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The green leaved form of Reineckea carnea is sometimes promoted as a pink flowered equivalent
to the Lily of the Valley, which is botanically true but gardening nonsense (and there is no shortage of
that!) This wonderful variegated form is as brilliant as the green form is dowdy. There are times when this is the most desireable six inches in the garden ( ok John, leave it there, put the tacky comment down on the ground and step away from it!) I bought it from Cotswold Garden Flowers in 2006. Their label says: "Smart cream-striped evergreen leaves and spikes of meat-pink coloured flowers May-June and later, 15cm." I am amazed that it ever appears on the market because for me it was profoundly unstable, reverting entirely to green in a couple of years. However, Alistair Watt emailed me from Australia to inform me that it was brought back from Japan by Robert Fortune in 1861. In 1863 a couple of plants were sold for 7 shillings. It is clearly more stable than my experience indicated. |
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