JEARRARD'S HERBAL
25th July 2021
Pitcairnia bergii .
A remarkable week in many ways. The Met Office put out an amber warning for heat and the heat duly arrived. It didn't stop me working in the garden, but it
stopped me from working for more than ten minutes at a time. I settled down to weeding around the house, close to a seat, close to the shade and close to a cool drink. I got some useful things done,
the area around the house gets ignored on the basis that I can do that whenever I have a spare minute. This was the week for finding a spare minute.
In the slightly cooler temperatures of the evening I went down to the greenhouse and put up more shading. I wanted to make some new windows in the side of the greenhouse but it was too hot
to actually do it. Perhaps this weekend. We were promised the temperatures would be brought down by rain, we got mist. I'm not complaining, the temperatures came down.
In the roasting heat of the greenhouse, Pitcirnia bergii has flowered. It has been a lot tougher than I had expected, growing well for a number of years in the greenhouse. It sulks when I have to divide it
but I can't say I'm surprised. Sawing a rootball into sections is not the gentlest of approaches. I tried teasing the rosettes apart but they just snap off, astonishingly the saw does less damage.
It has been trying to flower since May and the slugs have been working to stop it. In the heat of summer it has finally managed to outgrow them - I fully expect to find the slugs sitting in my seat, in my shade,
drinking my cool drink!
25th July 2021
Hydrangea macrophylla 'Pink Sensation' .
The garden needs water, things are starting to dry out. I don't water anything in the garden on principle, it seems a mistake to grow things that need it. Occasionally I water things in when I plant them,
but I'm not very diligent. That isn't principle, it is just laziness.
Under the trees the Hydrangea are in full flower this week and for the first time this year their leaves are starting to wilt as they compete with the tree roots for the last of the availalble moisture.
Gentle mist on Friday night did not solve the problem but it has put off a catastrophic collapse for a few days and rain is again promised on the distant horizon.
I regularly remember 'Pink Sensation' as 'Pink Surprise', both would be qually good names for the plant. It has started its long season as a cushion of flower. In my (mildly acidic)
soil, hydrangeas are reliably blue so 'Pink Sensation' is a pink surprise. When I first planted it the flowers were almost peachy pink, a very soft colour with yellow undertones. As it has adapted to my soil
the colour has sharpened to a harsher pink, however a decade after it was planted it is still very distinctly pink. Only the tiny flowers nestling in the heart of the pink bracts have shown any sign of responding to my soil.
It isn't the colour I originally planted, but I like it.
25th July 2021
Hoya carnosa .
The garden has felt tropical this week. The bananas outside have finally shrugged off the tattiness of winter and are growing away strongly, I have a few cannas pushing up shoots in the borders
and a series of tender shrubs around the house are looking lush and prosperous. Winter will come, things will change, but not just yet. It is a week to revel in the improbable.
If an amber weather warning for heat isn't improbable enough, then Hoya carnosa is in flower in the greenhouse. Wikipedia describes Hoya as "a genus of 200-300 species of tropical plants...
native to several countries of Asia ". They do not grow in areas that experience freezing temperatures. Hoya carnosa is a common house plant, which a
sure sign that it is tolerant of abuse. Although they are grown in warm greenhouses, successful house plants have to tolerate being boxed and then transported without heat, that is to say they have to forgive occasional
temperature shocks. When Jeremy Wilson at Strete Gate Camellias told me he had a Hoya that had been hardy for several years in his poly tunnel, I had to try it.
This is the plant and it survived the Beast from the East without damage. Temperatures in the greenhouse dropped to to least minus 5C and remained below freezing for a fortnight. The plant rests through the winter,
and then grows away and flowers in summer.
I'm not sure if this is an especially tolerant clone or whether the species is hardier than expected. When the chance arises I will try some other clones to see what happens, I might even try a cutting of this one outside.
I'm never going to have a garden where the perfumed nectar of hoyas drips from the trees, but an occasional flower on a south wall would be quite fun.
25th July 2021
Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola' .
Flowering in defiance of expectation seems to be the theme of the week. I garden on a hillside and it is quite steep in places. A drainage ditch beyond my lower boundry runs with water through the winter
but there is no natural water on the property. Even the thought of a pond seems a little silly on the hillside. Notwithstanding, I have a water lily. The tiny growth of Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola'
prospers in a container that is little more than a large black bucket. It has been with me for more than a decade producing occasional flowers through the summer and autumn, tiny fragments of perfection
floating on the black water.
When I first grew it I put it in a green storage container and it did very well. Slowly the container has faded as the plastic degrated in the sunlight. Last year I bought a new black bucket
built to resist the suns rays. I moved 'Pygmaea Helvola' in the new bucket to a new position on the sunny side of the house where I can enjoy it more easily. Ever since I moved it I have worried that
it will sulk about the change or find the new position less congenial. Flowering in the new location is a cause for celebration.
Meanwhile, down by the Nerine house, the original green bucket still contains water. As I pass it I am frightened that any slight disturbance might cause the entire thing to shatter in a deluge of water, sludge
and faded green plastic. I keep meaning to empty it carefully and dispose of it.
Just like the water lily, one day in summer it will surprise me.