Availability

A New availability list is available fromwww.jackdawsfield.co.ukor drop us an e-mail (nick@jackdawsfield.co.uk) and we will send you one.

Availability updates

A New availability list is available from www.jackdawsfield.co.ukor drop us an e-mail (nick@jackdawsfield.co.uk) and we will send you one.

Ceratostigma abyssinicum

Ceratostigma abyssinicum is not really hardy (Z9) but is a superb plant. It is more vigorous than the other shrubby members of the genus, and is more firmly attached to its roots than C. willmottianum. It will make a 1m specimen and bear sky blue flowers of astonishing intensity.

Abelia engleriana

Abelia engleriana is a hardy form growing about 1.5m like A. grandiflora, but with hairy rather than glossy leaves and soft pink flowers like A. schumannii, without the death wish. However botanists, helpfully, want to lump both A. schumannii and A. engleriana into A. uniflora, but these would then have to have cultivar names as they are distinct. They don't want to go that far, so we are sticking with the names we know.

Phormiums

We are now largely producing our own Phormiums, which means that we have stronger, larger plants, and the price has reduced over the last two years. The winters have not been kind to them, but we have some large plants in the ground which have survived, so they cannot be written off as tender, which some are trying to do.

Availability

A New availability list is available from www.jackdawsfield.co.uk or drop us an e-mail (nick@jackdawsfield.co.uk) and we will send you one.

Passion flowers

If passion flowers are your thing then please send me an e-mail to let me know. A lot is happening here, but it is too soon to give any details.

Billbergia nutans

Billbergia nutans is a bromeliad, making a bright green, suckering rosettes, to 40cm, from which arise the most striking of flowers, being rose pink, edged with violet. It is not hardy, Z9, but well suited to pot culture.

Azara microphylla

Azara microphylla is a slow-growing, hardy evergreen tree ( we have one about 4m after 20 years) with very small shiny leaves. Its chief attraction is the chocolaty smell from its small inconspicuous yellow flowers which on a still spring day can spread over a considerable distance, causing mayhem among chocoholics. Actually the smell is vanilla, but that's what popular chocolate smells of; (the same problem exists with chocolate flavoured beers, but don't get me started). Although it is attractive in itself, it is a plant for the back of a border.

Fuchsia magellanica 'Threave'

A few years ago we added about twenty hardy Fuchsias to the range and more than half of them have proved popular and are still with us. I would be reluctant to drop Fuchsia magellanica 'Threave' but it needs some supporters if it is to keep its place. It makes a compact dome to about 40cm with small glossy leaves and masses of small, very glossy, red and purple flowers. Please try it, you will like it and I hope your customers do as well. It is very similar, at least on the nursery, to F. 'David'.

Hedychiums

We are currently offering a few Hedychiums, which I know little about, as they come from a customer of ours, but you can check them out at http://www.gardengingers.co.uk/ They will not remain on the list for much longer, because of the logistics of the job.