JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
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... out in the garden.
4th January 2026
Crinodendron hookerianum 'Ada Hoffman'
The gossip at this afternoon's Orchid Society meeting revolved around the strangeness of the season, a situation that I enjoyed. Strange seasons lead to strange events in the garden
and there is nothing like a bit of strangeness to fire the enthusiasm. The garden will join with me in this, I feel sure. Certainly there is plenty of strangeness going on out there,
fragments of other seasons intruding into the scene. There are daffodils in the meadow and dahlias by the house. If I wanted to pick a small vase of flowers it would be redolent of strange.
Unfortunately for all the strangeness, the weather has been relentlessly wintery. I don't stand for much of that sort of nonsense, the snowdrops will start shouting "spring" at the tops of their tiny voices any day now.
Yesterday I went out to photograph them and they remained determinedly closed. It was cold. Sulky snowdrop cold. Even the camellias looked fed-up.
Still, wintry weather or not, there are chinks of strange light glittering through the desolate darkness. Crinodendon hookerianum 'Ada Hoffman' has a flower.
Just one, this isn't a foolish floral jumping of the gun, this is a bud of defiance. This is the garden showing some spirit. Winter, what winter!
4th January 2026
Cyclamen coum
Cyclamen coum is flowering in line with expectations. It started just before Christmas but it has at last reached that heady state of full flower.
There are a lot more buds to come but it isn't going to get better, it is just going to carry on for longer. I have a border in front of the house that is dedicated to the Amaryllidaceae.
The nerine have ended and the daffodils haven't yet started. Two years ago I planted some Cyclamen coum in there (overlook the fact that they are not Amaryllids).
They came very cheaply from B&Q so it was worth taking a chance. They have been fantastic. Can you scatter a punch? Well, they have scattered a punch of pink
along the front of the bed and they are better this year than they were last. Ideally they would seed themselves cheerfully, failing that I could collect seed and grow some more.
Failing that I will see if B&Q have any more cheap ones. I'm not above opportunism.
4th January 2026
Vallea stipularis
It is strange the way some corners of the garden develop a special interest. Between the Hedychium bed and the start of the herbaceous border there is a small patch of curious interest.
I think of it as a place to try things that are a bit dodgy. It is sheltered from the wind, sheltered from the morning sun and on a gentle slope that sheds the frost
(onto the Hedychium, but nothing's perfect). I had some baby Dicksonia that I planted out a decade ago and to only one that survived the beast from the east in 2018 was in this corner.
The strange Coprosma grows there along with a couple of curious myrtles and they seem to be happy. It was the corner that I chose for Aesculus wangii when I was given one (thank you).
Perhaps it will be a big tree one day but who knows what will still be there when it is. The Dicksonia will survive happily in its shade which is a happy thought.
Tucked between this and that is Vallea stipularis. It is a curious thing and it seems to produce flowers when it has a mind to. And it has a mind to quite often.
It flowers mostly in late spring but at any time of year it can set its mind to it and off it goes. No winter here, thank you very much.
4th January 2026
Galanthus 'J. Haydn'
Winter may be trying to squat on the ground but spring is pushing to the surface, butting it away. There are snowdrop buds everywhere. It there was a day of decent temperatures then there would
be snowdrop flowers everywhere and winter would have been trounced for another year leaving nothing but freezing breath and hungry rabbits in the garden.
It hasn't happened yet, there were only three open flowers yesterday, a ragged bloom on 'Three Ships' that is now too old to close against the chill, a fallen bloom on G. elwesii
that was pecked off by a galanthivorous bird, and this bloom on 'J. Haydn'.
This one has been open for a couple of weeks, it is probably too old to close in the cold. It was dangling in the chill breeze in defiance of the threat of frost.
We haven't had a really cold night yet. Perhaps tonight, perhaps not. In some ways it would be a relief to get it over with. There will undoubtedly be cold weather to come
but the days are getting longer, the snowdrops are starting to appear.
There was a blackbird in the garden yesterday. He wasn't showing off or nesting or singing, but I could see that he was thinking about it.
That is really the start of spring. Standing in the cold surrounded by freezing breath and thinking about it.
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