Euonymus alatus f. compactus

[Maggi Young]

That is a spectacular display, on and off the tree, McMark.

[Lesley Cox]

Olga and Mark, here's the best I can do for a picture. There were two seedlings originally then one died in last summer's dry period. This is the remaining one just a couple of days ago, rescued from its seed pot and potted into something a bit wider and deeper. I'm quite sure it IS a Euonymus as when I saw the parent, it had more or less typical spindleberry capsules, open and showing the pink seeds. Besides, the man in whose garden it grew is a very fine plantsman and knows his plants better than most. As I recall, this remained evergreen through last winter and the one before, not long after it germinated. The parent was about 2.5metres high when I saw it.

[TheOnionMan]

Lesley, it doesn't ring a bell.  There are approximately 150-180 species, and I'm only familiar with a handful of them.  Yours certainly has slender leaves, so perhaps with some further growth, flower details in the spring, and fruit detail next late summer, there will be enough diagnostic characteristics to work with.

[Hoy]

I have never seen any Euonymus that narrow-leaved but I found this googling a little:
http://www.esveld.nl/htmldiaen/e/euanle.php

However, Lesley, I think your seedling looks very uneuonymusly

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Mark. I know it must have been a bit like showing a daffodil BULB and asking which it was.

Talking of which (well I wasn't actually) I wonder could someone give an opinion on the tubers below. They came in a kilo bag of new potatoes, sold to a customer at the local Farmers' Market last week. He brought them back on this last Saturday saying they were NOT, and he is right, there but are they dahlias as he suggested? I've potted them and will grow them on to see. He was not a happy man and said that most Dahlia vars are poisonous if eaten.

[Lesley Cox]

I'll try and get hold of my seed donor by email and see if he has any further information in the meantime. I think he has been back to China since that time.

[Lori S.]

Re. narrow-leaved euonymus with pink seeds (the husks, anyway - the seeds are actually red), here are some photos of what I have as Euonymus nanus 'Turkestanicus'.  Of course, the few leaves left hanging on are all brown now.  The leaves measure ~5cm long and up to 5mm wide.  Chances are that yours is something more exotic than this one though, Lesley.

Edit: I guess it is actually the calyces(?) that are pink, and the flesh covering the seeds that is red. 

[Lesley Cox]

Now you have me worried Lori and I'm wondering if, in fact, it was the husks (pods) that were pink and the seeds were red after all, because your leaves look incredibly like mine though they have never turned brown and have been green right since germination. Here is another pic taken before the other died. The fact is, I wasn't wildly excited by the thought of a euonymus and didn't look after the seedlings at all, though the donor's bush was very attractive in his the garden.


Come to think of it though, my leaves are up to 10cms long even on the young plant.

[Lesley Cox]

I sowed the seed in 2007 and have been looking through the pictures I took in that garden that year but it isn't there so I didn't take a picture of it. However I did take one of this incredible Daphne. The owner couldn't name it. Any suggestions anyone? Does the name van Houttei ring any bells?

[Paul T]

Thanks Mark. I know it must have been a bit like showing a daffodil BULB and asking which it was.

Talking of which (well I wasn't actually) I wonder could someone give an opinion on the tubers below. They came in a kilo bag of new potatoes, sold to a customer at the local Farmers' Market last week. He brought them back on this last Saturday saying they were NOT, and he is right, there but are they dahlias as he suggested? I've potted them and will grow them on to see. He was not a happy man and said that most Dahlia vars are poisonous if eaten.

Lesley,

Your bulbs look like Bluebells to me, definitely not Dahlias.  Not even vaguely like Dahlia tubers, or at least not remotely like any Dahlia I've ever seen.  I've definitely lifted bluebell bulbs that look like that though, or at least similar.

[Otto Fauser]

I sowed the seed in 2007 and have been looking through the pictures I took in that garden that year but it isn't there so I didn't take a picture of it. However I did take one of this incredible Daphne. The owner couldn't name it. Any suggestions anyone? Does the name van Houttei ring any bells?

Lesley , you are on the right track : your Daphne is x houtteana 'Louis Van Houtte ' . I have it in my garden too.
A nice foliage plant -not very exciting in flower .


(edit by maggi to repair quote mishap)

[Olga Bondareva]

Come to think of it though, my leaves are up to 10cms long even on the young plant.

My E. nanus has leaves up to 3-4 sm long. Unfortunately I've never photographed the plant. It's not pretty enough for me.

[TheOnionMan]

Lesley, I did take a pass through the Euonymus in Flora of China, and there are 8-10 species with leaves that are narrowly linear or lanceolate.

Regarding the plant sold here as E. nanus 'Turkestanicus', I wonder if it E. nanus at all, because my plant had dark red flowers, whereas the description of E. nanus in FOC describes the flowers as white.  If I have time, I'll post my old photos... the crazy work week has begun.

[Garden Prince]

It could be that it is an relatively unknown Euonymus species but it shows great resemblance to Euonymus cornutus var. quinquecornutus.

Here are two pictures of a 4 or 5 year old Euonymus cornutus var quinquecornutus which was propagated by seed. I have also a grafted form of this small Euonymus but I do not have any pictures of it.

[TheOnionMan]

It could be that it is an relatively unknown Euonymus species but it shows great resemblance to Euonymus cornutus var. quinquecornutus.

Here are two pictures of a 4 or 5 year old Euonymus cornutus var quinquecornutus which was propagated by seed. I have also a grafted form of this small Euonymus but I do not have any pictures of it.

Garden Prince, that's a very cool Euonymus, I like the spurred open capsules, reminiscent of an Epimedium flower or even a horned milkweed (Asclepias) bloom!  In the Flora of China PDF on Euonymus, E. cornutus is among the 8-10 species that have narrowly linear foliage, very distinctive.  The FOC treatment puts "var. quinquecorntus" in synonymy with E. cornutus.  It is listed as found growing 2200-4300 m, so a good chance it is hardy.