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A wonderful tree with white leaves speckled with green. I bought it 30 years ago from Hilliers, and it has got better and better every year. Unfortunately, about 10 years ago
I neglected to remove a green reverted branch from it, which is now slowly taking over. Time for some serious pruning - I have been putting it off when I
should have been cutting it off! The unfolding foliage has a wonderful quality. In the end, it was in the way of the new Hedychium House, and I had to cut it down to a stump. The stump is fine where it is, but the tree had developed a distinct lean, now corrected by radical surgery. I have also managed to remove the top 20 feet of green growth. Fortunately it has recovered as vigorously as expected, and a little gentle pruning should see it develop into an attractive tree again in time. It grows at the top of a steep slope running down to the Hedychium house. I have grandiose plans to turn the slope into a moss garden, and eventually we will see if the plans actually come to anything! Plenty of variegated shoots among the regrowth, but also plenty of green ones that are growing about twice as fast as the mottled ones. I should remove them - I should have done it months ago but hopefully I will get there before the leaves drop. An old plant, it was discovered in cultivation in Muskau Arboretum in 1864. The plants origin is unknown. Trees and Shrubs online says: "A shrub or small tree with leaves irregularly speckled white, though sometimes up to half of the lamina can be green, without any speckles. Its leaves are smaller than normal for the species and it requires some protection from the sun. It was found and named at the Muskau Arboretum, now in Poland, in 1864. |
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| 11th May 1999 | ||
