JEARRARD'S HERBAL
Thats enough introduction - on with the plants!
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... out in the garden.
31st January 2010
Asarum caudigerum var. cardiophyllum .
Springlike weather all week, which of course means wild fluctuation between extremes rather than anything stable and mellow.
Cold winds and showers, then a perfect beautiful day yesterday and an inch of hailstones this morning!
I have been watching the Asarum filled with the trepidation of winter. I repotted them all into a new mix this summer
so there is always the fear that they will object, struggle, sulk or drop dead.
The first flowers bring the optimism of spring into the greenhouse - whatever else happens I haven't killed them all!
This small brown flower (I have seen it called 'peach', which is 'poetic') has been expanding from a hairy bud for a couple of weeks
and is now at its best.
31st January 2010
Galanthus 'Lady Elphinstone' .
The meadow has been alive with untreadable patches as the snowdrops form large clumps under the trees. This week 'Lady Elphinstone' has risen up
into flower and I can finally see where all the clumps are.
The first all have green flowers. Last year it was the later flowers, probably the second flower from each bulb, that produced yellow
markings, and it will be interesting to see if it repeats the pattern this year. I don't have a good reliable yellow snowdrop
and I should make an effort to rectify that this year.
31st January 2010
Hamamelis mollis .
The earliest of the Hamamelis this year have been the red hybrids, which was unexpected. I have been waiting for the bright yellow
form to lighten up the garden, and this pretty scented species has been the first. 'Pallida' will be more spectacular, the buds are swelling on the branches
but they will not be at their best for a week or so.
This plant only went into the ground last spring so I wasn't expection much in the way of flower but it produced little in the way of new growth
last year and seems to have put its energies into more flowers.Perhaps this year it will put some effort into extra growth.
31st January 2010
Rubus spectabilis .
Among the precious things of spring, small and frail and entirely inflated with ooh's and aah's, there is a thug in the garden. It is vigorous and cheery through the summer
and then produces these unexpected pink flowers in the earliest part of the season. The earliest flowers are often malformed and get damaged easily.
By April they will be large, lush, rounded and almost pointless. It is these tiny specks of glowing pink at the start of the year that make it a welcome thug
however freely it spreads, suckers and generally strives to occupy space that was intended for something more precious.
I have tried to be enthusiastic about the double flowered form, but it comes later in the year when it is no longer needed!
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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