Graham Rice

The Holy Grail of hellebores!

Graham Rice — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:06:00 GMT

A hybrid between Helleborus niger and H. orientalis has recently been announced - and this time it really does sound like the real thing. A hybrid between these two species has been claimed before, there even used to be a plant at Kew behind a label which claimed it was such a hybrid. But no. Not until now.

It's called ‘Walberton's Rosemary' and I confess I would have been suspicious if I hadn't known who raised it. But it comes from the highly respected plant breeder David Tristram - whose father was instrumental in the creation of the legendary Helleborus niger ‘Potter's Wheel'.

This is what he told me:

"I've tried for years (rather as one buys lottery tickets!) crossing H. niger x H. orientalis both ways, using both white spotted and red orientalis selections (of my own) crossed with ‘Potters Wheel' selections that I'd worked on for many years. I was looking, of course, for large well presented uprightish flowers. I never got any joy until suddenly in 2000 this one came up which is quite unique in my experience. I don't think I did anything unusual. Naturally I've been trying again to produce other ones but without any more such luck."

So what convinced him that this really is a cross between the two species?

"The two reasons for my claim that it really IS H. niger x H. orientalis this time are: (1) that that is what I was trying to do; and, more importantly, (2) that it seems to me to be intermediate in virtually all its leaf and flower characteristics, except of course for its enormous flower production and complete sterility in which it differs from either parent."

As you can see from the pictures (click on each to enlarge it), the pink flowers are gorgeous. opening pink on the backs and paler inside then fading to rich rose pink inside and out. It's obvious from the picture how prolific this is.

Helleborus ‘Walberton's Rosemary' will available in good garden centres across the country in January and February 2009.

Delightful dwarf daffodil

Graham Rice — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:41:00 GMT

As bulb-buying time is upon us, I came across this lovely little daffodil over on the Our Little Acre blog from Ohio - and it's available here too.

‘New-Baby' looks unique. It's a Jonquil, about 10in/25cm high, with slender dark green foliage and heads of three or four, occasionally five, 1in/25cm flowers. Each flower has a bright yellow cup backed by six white petals and here's what's special: the edge of each petal, at the base, is bright yellow, matching the cup. The result is a flower with real sparkle. Click on the image to see that delihtful colouring.

Frankly, I'm not quite sure how new it is but I've never seen it before and I'm looking forward to seeing it next spring.

Narcissus ‘New-Baby' (note that the name has a hyphen) is available from these suppliers: Miniature Bulbs and Choice Bulbs, Quality Daffodils and Thompson & Morgan.

Exquisite new dahlia

Graham Rice — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:43:00 GMT

News from Ireland of a gorgeous new dahlia which Camolin Potting Shed of Wexford have on sale before anyone else.

‘Maya’ was raised in Holland by Kees and Aad Verwer of Verwer Dahlias, the good people who have been bringing us the superb Happy Single Series of dahlias as well as the popular dwarf double Gallery Series. (Verwer Dahlias do not sell direct to home gardeners). This is a more traditional Decorative dahlia, but what a gorgeous colour.

I won’t try to describe the delicate colouring, I don’t need to - just click on the picture to enlarge it. The flowers are about 15-17cm/6-7in across and are carried generously on plants about 70-80cm/28-32in high. ‘Maya’ makes a superb plant for a mixed border and a lovely cut flower.

It’s available to callers and by mail order from Camolin Potting Shed.

Exotic hibiscus – first time in Britain

Graham Rice — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:02:00 GMT

When we think of hibiscus we tend to think either of the hardy shrubs in which Notcutts have specialised for so long or we think huge and exotic... say Hawaii.

But Shelley and Robert Antscheri of Burton Grange Nurseries in Cheshunt in Hertfordshire realised that large-flowered, exotic hibiscus can be grown here. They have rooted cuttings and plants available for the first time this year.

Seventeen varieties of these amazingly exotic, large-flowered, tropical style hibiscus are available to grow as conservatory plants - and to grow out on the patio in summer. And those flowers really are huge, up to 25cm/10in across, and come in a range of vivid colours including red, pink, orange and white with a number of pretty bicolours and also a few doubles. ‘Bon Temps’, in yellow with a rich rose centre, is illustrated above, while ‘Magnifique’, below, is a wonderful swirl of strawberry ice cream. Click on the images to enlarge them.

"We are a small family-run nursery specialising in growing and selling tropical hibiscus rooted cuttings and mature plants," Shelley told me. "We originally sourced our very unusual varieties from Florida, and we now create the cuttings and plants from our own mother-stock.

"We are the only commercial growers of these varieties in the UK and so far they are largely unheard of by the general public, although we are doing everything we can to change this! We have secured a small programme with Marks & Spencer this year.

There's more information about these spectacular plants and how to grow them, plus and a very tempting picture gallery, at the Burton Grange Nurseries website where you can also order online.

Three new roses

Graham Rice — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:32:00 GMT

There are almost seventy new roses in this years RHS Plant Finder and I was especially taken with Lucky (‘Frylucy') which I wrote about last month over on my plants blog from the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and which is the Rose of the Year for 2009. But there have been even more launched since the Plant Finder went to press - and these are just two of them.

From David Austin Roses comes Wisley 2008 (‘Ausbreeze'). "This is a rose of exceptional delicacy and charm, perhaps more so than any other rose we know," says the man himself and he's raised a good many beautiful roses so it must be good. Flowers in perfect rosettes, delicate colouring, elegant arching growth and, I noticed, a lovely scent which is described as "a delightful, fresh, fruity fragrance with hints of raspberries and Tea". This replaces an earlier rose named Wisley which turned not to be sufficiently healthy.

You can order plants of Wisley 2008 from David Austin Roses or look out for it at the RHS Wisley Plant Centre (no mail order).

The first red rudbeckia

Graham Rice — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:02:00 GMT

There are lots of exciting new plants around now and here’s news of the first ever red rudbeckia. ‘Cherry Brandy’ is the result of fifteen years careful selection at Thompson & Morgan Seeds. Click on the pictures to see larger versions revealing the astonishing colouring. “The colour really is as you see in the picture, red with a darker centre,” T&M’s plant breeder Charles Valins told me. “The colour is quite stable, in shades varying from light to deep red.

“This is a breeding program I finished rather than started. Keith Sangster started about 15 years ago to try and get red out of various bronze flowered rudbeckia selections. He thought the red colour was probably present beneath the bronze shades. Ruthless selection for the reddest plants year after year resulted in the colour breakthrough we just introduced.”

(Keith Sangster, by the way, ran T&M’s British business for many years and started them down the road of breeding their own flowers. He is now Vice Chairman of the RHS Floral Trials Committee.)

‘Cherry Brandy' was been awarded a Fleuroselect Novelty Award after trials all over Europe and very narrowly missed an All America Selections award - it was the highest rated annual but just missed out in a year in which no awards for annuals were given.

This looks like a great plant for mixed borders, reaching 60cm/24in in height, it would make a superb centrepiece in large containers and should also make a great cut flower. T&M already have the excellent double rudbeckia, ‘Cherokee Sunset’, in gold and orange and rusty shades, as well as ‘Chim Chiminee’ in similar shades but with fluted petals. I bet they have red doubles on the way.

Seed of Rudbeckia ‘Cherry Brandy’ will be available in the 2009 Thompson & Morgan catalogue which will be posted in mid September. You can request a catalogue here. You can also order online from early September. Young plants can be ordered from January 2009.

© Images: Thompson & Morgan (Group) Ltd

The best pansies – in a new mixture

Graham Rice — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:29:00 GMT

Last winter there was a huge trial of winter pansies at Wisley. Two hundred and fifty four different entries were grown and many were dazzling in the spring but not so many were consistently good in the winter when they're most needed. And it was for winter flowering that we judged them. The result was only... one AGM - although there are a few more whose awards are being held back until they've been made available to gardeners.

However, there were many varieties that were really excellent - especially in late winter and spring - but not quite good enough for an AGM. So the enterprising people at Thompson & Morgan have put together a mix of eight of them. Let's be clear, these didn't-quite-make-its are not bad plants. In fact to be chosen from the very best out of the other 253 is pretty impressive. And it's great to see the deliberations of the trial judges translated into an attractive new mixture so quickly.

The ‘Winning Formula' blend includes the spectacular ‘Ultima Morpho' in blue with a large whiskered yellow face, the classic pansy look of ‘Supreme Yellow with Blotch' and the smaller flowered but bushy and prolific ‘Panola Yellow and Purple'. Most of the varieties included are available only in this special mix.

Plug plants of pansy ‘Winning Formula' are available from Thompson and Morgan Young Plants. You can order for delivery in September.

And look out for my article on winter pansies in the November issue of The Garden.

‘Hot Papaya’ – an orange double echinacea

Graham Rice — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:04:00 GMT

Some impressive new echinaceas (coneflowers) have arrived in nurseries this year, you can see some of them in my article entitled Rays of Light in the August issue of The Garden. Now I can bring you the latest echinacea news - a spectacular new variety for next year.

‘Hot Papaya' will be the next introduction from Dutch master breeder Arie Blom who specialises in double-flowered echinaceas. You can take a look at some of his earlier introductions here. This is the very first hybrid double bringing a wonderful fiery shade to double flowered echinaceas which were previously either pink or white. Click on the pictures to see larger versions. The flowers do not fade, are unusually uniform in colour and bloom from June to August on 80cm/32in well branched stems. I can't wait to grow this - it really looks spectacular.

But now the bad news... ‘Hot Papaya' will not be available to gardeners until the autumn of next year. As soon as I know which nurseries will be listing it I'll let you know. In the meantime, just enjoy the pictures - and wonder what else Arie has on the way...

A rose-scented begonia!

Graham Rice — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:22:00 GMT

I couldn’t believe it either.

I was visiting Mr Fothergill’s Seeds near Newmarket recently and they were very excited by their exclusive new begonia for the 2009 catalogue.

Of course, it’s their job to get excited about their new varieties but there was definitely something special in the air. Me? Well, show me the plant and I’ll tell you what I think. And when I saw it – or rather when I smelled it – I knew what all the fuss was about.

I was amazed. It smells exactly like a rose. And not just a faint hint of fragrance, if I’d closed my eyes and sniffed I would have sworn I had my nose in a rose.

It’s a tuberous begonia for baskets and containers – click on the picture to see the lovely colouring. I know… not a perfect flower form, but hey – don’t be greedy. It doesn’t have a name yet, it’s just too new, but I wanted to tell you about it as soon as I could. I’ll let you know when it’s available to order, the catalogue will be out in the autumn.

A more stylish vertical berberis

Graham Rice — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:07:00 GMT

Berberis may not be the most glamorous of shrubs - what is, I wonder: the camellia, perhaps? - but for many years, Berberis thunbergii ‘Helmond Pillar' has been popular for its purple foliage and striking, unusually upright habit. It makes an attractive small specimen, and can even be clipped into a low ledge. Now a new, more stylish upright berberis has arrived from Eastern Europe, the purple foliage accented with the same white speckling seen on popular bushy varieties like ‘Rosy Glow'.

‘Rosy Rocket' features the same upright habit as ‘Helmond Pillar' and the same deep red foliage but its leaves are lightened by attractive white mottling, especially on the young foliage. From a distance the effect is indeed rather rosy. It would be especially lovely, in a group of three perhaps, interplanted with the daintily variegated Geranium phaeum ‘Margaret Wilson'. It also makes a striking container specimen, could be clipped into a path-edging hedge or used unclipped as a slightly taller hedge or as a divider in a small formal garden.

After ten years ‘Rosy Rocket' reaches about 1.2m in height with a width of just 40cm, slightly smaller than ‘Helmond Pillar', and grows at about 15cm a year. Young plants can be pinched out to create a denser plant without disrupting the upright growth. The plant in the picture (click the image to see a larger version) has been planted for just two years.

‘Rosy Rocket' arose in the Czech Republic and is the rather surprising result of a deliberate cross between B. thunbergii ‘Aurea' and ‘Helmond Pillar'. It was selected in 1994 and has undergone many years of assessment before being finally released. It looks like it was worth the wait.

Berberis thunbergii ‘Rosy Rocket' is available from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries.

A flurry of new crocosmias

Graham Rice — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:30:00 GMT

It’s crocosmia season and in gardens, around the shows, in garden centres and at many nurseries crocosmias are opening their fiery sprays. Gardeners with a taste for pastels are sometimes wary of their flaming colours but they make fine garden plants and excellent cut flowers. And there are quite few newcomers this year.

From the breeding work of David Tristram comes Bright Eyes (‘Walbreyes’) in bright yellowish-orange with a rich red eye; a great combination. And it’s sterile so flowers prolifically and throws no inferior self sown seedlings. Look out for it in RHS plant centres.

‘African Gold’ has large, outward facing, golden yellow flowers while ‘Cylvia’ is bright orange with a paler streak through each lobe and a yellow throat, its colouring is noticeably subtle.

From plant breeder Ken Ridgely comes the lovely 'Golden Ballerina' with large elegant, downward-facing, bright orange flowers with slender petals held on 90cm arching stems. ‘Hellfire’ is similar to the well known ‘Lucifer’ but with larger, darker flowers with no yellow parts in the flower to detract from the rich colouring. And the flower stems are stylishly mahogany brown.

The unusually vigorous ‘Paul’s Best Yellow’ has huge, outward facing, rather flat, golden flowers which are strikingly pure in colour and show themselves off well. ‘Salsa’ has orange flowers, upward facing with a striking red ring around the yellow throat.

There are seventeen new crocosmias out this year, and look out for two more which are on the way from Trecanna Nursery. ‘Tamar Glow’ is like a large-flowered form of the familiar montbretia with unusually early orange-red flowers above pleated leaves. ‘Zeal Remembrance’ was raised by the late Terry Jones, all of whose introductions feature the Zeal prefix, and is a very large flowered, early orange.

The big news – though not everyone thinks it’s good news, I have to say – is that there’s a double-flowered red crocosmia on the way. But it’s not out yet.

Here’s the full list crocosmias added to this year's RHS Plant Finder, check there for the sources of each.

Crocosmia Bright Eyes ('Walbreyes')
Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora 'African Gold'
Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora 'Heligan'
Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora 'Moses'
Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora 'Severn Seas'
Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora Wasdale strain
Crocosmia 'Cylvia'
Crocosmia 'Fireworks'
Crocosmia 'Golden Ballerina'
Crocosmia 'Hellfire'
Crocosmia masoniorum Holehird strain
Crocosmia masoniorum Slieve Donard selection
Crocosmia 'Moorland Blaze'
Crocosmia 'Orange River'
Crocosmia 'Paul's Best Yellow'
Crocosmia 'Salsa'
Crocosmia 'Tangerine'

New and unusual plants at Hampton Court

Graham Rice — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:32:00 GMT

This week I'm at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, dodging the downpours by taking shelter in the floral pavilions and hunting out the interesting plants. I'm blogging about them from the show every day until Sunday when it closes. You can find my posts here.

Highlights so far? Spectacular Disas (orchids from South Africa), chillies from a nursery in Kent which have been raising their own new varieties, splendid new heucheras from France and much more. Check back here every day for my latest posts.

A new edible honeysuckle!

Graham Rice — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:11:00 GMT

Grow-your-own gardeners are becoming more and more interested in unusual fruits - and shoppers, too, are increasingly looking out for something different. So what about a honeysuckle with edible fruits?!

The Honeyberry produces fruits which look rather like large bullet-shaped blueberries with that same colour and that same dusty bloom. Click on the picture to see them more closely. They taste rather like blueberries too and they can be eaten straight from the bush, made into jam or ice cream and they also freeze well. They are also said to make good juice.

Botanically speaking the Honeyberry is Lonicera caerulea var. kamtschatica and it originates in the Kamtschatka Peninsula in north east Siberia which is exceptionally cold - so it's certainly very hardy. The little bushes only reach about 90cm in height, are rarely troubled by disease and, once established, are drought resistant. The flowers are small and not especially showy, but the berries ripen earlier than most fruits and the seeds are so tiny you don't notice them. Just one thing to keep in mind: you need two plants to pollinate each other. Sounds well worth trying.

Honeyberry is available now from DT Brown.

Also new from DT Brown, amongst more traditional fruits, is a new raspberry called ‘Cascade Delight'. Reckoned to be an improvement on ‘Tumaleen', which is the star of the current Wisley trial of raspberries, the fruit is said to be 20% larger and firmer too. It's also said to grow much better than other raspberries in wet conditions. It's so new that it wasn't available when the Wisley trial was first planted; plants were added to the trial last year but it has not yet begun cropping. Raspberry ‘Cascade Delight' is available now from DT Brown.

New verbascum from Great Dixter

Graham Rice — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:10:00 GMT

Judging the verbascum trial at Wisley recently, a splendid new introduction caught my eye.

Many of the plants in the trial had died during the winter – sadly, many are not as hardy as we’re led to believe and this trial has proved the point – but a new variety from the garden at Great Dixter was outstanding, both in its hardiness and its impact. And unlike some, the arching green basal foliage was in excellent condition and tall upright spikes of bright but cool yellow were well packed with flowers.

Called ‘Christo’s Yellow Lightning’, it was found in Eastern Turkey when Christo (the late Christopher Lloyd) was on a trip with Dixter head gardener Fergus Garret and tulip expert Anna Pavord. They came across a man leading an elderly donkey as it laboured feebly along a rocky path loaded down with a towering load of verbascum stems. Christo asked Fergus (who speaks Turkish) to ask the man the name of the donkey – and it turned out the donkey was named Lightning. So it was natural that the verbascum that came from the trip was called ‘Christo’s Yellow Lightning’. And it looks as if it’s on the way to an Award of Garden Merit.

Verbascum ‘Christo’s Yellow Lightning’ is too new to be in the latest RHS Plant Finder but it’s available from the nursery at Great Dixter.

A new shasta dasisy - in yellow

Graham Rice — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:34:00 GMT

Shasta daisies, Leucanthemum x superbum, have never been the most fashionable of plants but they're tough, dependable and those masses of brilliant white daisies make real impact. They're good for cutting, too.

In recent years the trend has been to reduce their height, ‘Snow Lady' can flower at just 25cm, but this year's newcomer is rather different. The plant reaches about 45cm, the flowers are large - and they're yellow. (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

I know, there've been yellow shasta daisies before but in Broadway Lights (‘Leumayel') the flowers open a really bright yellow then become creamier as they age and eventually white. The flowers last well and so for much of their long season the plant carries a pleasing harmony of all three shades. What's more, ‘Broadway Lights' develops quickly so it produces plenty of flower in its first season in the garden. It looks well worth trying.

Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Broadway Lights' is available from these the RHS Plant Centre at Wisley, Gardening Express and Avondale Nursery.