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I hate cold blooded horticulture. Those grey obligardeners who reluctantly push mowers through
mediocrity, trimming it back into conformity. I prefer to leap wildly from success to failure cushioned only by enthusiasm and occasional intemperate outbursts. Usually the plants I grow are selected on the whim of the moment, an unexpected stirring of the blood, the passion of posession. However, I am a rational person and occasionally the rational voice tells me in a stern not-to-be-trifled-with way to do something, and I generally do it. I have a garden full of trees and moisture and have been looking for short shrubby evergreens to fill space in an interesting lower down sort of way. I used to grow a selection of rarer Vaccinium (thanks to the kindness of Barry Starling) and it seemed sensible to revisit old haunts and possibly explore the Ericaceae more fully (not Erica of course, tedious little twiggy boot cleaners). So I find myself peering into the dusty closets of Vaccinium without passion but with some dim hopes of practicality and an outside possibility of enchantment. Vaccinium delavayi had no idea of the expectations loaded onto it when I picked it up at a nursery. It is currently in a pot while I wait for it to shine. Trees and Shrubs online says; "Native of S.W. China and upper Burma; discovered by Père Delavay in Yunnan and introduced by Forrest. In general appearance it much resembles V. moupinense and, like that species, grows in the wild on cliffs, rocks, and as an epiphyte on trees. It differs from it in the leaves having a notch at one end and in the bristly flower-stalks. " |
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| 24th April 2014 | ||
