Trees and shrubs in parks and gardens 2014

[Chris Johnson]

Tweeted by Panayoti Kelaidis:
 
(Attachment Link)
The worth of a tree!

Clever, poignant and timely.

Chris

[Maggi Young]

John Richards, former President of the AGS also has an eye for a fine tree. He has a great fondness for trees and plants that make a colourful display in autumn and is  in the process of building a website to showcase his photos of such plants
 See it here : www.autumncolour.co.uk

[illingworth]

I visited the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is September and found this beauty Fothergilla major 'Blue Shadow' . Glaucous blue without hosta flowers or slugs! An instant favourite added to my want list.  Dirr reports it is  a branch sport of the cultivar  'Mt. Airy'.

-Rob

[Anne Repnow]

Just happened to see this post. That is a wonderful colour, Rob! I love my ordinary Fothergilla major - but 'Blue Shadow'  this is something else. Pity it isn't available in Germany...

[illingworth]

One of our Flickr contacts living in southern England wrote that he had recently planted this shrub in his garden.  With EU regulations don't plants now pass over borders without regulation and supervision? I will inquire as to his source if you wish.
A Japanese birch -  Betula apoiensis -  in our garden last October is pictured below.  Another favourite, and I was very glad to see it in the Seed List this year as the seed on ours is never viable and my efforts to root cuttings always end in failure. I have never found a source for it here in Canada. Totally hardy, and with a low of -33C  this am it needs to be.

[Anne Repnow]

Oh thank you, Rob and Sharon! That is very kind of you. Some English nurseries do ship to Germany, not all, alas.

Your birch is quite beautiful. I can see why you want more of them. Unusual that a Japanese shrub is hardy to this extent. I have just read up on this birch: It is very rare and endangered in Japan (Hokkaido). (Apparently it is a tetraploid hybrid between Betula ermanii and Betula ovalifolia.) So by rearing baby B. apoiensis you are doing a good deed!

[illingworth]

I should have followed up regarding the source of Fothergilla 'Blue Shadow' sooner and I apologize.

Our Flickr contact said he got his shrub from  from www.crocus.co.uk/ and the Plant Finder has 14 entries for it, but under F. x intermedia, not F. major.

In Dirr's Manual (2009) there is no reference to F. x intermedia  only F. major and gardenii. What is described in the Crocus plant list appears to be the right plant no matter what name it is given.

Again Bolinopsis I'm sorry for being tardy.

-Rob

[Anne Repnow]

Thank you, Rob! It is very kind of you to find out about the nursery in England. I'll find a way to get hold of this lovely shrub even though they do not deliver to Germany. ((I'm going to a school reunion in Wales in summer.....  ))