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I have only seen this growing in gardens in the last few years, so I was surprised to find it for sale,
but well worth trying. The largest one I know is looking rather tatty in Wisley and I am hoping this will be a bit more compact. My first plant was eaten by deer so I am trying again. Writing in 'The Garden', Roy Lancaster says: "For a long time the sarcococcas have been represented in cultivation by four principle species S. confusa, S. hookeriana, S. ruscifolia and the greenish yellow-flowered S. saligna, together with varieties of the second and third. Other species have been cultivated by specialists in the past and no doubt still are. It was, therefore, an exciting day for me in 1981 when I received from ma friend, Mr Wang Dajun of the Shanghai Botanic Garden, seed of a Sarcococca species new to western cultivation - S. orientalis. According to Wang, the seed had been collected in the wild from a plant growing close to the border with Jiangxi. It was from the last named province that S. orientalis was first described by Professor C Y Wu only two years previously, in 1979, having originally been discovered there by a Chinese expedition in 1954. I remember passing the seed to the late Desmond Clarke who subsequently gave the only seedling to Tony Schilling at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. On moving to my present garden and with plenty of space to fill I arranged for Tony to root me a cutting - easy enough with sarcococcas - and my plant has since thrived in a border with dappled shade in summer and a well drained slightly acid soil. In gereral appearance it looks like a more robust version of S. ruscifolia var. chinensis with large glossy-topped leathery leaves tapering at both ends more gradually however to the slender point. The largest are almost 10cm (4in) long and up to 2.5cm (1in) wide or more. The male flowers have white stamens with pink anthers, pale yellow when ripe, while females bear two styles. Like most species the flowers give off a sweet fragrance, which is part of their charm. Already developed by autumn they begin to open in November, earlier than most other cultivated species, continuing through into the New Year. The berries are shining black when ripe. According to the Chinese, S. orientalis is most closely related to S wallichii, a native of the eastern Himalaya from Nepal to south-west China, and to S. ruscifolia. It has proved quite hardy with me despite several winters when -10C (14F) was recorded and is a welcome addition to out garden evergreens. It is already being offered by several specialist nurserymen and I have seen it on at least two nursery exhibits at the Vinvent Square shows, in one instance wrongly labelled S. ruscifolia from which it differs in its larger leaves, black fruits and female flowers with only two styles. In October last year while visiting Wakehgurst Place I was delighted to see that S. orientalis had been planted in two large sweeps, one of them in the Winter Garden." |
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| 1st February 2009 | ||
