Montanoa bipinnatifida
9th May 2010
A giant mountain daisy from Mexico, there is a lot of confusion currently surrounding naming, but this is the clone
that is ioccasionally grown in Cornish gardens. It isn't very hardy, but it survived here last year in a cold greenhouse.
(It survived, that is not the same as prospering).
William Robinson commended the plant, writing in 1889 (while he was still gushing with enthusiasm for exotic plantings)
but it has never been common. First discovered by the Prussian Consul Uhde near Mataneros in Mexico and introduced to
Berlin Botanic Garden. Robinson knew the same clone, and it is quite possible that this is it.
6th October 2012
Once planted out it had the chance to grow magnificently, establish a thumping great rootstock
and collapse, dead as a Dodo, in a mild winter.
I am happy to say that it is not hardy enough to survive here as a significant thing.