with them have finished and the Erythronium are coming to an end.
In their place I have a tiny forest of bluebell leaves. I have tried to keep them out but I haven't succeeded. With each passing year they increase.
Slowly I am moving the snowdrops around the garden, sorting out the bluebells as I go and leaving them behind. Eventually the blue tide will overwhelm the garden
but I don't really mind. As time passes I welcome the easy simplicity of bluebells in a woodland garden.
Behind the snowdrops I have a row of shrubs planted out of curiosity. I haven't been especially impressed by many of the Mahonia, but the camellias have been fascinating.
I didn't know what to expect from 'Rosaeflora Cascade' when it was planted but it has formed a low, rounded shrub in a decade or so. The soft pink flowers come right at the end of the camellia season.
They are small and not quite pink enough to blush. It would be easy to overlook and yet somehow it is impossible to miss.
19th April 2026
Dendrobium x delicatum .
In the warmth of the greenhouse, the Australian dendrobiums are finally flowering in a worthwhile way. I grow a number of species and hybrids because I an entranced by the idea that
I can grow dendrobiums in a cold greenhouse. At least, I can grow a few dendrobiums in a cold greenhouse. Many of the Australian hybrids are too tropical for me,
and another group tolerate the cold but insist on flowering in December when the buds fall off and the flower spikes go mouldy.
So I grow a few Australian dendrobiums, some do well and some simply survive. This week they are enjoying the warmth and those with the sense to flower in spring are looking magnificent.
Dendrobium x delicatum is the largest of them. My plant is now filling a 10inch pot and that is enough. It needs repotting and this year it will have to be split.
I will miss the magnificence of a large specimen but I would really prefer a small clump of canes in a small pot. I don't want to lost the plant but I would quite like to get a couple of feet of bench space back.
The hybrid (D. kingianum x speciosum) is quite variable and if I had the disciple required I would grow a lot more of them.
19th April 2026
Iris 'Atlantic Caesura' .
I went down to the greenhouse yesterday and the Pleione are still making a brave show. That is a polite way of saying that the live flowers still take
visual precedence over the dead ones. I snipped off a few faded blooms, realised that I would be there all day if I got into it, and walked away.
As I was going I mused that the Pacific Coast Iris would be in flower soon. They appear for three or four weeks, just as the Pleione go over.
Then I turned around and the first flowers have opened.
I spent a few years raising Pacific Coast Iris from seed because the group is capable of astonishing things but those available in the UK are rather moderate.
I think I have stopped hybridising now but you can never be quite sure. I have a bench-full of selected seedlings that I am assessing and they have been assigned working names -
I find it easier to remember a name that an identity number.
This is 'Atlantic Caesura'. In reality it is a touch darker than the picture shows. Pacific Coast Iris have a very short season in flower and they aren't particularly exciting in leaf
but they provide some spectacular opulence as the Pleione fade and the first swallows dart through the sky.
To find particular groups of plants I grow, click on the genus name in the table above. Click on the "Index" box at the top of the page for the full list.
I have a lot of good intentions when it comes to updating this site, and I try to keep a note
about what is going on, if you are interested.
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