JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
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... out in the garden.
6th July 2025
Hot weather in July is not a great shock. A sudden increase in biting insects in the garden has been more troublesome. I don't notice them at the point of contact
but they make themselves felt in the evening. I have little tubes of Anthisan scattered about the house to reduce the irritation but it's most effective if you apply it immediately,
six hours later isn't quite quick enough.
Last week Hydrangea macrophylla 'Love You Kiss' had just started its summery display, on Friday it finally wilted in the dry ground. Light rain through most of yesterday should have revived it
but desiccation is toying with the garden. Once the hydrangeas start to wilt I know there's scarcely any moisture to be had and the trees will be suffering.
So far my row of hydrangeas has stood up to the test. When I planted them I imagined a neat row of blue flower heads sheltered by the trees behind. I had seen something similar
in Fox Rosehill gardens, the blue flowers shimmering in the broken shadow, and I wanted to copy it. Things are never quite the same. Mine aren't neat and they aren't entirely blue
but they have enchanted me.
6th July 2025
Musa basjoo .
I grew up in the distant past when hydrangeas populated suburban gardens like tidy maiden-aunts at a tea party. I grew up before the 'exotic garden' was a thing, when Bergenia and rhubarb
represented the peak of foliage interest. Things changed. Somebody somewhere hinted that the Japanese banana might be hardy in the UK and before you knew it, every garden
with any pretence to modernity had sprouted a palm, a tree fern and a banana.
I was astonished. For years I kept my Musa basjoo in a conservatory, scarcely trusting the abundant evidence of hardiness. Eventually the former outgrew the latter and out they went.
Since then they have never fallen short of being wonderful. I have added other bananas, I am trialling a few more in the greenhouse, but it is Musa basjoo
That still astonishes me every year with the shock of the new.
The inflorescences are remarkable as the fresh flowers open along the stem, leaving behind delightful bunches of baby bananas. It's a pity they don't mature
into ripe fruits in the absence of fruit bats. I wonder if a bit of hand pollination might help?
6th July 2025
Philesia magellanica .
It took me several years to believe that Musa basjoo might survive outdoors. I was a cautious youth, I have had to learn recklessness with maturity.
It has taken me several decades to believe that Philesia magellanica might be hardy, I am learning recklessness in a very cautious fashion.
I have two plants, a scarlet flowered one and another with a pinkish tone. This is the pinkish one, the more vigorous of the plants.
They have prospered in pots in the greenhouse for a long time but two years ago this one was looking starved and overgrown so I planted it out. It survived and so last year the second went out.
Neither of them has died and the new growth looks healthier than it has for several years. I think that they might succeed (early days, fingers crossed etc.)
I studied them ten days ago and could see no sign of buds but yesterday there was a flower. I only have one and it is hidden away close to the ground and around the back
but it is a flower, a perfect pinkish dangling delight.
There's a phrase to celebrate the heat.
6th July 2025
Roscoea purpurea rubra .
The garden is much more relaxing without the frantic urgency of flowers. Perhaps that is ultimately the attraction of ferns. I have just been out there in the low evening sunshine and noticed the
Hemerocallis buds on the point of opening. I must get out with a camera tomorrow or miss them. Time rushes along. I walked back past the refreshing foliage of the Hedychium
but couldn't resist a furtive squeeze of the cane tips. No buds forming yet, autumn may be howling in the distance but it can't be heard yet.
At least it can't be heard in the greenhouse. The Roscoea are showing no sign of buds yet, all is well, or so I thought. Up in the new herbaceous border the first of the red
Roscoea purpurea has flowered. I almost hoped that a hungry deer would eat the evidence for me, allow a moments more summery sojourn. It is not to be. If the bitter truth
of approaching autumn has to be faced then this is at least a sweet complexion.
It can only be a few days before the greenhouse erupts with red Roscoea and fattened seedpods droop from tired orchids. The frantic rush of spring has been replaced by the frantic harvest of hybridisation.
It isn't sensible. Sensible people grow ferns.
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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