JEARRARD'S HERBAL
25th May 2025
Arisaema ringens .
It has been a hot week with occasional overcast moments. A couple of rain splashes did not add up to a relief but some rain last night finally assuaged my worries about the garden.
I had (foolishly in all respects) just planted some Camellia. I watered them in a fortnight ago, they have had one moderate shower, but I was worrying. They looked fine yesterday
but the ground didn't look moist. Rain overnight has saved me struggling up the hill with a bucket, at least in my imagination. In reality I would have hitched the trailer and driven the mower around
sploshing water willy-nilly. It's just like trudging but without any actual trudging. I think the rain arrived just in time.
Looking around the garden, spring has departed. The last Rhododendron looks weary and blurred. Hot weather and tired camera respectively. There is still a single
Tulipa sprengeri but at first sight it was a beacon of joy in a rather quiet scene. However, there have been surprises.
Down in the greenhouse Arisaema ringens is flowering. I think it likes the summer warmth under cover. In the garden the same clone is just persisting.
It's like sitting through a film that hasn't caught your interest, just in case it picks up. The Arisaema is still there, reluctantly waiting and hoping.
I will probably dig it up and move it inside again, it doesn't deserve to suffer. Just switch the film off and trim your toenails instead.
25th May 2025
Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Rubra' .
I have been peering into the pots where the water lilies wallow. Later in the summer I will peer with hopeful anticipation of flowers but this week I have been peering to see how far the water level has fallen.
I must go and check again later, in case the rain wasn't sufficient. I don't like the plants to be left high and dry. There is an elegant charm about 'water lilies'.
'Mud lilies' do not sound so good, and when the mud is exposed the scent is not delighful.
A single flower on N. 'Pygmaea Rubra' was a surprise as it caught the light and ducked the wind. Not long ago my little terrace was surrounded by spring bulbs,
now it is dahlias and fuchsias and the space where a Hosta would have been, but I think it's been eaten. One water lily transforms the season. I would sit and gaze at it
but I bought new garden seats yesterday and they got soaked overnight. Now they look slimy and unappealing. I might put the old plastic ones back, they've still got some life in them.
25th May 2025
Pasithea caerulea .
I had hoped to move the old seats around the garden to give me a few little places to rest. One in the greenhouse would be especially welcome.
I had it there through the winter but moved it back to the house for summer. It may be that the new chairs end up in the greenhouse,
safely stashed away from the slime of the real world.
Pasithea caerulea was the next surprise of the week. I would like to crow triumphantly but I will settle for appreciating the depths of its blueness.
I don't do well with Pasithea. Perhaps I have that the wrong way around, it doesn't do well with me. Several time now I have watched in wonder as it flowered
and then wondered wistfully as it faded away. I have hung on to it by a thread but perhaps I have at last found a place that it is happy.
I would like to crow triumphantly but I don't think it's out of the woods yet despite being in the greenhouse.
25th May 2025
Roscoea forrestii .
In front of the house, my row of bananas are starting to show signs of life. They aren't looking magnificent yet, that will have to wait until the end of June at the earliest,
but they are looking green. The ragged, peeling stems of winter are a thing of the past. They will look remarkable until the gales of autumn shred the leaves.
It is a very short season of wonder but it delivers a thrill of precious vegetable magic.
Unlike my phone where the magic is just as real but the thrill is pedestrian. I couldn't get an app to work yesterday, I was almost apoplectic with rage
at the stupid thing. Everyday magic has a dark side. I went out and looked at the bananas instead.
The same warmth that animated the bananas has reached the summer flowering Roscoea. Last week I gazed over the dormant pots of cracked compost with something approaching despair.
I think they are all dead. I'm sure they should be doing something by now? All's well, suddenly they have appeared. Very suddenly in the case of Roscoesa forrestii.
On Thursday there was nothing, I checked rather carefully and shrugged with resignation. Yesterday the flower was fully open standing above the compost on a fragile leg
like a fawn, both cute and ridiculous.
Filled with delight I smiled benignly at the phone and didn't throw it into the water lily tub.