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.
30th November 2025
Coelogyne ovalis 'Brown' .
It has been a drab week in the garden. I didn't see very much of it, but the prospect held very little excitement. I had mown the grass,
sprayed the new herbaceous border and looked in vain for Christmas snowdrops that I wasn't expecting to see anyway.
Much better to come up to Surrey and look around Wisley for the weekend!
With little hope of warmth or sunshine in the garden, I hid in the greenhouse at the start of the week. The season of winter orchids has started.
There isn't a lot to see but every flower is a small triumph, another year where I have taken a fragile orchid and not killed it.
I have been enjoying Coelogyne. It is a complex and intricate genus, the confusion not helped by recent proposals to lump a number of genera together.
For my purposes the genus splits into two groups, those from the Himalayas that might tolerate some cold and those from the Pacific islands that
certainly will not. In the first group, C. ovalis from Assam, Tibet, Nepal and China seems to survive in a cold greenhouse here.
It grew vigorously through the summer and has produced about a dozen flowers so far. It seems to be a good thing for someone who likes tropical orchids
but is not so keen on heating bills.
30th November 2025
Pleione Barcena .
Spring flowering Pleione are a bit more cold tolerant, enjoying life in the greenhouse. I have spent the last week repotting them while they are dormant
(although in my experience they aren't as fussy about it as tradition would suggest). The number of pots that I grow seems to increase every year
while I'm not really paying attention. They face life with enthusiasm.
Almost inevitably I am increasingly entranced by the autumn flowering forms. They flower at a season when there is little else in the garden
buzzing with the thrill of expectation. Most of the garden is looking a bit queasy while it processes the autumnal slump of dead foliage
in the garden equivalent of an after-lunch nap on a Sunday.
Unfortunately the autumn flowering Pleione are less accommodating. Many of the hybrids are based on P. precox or P. maculata, two delightful, autumn flowering,
cold-hating species. I have wrestled with them frequently and failed on every occasion. One good frost and I am back to frustrated yearning.
My only success has been P. Barcena (P. formosana x P. praecox). I have two clones and they seem to survive in my warmest greenhouse
(unheated but very sunny). In a good year they flower in autumn, if it's cold they may leave it until the New Year.
30th November 2025
Pleurothallis tuerckheimii .
In searching for orchids that might survive the rigours of a cold greenhouse I have looked at many strange corners of the world.
Not personally, you understand. I look at the atlas, study the books and then go and speak to the orchid nurseries to see what is available.
During these paper based wanderings, the Andes always look like a profitable region for exploration. I have tried but so far I have not been bowled over by success.
With peaks rising above 6,000m and a host of orchid species, I had hoped for some tolerance of an occasional frosty night among some of the Oncidium perhaps?
I haven't found the tolerance I had hoped for.
Pleurothallis are not quite as spectacular, but seem to be more forgiving. I have grown P. tuerckheimii for at least a decade and it has done well.
I lose an occasional leaf to radiation frost but the plant recovers quickly and seems determined to flower in the coldest months. I salute its spirit
(and I wish there were more like it). It is found growing from Mexico to Panama at elevations up to 2,400m which seems moderately low, however it resists frost.
I have tried others from higher elevations that do not. The books are a good starting point but behaviour in the greenhouse is not so easily predicted.
30th November 2025
Stenoglottis longifolia clone.1
When the going gets cold, the terrestrial orchids come into their own. Stenoglottis longifola reaches into the Drakensberg in South Africa,
a range of mountains that can be cold and wet. It is not surprising that it grows well in an unheated greenhouse. It follows a very sensible pattern of growth,
producing leaves through the summer and coming to a crescendo of flowering in autumn. Then it sheds its flowers, drops its leaves and disappears below ground for a month or so.
The cold weather comes and it hides.
I refer to this one, which is vigorous and tolerant, as clone.1. I have a clone.2 as well that I bought from a Dutch market stall. It has darker flowers
and seems to be as tolerant but not as vigorous. I have a few other names in the genus, they are all good but the taxonomy defeats me.
I have looked at it repeatedly in an attempt to confirm my plants names and now I have given up. I have a number of different names, the colours vary slightly
and the fringing of the labellum varies slightly, for what it is worth.
With my magnifying glass in hand I was considering producing hybrids but I'm not sure what I would hope to achieve, more fringed pink confusion?
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.
If you want to contact me, the address is incompetentjohnMONKEYjohnjearrard.co.uk
When typing the address in, please replace MONKEY with the more traditional @ symbol! I apologise for the tiresome performance involved, but I am getting too much
spam from automated systems as a result of having an address on the front page.
Perhaps my MONKEY will fool them.