Anomatheca laxa is probably something we shouldn’t grow as its growth pattern doesn’t fit with anything else and it doesn’t really need potting on. However if you are selling direct to the public then this is one to sell as a P9. They are in full leaf now and will shortly start to show flower buds and the flowers are bright red and pink (except the few plants that are white). After flowering it dies back to corms for the rest of the year.
Aristotelia chilensis ‘Variegata’ grows into a 3m high shrub in time, but responds well to pruning making vigorous new growth. Flowers and berries are inconspicuous but the variegation is an uneven mix of green and gold making an attractive specimen or background evergreen. It is hardy, but the old leaves are damaged by winter wind. Any soil or aspect, tolerates maritime exposure.
Sarcococcas are slow growing evergreens that have sweetly scented flowers in the winter. They grow best in shade or part shade and will grow in any soil, thriving particularly on chalky soils. S. hookeriana Digyna has long narrow matt leaves, does not produce berries reliably but is the most sweet smelling. S. confusa and S. ruscifolia (presumably ours is the form chinensis) are extremely alike with dark green, glossy, wrinkled leaves and they will berry reliably with S. confusa having black berries while S. ruscifolia ultimately has dark red berries, although they do go through a black stage. Hort Week’s recent feature was wrong on these two. On the nursery shade is essential, as with Skimmias, to avoid producing chlorotic plants.
There is a full range of Wisterias available in May and, if grown under protection, these will make substantial plants this season. We have grafted a good number of the two most popular varieties (Black Dragon and Macrobotrys) but have tried to offer a wide range as well. There may well be some more varieties, that aren’t listed as yet, which have been grafted from a well-known collection so please let us know if you want to go off the scale with your Wisteria offering, and we can keep you informed.
We first grew Datisca cannabina for the fun of it (because it is vaguely cannabis like) but “hardy planters” rate it as a fine foliage plant for the back of a bed (it grows to 2m). It is hardy and entirely deciduous.
Pennisetum setaceum Rubrum is a beautiful grass but it is no use pretending that it is anything other than difficult to overwinter in this country. It has traditionally been grown from divisions imported form warmer climes but this year we are experimenting with seedlings (also imported), which will be available as liners in early June. It doesn’t leave a very long selling season, but they do sell on sight. These are not on the availability list yet, but I would prefer to sell them in advance so that there is no delay in shipping them out.
In our pricing review this year we reduced the price of bearded irises (I. germanica) and coupled with a better balance of varieties,. in terms of the range of colour, our offering is much more attractive. Although some will flower in 9cm pots they are difficult to handle like this, so if you want them for show selling you need to plan ahead by one year and have show plants flowering in larger pots. If you are simply growing them on for sale they are best in full sun and should flower next year. We have a complete list of descriptions available and pictures of most varieties.
Hoheria sexstylosa ‘Crataegifolia’ is a (clumsily named) juvenile form of the species with small, dark green, toothed leaves. Its growth is vigorous and upright, making an attractive foliage plant, which is happy to be trimmed. I do not know if it will ever mature into the adult flowering form, the books imply that it does not, but are not too specific.
Over the last 15 years a lot of new varieties of Caryopteris have appeared and where we once grew all there were we no longer can. They all need well drained soil (not Sussex clay) and thrive on chalk. Of the traditional varieties C. x clandonensis ‘Arthur Simmonds’ is the typical pale blue that you expect and it flowers from late July making plants about 1.5m high with long, silvery grey foliage. Compared with this, C.c ‘Heavenly Blue is very similar but the flowers are a slightly deeper blue, and then all the other varieties are much deeper in colour and the foliage is less grey. ‘incana’ is a long established type and is much more compact while ‘Ferndown’ is also compact and starts to flower a month later than all the others. ‘First Choice’, ‘Dark Knight’ and ‘Grand Bleu’ are all larger growers with darker blue flowers.
Yellow foliaged varieties are proliferating – we are currently offering ‘Sunshine Blue’ which is a sport of C. incana so has shorter, broader leaves which are lobed rather than serrate and the flowers are deep blue. The foliage is a true gold rather than the lemony colour of ‘Worcester Gold’, which we could grow if anybody wanted us to. If the hardiness of Caryopteris is an issue for you then ‘Sunshine Blue’ should do better than the C. clandonensis types. This sport arose on a plant we had supplied and has netted good royalties for the nurseryman who noticed it, so keeeeeep looking!
