JEARRARD'S HERBAL
17th August 2025
Cyclamen hederifolium .
Another week where the threat of high summer has been obscured by patches of overcast and gusty weather. All we need is a couple of torrential
downpours and it will feel like autumn. The garden is responding with a flush of bulbs, tubers and the like that have spent the summer
absorbing the heat and getting ready for a display.
The Cyclamen started early, before I had really cleared the bed of summer's feeble fluff. I have removed the weedy foliage
that creeps in every year when my back is turned and the Cyclamen are prospering.
This one caught my attention as I passed with its bold pink stripes on a paler ground. It has another flower with the same pattern
so I will keep an eye on it. I'm not sure that it is nicer than the typical pink form but it is certainly distinctive.
17th August 2025
Acis autumnalis .
Down in the greenhouse the Acis have responded to the first watering of the Nerine by rushing into flower. I am encouraging them to spread around
among the larger bulbs, something I wouldn't even have considered in my younger days. Now I am more relaxed about these things.
If the Acis wants to grow in other pots I am quite prepared to let it. The small bulbs fit in well with the watering schedule of the Nerine
so there is no harm done.
When I was more concerned about these things, I had a range of slight variations of Acis autumnalis. The variation was even slighter than that
to be found among snowdrops so fortunately I got over it.
In the genus Acis, this is the one that performs under my conditions. I love the others but they spurn my advances.
That's the way it goes sometimes.
17th August 2025
Crocosmia aurea 'Golden Ballerina' .
The genus Crocosmia revels in the self-indulgent luxury of the commonplace. The hedges locally turn orange in summer
as they start to flower. The effect is starting to look a bit ragged now, like football supporters in a pub after the match, but they are still quite strident.
In the garden they are relentlessly orange. It isn't a bad thing but I would like some variation. The yellow ones don't seem to establish strongly enough
to match the common impact and the red ones look rather lost in the naranja-gang.
Acis are white, Crocosmia are orange. The garden reality is very simple.
In the greenhouse the hybrids and selections of Crocosmia aurea hold their own. I have tried to grow 'Emily Mckenzie' but she doesn't like me.
'Golden Ballerina' is another matter, prospering in the greenhouse and dying rapidly in the garden. In this case golden might seem like
a polite term for orange but 'Golden Ballerina' suitably expresses the wonder of the plant in bloom.
'Orange Ballerina' would have a whiff of wrinkled tights and fake tan about it.
17th August 2025
Hedychium gardnerianum BSWJ.2524.
On the edge of the garden I have a row of bananas. They have just arrived at their glorious leafy peak. In a couple of months the autumn winds will shred and blacken the foliage
and it will be June or even July before they return to an awe-inspiring state. They have a short period of beauty but it is a window of wonder.
In a similar way I have never owned any silver cutlery. Silver is beautiful when it is polished but the window of wonder is short. Silver dulls
and then tarnishes, the glory is gone. I settle for stainless steel.
Behind the bananas there is a bed of Hedychium. They occupy the same decorative frame as the bananas, starting their leafy display in June
and continuing until dank chills sprinkle their tropical brio with dewy spiders webs. For a few short months their foliage stands
as testimony to the exuberance of life. It is enough to justify their place but the Hedychium have another trick up their pseudostems.
As the season starts to flag they sprout with sporadic floral wonder. The first of them started this week. Hedychium gardnerianum
is a gorgeous thing, flowering reliably here with a scent that I found pungent when I was young and now find occasionally.
The border will ring with shouts of floral delight from now until the first frosts. Whispered shouts that barely travel a few feet
but shouts of delight for all that.
If I may be allowed to quote a friend's parrot, "Who's a gorgy boy!".