JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
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... out in the garden.
6th April 2025
Fritillaria meleagris .
It has been a joy to spend time in the garden this week. The sun has been bright and the ground benefited from some rain a few days ago.
Spring is lounging around the garden voluptuously. I sat on a seat in the garden with a mug of coffee just to appreciate the wonder.
Five scarlet tulips by the house were enough to add drama without the garden looking like a particularly gruesome crime-scene.
I have been potting bromeliads in the greenhouse and I have the scars to show for it. They needed to be done, it has probably been a decade since I last
handled them, time for a prickly split.
Despite the tuffets of wonder encrusting the greenhouse benches, it is the sweeping drifts of plants in the garden that have filled the imagination.
These Fritillaria meleagris filled me with joy. It is true that it requires a measure of imagination to see a sweeping drift, but it's coming.
I put in fifteen bulbs and only one or two survived. I have watched them patiently and this year there are six. They are spreading slowly.
Did I mention that I planted them in 2007? I have watched them patiently.
6th April 2025
Tulipa sylvestris .
Tulipa sylvestris has been more recent. They are planted in the new herbaceous border to sparkle over the bare earth before the herbaceous growth takes over.
The peonies are already up with scarlet and maroon shoots enlivening the mix. The border has only been there for a decade, the tulips are newer.
They were planted in four stages. I have grown one in a tub for a very long time. It is perennial and it flowers occasionally. I have very little time for annual tulips
though unfortunately I suffer from a deep affection for them which sometimes leds me into ruby rashness of the gruesome crime-scene variety.
The second stage was a planting of fifty in the border, followed by another fifty the following year and after a couple of years wait, another fifty last autumn
to extend the patch.
They have been magnificent, flowering freely every year. The sunshine catches them perfectly through the day and they are spreading stoloniferously.
I am facing the prospect that I may not be able to grow Tulipa sprengeri very well. It is a sad thought (and I haven't given up yet)
but if I can't have a scarlet tulip naturalised in the garden, I will settle for the wonders of yellow.
6th April 2025
Narcissus 'White Lady'.
I have been releasing the various daffodils into the garden this year. I grow most of them in pots because I don't want the garden to look spotty, speckled with
a wide mixture of cultivars in small numbers. This year I have released some of the most distinctive cultivars. They will be happiest in the ground
and they are all things that I think I will recognise without labels.
For two years I have been augmenting the hellebore border with white daffodils to add some spring delight to the sombre charms of Helleborus.
Narcissus 'Snow Baby' comes early in the year and is short, vigorous and wonderful. I think it is the best small daffodil introduced since 'Tete a Tete'
(so wonderful that it has become a modern cliche).
I was looking for a tall, late, white daffodil to flower over the top once the hellebore foliage had developed. Eventually I decided on 'White Lady'
an old heritage variety (1897). Thirty were planted in 2023 and another thirty last autumn. I am feeling very happy/insufferably smug about it, take your pick.
6th April 2025
Lathraea clandestina .
The best naturaised plants are discovered by chance. The lovely Gentianella cruciata appeared when I first disturbed the soil here
and Euphrasia confusa transported itself to the new herbaceous border to delight me. Chrysosplenium oppositifolium ,
the golden saxifrage of damp woodland, thrilled me when it chose to settle under my newly planted trees. However, the most exciting
thing has been the parasitic Lathraea clandestina.
I first planted a piece in 2020. My plant had been growing on willow (courtesy of Avon Bulbs) but I hoped to exploit its wide host range by planting it on an alder
(no suitable willow in the garden) No sign of it yet but I haven't given up hope. It is well known to spend a few years gathering itself before it flowers
(to only above-ground sign of its existence).
Last year in spring I tried again, probably the last pieces that Avon dug before they closed the nursery. I planted it on a willow that had been put in
specially for it and I was amazed to find it in flower a year later.
The spring garden is being wonderful. .
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.
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about what is going on, if you are interested.
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