Daphne 2011

[Otto Fauser]

Olga , your photos as always are a delight -you are so artistic - thank you .

 Paul , D. kamtschatica is in Australia ,and I believe I have the only plant of D. x rollsdorfii 'Wilhelm Schacht' in Australia .

[Olga Bondareva]

Thank you Lesley, Paul and Otto!  

D. kamtschatica is very easy from seed and fast growing. I see it will be a big shrub. May be I have to cut one of my three plants... or all of them.
Sorry seeds are already sown.


Otto
How does D. kamtschatica feel in Australia? Does it blooms?

[Paul T]

Otto,

Good to know more of these are in Australia.  I hope that you're propagating the 'Wilhelm Schacht' and spreading it around to local enthusiasts if it is the only one in Australia.  It's a cracker of a plant by the look of it, and that way there are backups if anything happens.

Are there any commercial sources of Daphne kamtschatica that you know of?  I'm guessing there won't be, but at least knowing it is in collections means that the possibility exists somewhere down the track.

[Olga Bondareva]

Some Daphnes are in the second blooming.

D. circassica


D. cneorum Variegata


D. burkwoodii Variegata

[art600]

Beautiful photos of beautiful plants - thanks Olga

[Tim Ingram]

Daphnes are such interesting and unpredictable plants to grow. Almost all in our garden have finished flowering, but perhaps the most exciting of all, D. glomerata, looks to have a large number of flower buds. Robin White is not very complementary of its scent, so I will have to wait and see!

A second interesting species grown from JJA seed is D. gnidioides, which is well adapted to our warm, dry garden. It has small white flowers but the feature I like is the very grey foliage; I could imagine it making some distinctive hybrids. We have it on a raised bed before I realised it could grow to 1.3m or more.

What about D. arbuscula? This has made a plant a metre across in an open sunny spot, but hardly ever flowers!. I have grown it in pots in the alpine house and it flowers beautifully. Do we just not get hot enough summers? Similar problem with D. petraea growing on the sand bed.

The finest daphne of all; D. retusa. What a plant! Easy to grow. Large intensely fragrant flowers and striking red berries, and...
it will always seed itself around and keep going for ever in the garden. Definitely one of my top ten garden plants!

Since none of these have flowers on them (!) I have to finish with the daphne relative Pimelia ferruginea, a very tidy and attractive plant, albeit tender. I was really pleased to buy this at the Great Comp August Flower Show last week, and especially because it came from County Park Nursery, the totally unique and fascinating nursery created by the redoubtable Graham Hutchins.
I must have first visited him as a student in London 35 years ago, and he was as much an inspiration then as he is now.

[ChrisB]

I still have the daphne I bought when we (NCCPG North East) came to your garden and nursery Tim.  My plants remind me of people and places I've been....

[Michael J Campbell]

 Daphne 'Beulah Cross

[ruweiss]

The unusually warm and sunny weather during the last days brought some extra flowers
out of time also to some Daphnes.

[Hoy]

This seedling of unknown parentage has flowered sparingly all summer. Somebody who recognize it?

[ruweiss]

Daphne tangutica maybe?

[t00lie]

A while back i was given a number of small seedlings of an unnamed Daphne sps.

Up until a few weeks ago i was concerned they might be D.laureola which is classed as a noxious weed here in NZ.
However some are flowering for the first time and i think i have keyed them out correctly as D.pontica.

Spidery blooms with a lovely spicy scent.

Cheers Dave.

[Lesley Cox]

These look nice Dave and I was also wondering about a yellow-flowered species I saw in Ashburton yesterday morning. The flowers were small, scented and yellow but I think were more spaced out than yours, not in clusters or bunches. I can't imagine it as having weed potential. Apparently it came from Merv Holland who wouldn't be distributing anything weedly.

I took up for display only one of my two D. petraea 'Persabee.' The scent was so overpowering in the car that I came close to putting it out and hiding it behind a tree until the return home journey. I had to do that once with an Arisaema and then I couldn't find the right tree for ages. Spent half an hour walking up and down the road.

[Lesley Cox]

I have a couple of hopeful-looking seedlings of D. reichsteinii. The little bit of info in the AGS bulletin (Vol 58) makes it sound exciting. A petraea hybrid apparently.

[t00lie]

These look nice Dave and I was also wondering about a yellow-flowered species I saw in Ashburton yesterday morning. The flowers were small, scented and yellow but I think were more spaced out than yours, not in clusters or bunches.

Thanks Lesley  
D.albowiana (syn.Daphne pontica subsp. haematocarpa),x AGS 01 is currently flowering as well ,with blooms that are not so yellow.

From Stewart Preston i have D.giraldii--it's maybe a week away from from showing it's golden yellow colouring --i'll post when out.

Cheers Dave.