JEARRARD'S HERBAL
2nd November 2025
Crocus speciosus .
The garden has survived Halloween and plunged into November with gusto. We haven't had a frost yet and that isn't unusual, but we haven't had a whisper of
potential either and that is less common. A night or two of hovering cold at the end of October reminds us both (garden and gardener)
to prepare for things to come. As it is Impatiens gomphophylla is still flowering in the occasional late sunshine and the garden seats were still
dry when I went to sit down.
The sycamores have responded more predictably to the season, leaves have been shed (or blown) from their branches. The ground beneath them is brown and crunchy.
I wanted to wear red wellingtons and kick my way through them but I'm not four any more. Perhaps it is time to put away some childish things.
At a more practical level, I no longer have red wellingtons and I'm not sure they make them in adult sizes. I will look into it with
obstinate kicking nostalgia.
And it is obstinate nostalgia that sees Crocus speciosus in the garden. It doesn't like this climate. It may persist for a year or two
before it vanishes but, as with the summer that precedes it, that is the inevitable conclusion. I am trying it in my sunniest corner
and this year I have a great show. I'm reluctant to add that I planted them three weeks ago.
2nd November 2025
Camellia sinensis assamica .
The camellias have launched themselves into a new season with enthusiasm, they are waiting for the weather to catch up.
In some years the flowers burst from frost-rimed buds in defiance of the cold darkness. This year they have opened with the gay abandon
of a flutter of early butterflies cavorting around a maypole. I think the camellias enjoy the foolishness of it and
I am enjoying watching.
Life is not always so carefree, as Camellia sinensis assamica will attest. During the winter two years ago a large
Leyland Cypress decided to have a little dance during a storm and broke a trunk in the process. The poor camelia lay exactly in its tumbling path
and was neatly bisected. All of the branches were stripped from one side, the other was untouched.
This year the camellia seems to have overcome its terrifying ordeal and regained some composure. It is treating its rather lopsided
appearance as a mark of character.
2nd November 2025
Mahonia oiwakensis lomariifolia tenuifolia .
What is there to say about Mahonia except that they are waiting. They will have a moment and it will seem like a wintery moment.
The pale yellow flowers will briefly seem like the brightest thing in the garden and then the petals will shatter, the New Year sun will shine
and the pallid blip will be done with.
Mahonia oiwakensis lomariifolia tenuifolia is made of stern stuff. It has to be to survive the strain of its name.
It is a fine leaved form of the species and although it can be a bit gaunt it is nowhere near as leggy as M. oiwakensis lomariifolia.
The flowers are borne in decent heads and closer to buttercup yellow than is usual for M. oiwakensis and its ilk.
It's a foliage plant of great beauty and although I could also sing the praises of M. japonica and M. bealei I can rarely be bothered.
2nd November 2025
Nerine pudica
Down in the greenhouse the Nerine season is coming to a conclusion. It started in August and has thundered on for weeks in increasingly exotic hues.
This week seems to mark the end of the season for Nerine sarniensis. I spent some time earlier snaping off the old flower stems to create the illusion of
freshness in the display but the truth is that it will only stagger on for a few days now. The grand spectacle may have finished but as the flowers fade the
late hybrids involving N. undulata are throwing up flower stems. They will keep the colour going through November and then sputter
mournfully towards Christmas. By the time the New Year arrives there will be occasional drooping florets still showing colour but the time will be ripe for clearing up and moving on.
Between the two great flushes of flower, Nerine pudica takes centre stage. It is pale and delicate, without the stormy rainbow
of the attention seeking forms, but it is quietly delightful.