David Austin's English Rose James L. Austin (‘Auspike’)

The year 2018 marked the 35th anniversary of my growing David Austin’s English Roses. They sent me trial samples of Mary Rose (‘Ausmary’) and Graham Thomas (‘Ausmas’) back in 1983 and I’ve been a fan ever since, first visiting the nursery in the mid 1980s to interview David for an article and to see the breeding set up. I’ve often featured them in my work.

So I thought it would be good to mark the anniversary of the introduction of Mary Rose and Graham Thomas - still widely grown and highly popular - by growing them alongside the very latest David Austin English Rose introductions for that year and seeing how they compare.

So in April 2017, in my trial garden, I planted bare root plants of Mary Rose and Graham Thomas plus the three latest newcomers at the time - Dame Judi Dench (‘Ausquaker’), James L. Austin (‘Auspike’) and Vanessa Bell (‘Auseasel’).

You might think that planting bare root roses in April is rather late and you’d be right. But that’s when they arrived and they all grew away happily.

So, now’s the time to make an assessment. All are in same rich old cottage garden soil in the same open border amongst other shrubs and perennials and all have been treated in the same way.

The three newcomers have all made larger plants than the two oldies – clearly, this is good in some gardens and less good in others. I tried to prune them in a similar way and that’s how they’ve turned out. Here are my rankings (best to worst), for half a dozen features.

Beauty of individual flowers and clusters
James L. Austin
Graham Thomas
Dame Judi Dench
Mary Rose
Vanessa Bell

Impact from a distance
Vanessa Bell
James L. Austin
Mary Rose
Graham Thomas
Dame Judi Dench

Elegance of the maturing plant
Vanessa Bell
Mary Rose
James L. Austin
Graham Thomas
Dame Judi Dench

Appearance after a downpour
Graham Thomas
Dame Judi Dench
James L. Austin
Mary Rose
Vanessa Bell

General health
All very healthy. Only one patch of black spot, on one leaf, across all of them.

Fragrance (my sense of smell is fading, but…)
Mary Rose
Vanessa Bell
James L. Austin
Dame Judi Dench
Graham Thomas

David Austin's English Rose Vanessa Bell (‘Auseasel’).

Individually
Dame Judi Dench Beautiful buds with red tips, small and nicely formed flowers but not enough of them. Throws up occasional long shoots. Fading petals drop off neatly.

Graham Thomas A lovely rich yellow shade, long flowering and dropping its faded petals reliably. Makes a rather inelegant plant.

James L. Austin Carries the largest flowers of the five, and beautifully formed, but developing white edges to the petals as they age and it holds on top its dead petals.

Mary Rose The neatest of them all, but still elegant, and with a strong old rose fragrance even I can smell.

Vanessa Bell Outstanding in the number of flowers per head, and the soft colouring, but full opening is delayed and it retains its faded petals spoiling the effect. But it has more or less no thorns.

So, on the basis of this mini-trial, are the three 2018 varieties better than the two 1983 varieties? Perhaps a little, but it depends what you’re looking for…

David Austin's English Rose Mary Rose (‘Ausmary’)

My pick
I’d not grow Dame Judi Dench again but I’d be happy with all of the other four. But first of the five would have to be Vanessa Bell, with its prodigious flowering capacity, followed by James L. Austin for the size and individual beauty of the flowers.

British readers can check out David Austin Roses here.
American readers can check out David Austin Roses here.

David Austin's English Rose Dame Judi Dench (‘Ausquaker’)

Sambucus 'Gate In Field' with dustbin lid

Elders, Sambucus, have gone from infuriating me with their pigeon-pooped seeds popping up all over the garden –in a crack at the top of a stone wall, just out of reach, is a favourite spot - to being elite ornamental shrubs. British bred Sambucus nigra Black Lace (‘Eva’), with its reddish black, finely dissected foliage and its heads of pink flowers, must be the most popular new shrub introduction of the century.

I recently wrote a piece on developments in elders for the trade magazine Horticulture Week – subscription or free trial required – where I featured one of our top breeders, Ed Brown of Cotswold Garden Flowers.

I’d grown his ‘Chocolate Marzipan’ which is a spectacular plant growing 2-3m in a year, with huge chocolate brown leaves and huge marzipan-scented flowerheads. Huge is the word - one of the most amazing plants I’ve ever grown. I also came across one of Ed’s videos from the nursery (which now I can’t find) where he says that one of his varieties, ‘Gate In Field’, “has flowerheads the size of a dustbin lid and will grow to 14ft”.

Well, naturally, I wanted to see a flowerhead and a dustbin lid compared! So here we have it (above).

“My original aims as a breeder of Sambucus,” Ed told me, “were to breed better foliage and form and length of flowering season.

“But I have learnt that getting a new product into the commercial market takes years and new products fail for stupid reasons like space on a Danish trolley (the cart that delivers plants to garden centres). Gardeners are being deprived by all the garden centres: it all goes back to delivery week, transport, and a lack of knowledge or any willingness to take a risk.

“I tried waking the industry up ten years ago but after five years gave up and switched to colour, scent, flavour and length of flowering season.

“Sambucus has well tested antivirus properties,” Ed continued, “sambucol is sold in pharmacies to help the body fight infection. But it’s made from just one of the 147 named varieties in my Plant Heritage National Collection. It’s long overdue for the pharmaceutical industry to do more plant trials but, thanks to Brexit, the work that was being carried out between me and a Swiss company ended prematurely. So if there’s a masters student wanting work with National Collection holders, we’re here and waiting.”

Ed then gave me a few details about more of his best of his varieties.

‘Milk Chocolate’ “My first introduction, it has milk chocolate foliage and cream flowers and, given good soil, will flower until November.”

‘Milk Chocolate Orange’ “Milk chocolate leaves but with contrasting orange stems grows to 2m with all flowers presented on the top.”

‘Chocolate Marzipan’ (below) “Grows to 3m has amazing two tone foliage: black on top and mint green underneath, with almond scented flowers in June, July and August.”

‘Black Cherries’ “The darkest yet, it has the highest level of anthocyanin colour in the flowers and adds a cherry-like hint to cordial.1.5m high and very slow to reproduce needs to go into tissue culture.”

Find out more about Ed Brown’s Sambucus at Cotswold Garden Flowers.

Sambucus 'Chocolate Marzipan'

Physocarpus Midnight ('Jonight')

I’m a big fan of Physocarpus, ninebark as they’re known in North America from the way the bark repeatedly rolls back off the maturing stems. Though why it isn’t eightbark or tenbark I really don’t know.

These are hardy as rocks, deciduous shrubs grown for their colourful foliage, their clusters of white flowers, their autumn leaf colour and, to a lesser extent, their berries.

The first to come to our attention in modern times were ‘Diablo’, with dark purple leaves, and ‘Dart’s Gold’, with bright yellow foliage – both useful shrubs. But it was when these two were crossed together to create what is known as Coppertina in North America and Diablo D’Or in Europe (its raiser’s name is ‘Mindia’) that I really started to take notice.

I was sent trial plants of this by Proven Winners, the American plant marketing company, now expanding into Europe, and year after year it was a star in my Pennsylvania garden for its foliage that opens in amber yellow and matures through orange to purple-bronze.

More recently I planted some that I didn’t know so well on my trial garden in Northamptonshire - thanks to John and Maria Jones of Hyfryd Plants in Wales for help with sourcing plants - and it’s time for a report.

But before that, I just want to mention physocarpus for cutting. America’s Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers has twice voted a physocarpus as its Cut Flower of the Year. And although it can be good to cut branches lined with flower clusters, Firebrand (below) looks ideal for that use, of those I’ve tried Midnight (top) is the best and holds its leaves well as they turn.

I find fruiting unpredictable and tough to assess because those that carry the most flowers are the ones whose flowering sprays are cut for the house. The quality of autumn leaf colour, too, seems unpredictable.

New physocarpus varieties are still being released. Two dozen are listed in the current RHS Plant Finder and we’re awaiting the results of the trial of thirty varieties at the RHS Garden at Wisley that ended in 2019. In the meantime, here are my thoughts on my own mini-trial.

All Red (‘Minalco’)
I was especially looking forward to seeing All Red mature as it was touted as being smaller, more bushy, more compact and with red-bronze foliage that was noticeably smaller than that of other varieties. That’s all true - except that after a couple of years it started to produce a succession tall, very vigorous, large-leafed shoots , with internodes more than twice as long as on All Red itself. They emerged low on the plant and would have taken over completely had I not cut them out. This one is going on the compost. Now rarely seen, rightly. Bred by Pépinières Minier in France.

Firebrand (‘Hyfbrand’)
The foliage is coppery orange in the shoot tips, maturing to dusky purple bronze with green undersides. The flower clusters, spread across 30-40cm of stem, are relatively small, but produced on short stems at every node creating a very attractive look. Pink buds open to pink-tinted white flowers, it retains more pink colouring in its flowers than others I’m growing. Bred by John and Maria Jones of Hyfryd Plants in Wales.

Lady in Red (‘Tuilad’)
Reddish copper young shoots mature to dusky greenish purple foliage, the small clusters of pink buds fade to white as the flowers open. This is similar to Coppertina, which is said to be mildew resistant although I’ve not had powdery mildew on any of mine. This can stay in its up-against-the-east-facing-fence site until I’m desperate for space, but if I were planting now I think I’d pick Coppertina. From Jonathan Tuite of Westacre Gardens in Norfolk.

Midnight (‘Jonight’) (above)
If you’re looking for the darkest foliage colour, this is the one. The leaves open in deep purple-bronze foliage with a noticeable gloss, maturing to dull bronze - almost black- and greenish bronze on the back. The vigorous growth is ideal for cutting and lasts exceptionally well. Not selected for its flowers, so the show is sparse but the rosy pink buds open to white flowers. Another from John and Maria .

Summer Moon (‘Tuimon’) (below)
More spreading in growth than my other varieties, the chartreuse-bronze new growth matures to green with pale veins and hints of bronze creating on overall blend of green and bronze tints. The flower clusters are larger than those on any of the others, and on longer stems, with the pink buds opening to white and with noticeably red anthers. Makes an effective flowering shrub, wider than high. Another from Jonathan Tuite.

Check out my previous posts about growing physocarpus in Pennsylvania.
New plants on trial: Top Shrub – Physocarpus Coppertina (2007)
Two fine Physocarpus (Ninebarks to American readers) (2009)

Physocarpus Summer Moon ('Tuimon')

Easy online ordering is a huge boon, but there’s nothing quite like scanning printed catalogs by a winter fire (or in the smallest room in the house) and tagging the tempting plants. And it's too late to order for the coming season.

And you can see from my post-its marking the must-have plants in England’s Cotswold Garden Flowers plant catalog just how many tempting plants there are!

Owner Bob Brown has a fine eye for a good plant, picking out the best of the old favorites, the best newcomers and landing his eye on undeservedly neglected species. Bob also breeds new crocosmias, kniphofias, aconitums, and other plants and his son Ed has some developed some intriguing new Sambucus (elder) varieties.

One of those tags marks a rare hardy (zone 6a) climbing tuberous perennial cucumber I remember from Kew decades ago and have always wanted to grow - Thladiantha dubia. No edible cucumbers unless you have male and female plants, I’m afraid, but well worth growing for its yellow flowers.

And one of Ed’s elders will definitely go on the order: ‘Gate Into Field’ (!) is described as: “A very vigorous elder hybrid, very large heads of pink-flushed deliciously scented flowers later than normal, July – September, dark pink flushed foliage with pale midribs.” OK, it grows to 5m… I’ll just have to knock down the shed to make space, I suppose. Order going in just before I post this – so you don’t grab the last of the plants I’m ordering before I do!

The order to Missouri's Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, who produce the extraordinary Whole Seed Catalog, has already arrived. The catalog is focused on its vast VAST array or heirloom edibles with a smaller section of flowers in the back. The tags only mark the flowers that appeal; I’d already taken out all the veg tags.

Have to say, this is the most astonishing catalog that I’ve ever seen. OK, it costs $9.95 (there’s a smaller free version). But there’s over 350 full color pages packed with goodies. Tomatoes, of course, feature strongly but there are also forty nine different lettuce varieties including the superb red leaved cut-and-come-again lettuce ‘Merlot’. I grew this last year and have ordered it again. It’s deep deep red in color, cuts for many weeks, tastes great and didn’t bolt. The three foot long Armenian melon from the 1400s is quite something, too.

I’ve also ordered the tall double America/African marigolds intended for cutting – never seen those before – and they also have some superb cut flower zinnias too.

Two oh-so-very-tempting catalogs. Here are the details.

Cotswold Garden Flowers
Order a fee printed catalog 
Order online
Plants can be sent to most of Europe but not North America

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Order The Whole Seed Catalog
Order a fee printed catalog
Order online
Seed can be sent anywhere in the world but they make it clear that sending seed to Europe is expensive and difficult.

Having picked out five new and old plants that were especially memorable in 2016, let's look ahead to plants I haven't even seen yet but which look unusually promising for the year ahead. First, two shrubs…

Abelia Pink Pong (‘abenov41’)
Abelia Pink Pong (‘abenov41’) must win the prize for one of the worst plant names ever – Pink Pong! Or perhaps I’m just a little old fashioned? Anyway, this is the first Abelia with a long season of large colorful flowers and a lovely fragrance.

There are other fragrant abelias but none combines large pink flowers opening from purple buds from May to October with a strong fragrance, dependably evergreen foliage, reliable hardiness and colorful autumn bracts to extend the season. Sounds worth trying, to me.

Pink Pong is a cross between Abelia schumannii '’Bumblebee’ and A. x grandiflora ‘Semperflorus’ and was selected in France in 2006.

Abelia Pink Pong (‘abenov41’) is available in Britain from Thompson & Morgan. It is not yet available in North America but should be soon.


Caryopteris Pink Perfection ('Lisspin') and Stephi (‘Lissteph’)
Two new pink flowered forms of Caryopteris, bluebeard, are coming on to the market just as two older varieties become unavailable. It will be interesting to see whether they have more lasting quality.

For some years the very late flowering, and not very hardy, C. incana ‘Autumn Blue’ was the only pink flowered form around but has now disappeared. Pink Chablis (‘Dureo’) was introduced in the US about fifteen years ago, but is no longer available, and I’m not sure it ever made it to Britain.

Pink Perfection ('Lisspin'), sometimes offered a Best Pink, and the bushier and more compact Stephi (‘Lissteph’) were both developed by the renowned British breeder of new shrubs Peter Catt. I’ve not seen them yet but they’re said to be as prolific and hardy as the best blue-flowered forms with a good strong pink coloring. I look forward to comparing them this coming season.

Caryopteris × clandonensis Pink Perfection (‘Lisspin’), sometimes listed as Best Pink, is available in Britain from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries. It will be available in North America soon.

Caryopteris × clandonensis Stephi (‘Lissteph’) is available in Britain from Hayloft Plants, and will be available in North America soon.

Continuing with the fourth of seven daily posts about plants that grabbed my attention over the last year, next up is a variegated shrub for small gardens with long lasting double pink flowers.

Hibiscus syriacus Sugar Tip (‘America Irene Scott’).
Basically, this is a prettily variegated hardy hibiscus with prolific soft pink double flowers and it has four main features going for it.

Firstly, the variegated foliage is neat and soft greyish green in color with an irregular, but neat, creamy white margin so even if the plant never flowered it would still be attractive.

Secondly, the soft rosy pink flowers, each with a crimson stain at the base of the petals, are double and don’t set seed so they last longer than single-flowered varieties.

Thirdly, unlike ‘Purpurea Variegata’, it actually flowers and, unlike ‘Meehanii’, also variegated, the flowers and foliage make a prettily harmonious combination.

Finally we’ve had our plant in the garden here in Pennsylvania for about ten years and it’s reached about 10ft/3m in height. But its narrow, upright growth means that it’s only about 5ft/1/5m wide at most – so it doesn’t cast too much shade on the plants around it and fits well into a small space. I’ll have to get one for our British garden.

Hibiscus syriacus Sugar Tip (‘America Irene Scott’) is a variegated sport of the old classic ‘Lady Stanley’ (introduced in 1861) and was found by Sharon Gerlt on her nursery in Independence, MO in 2001.

Hibiscus syriacus Sugar Tip is currently available by mail order in the UK only from Gardening Express.

Hibiscus syriacus Sugar Tip is currently available retail in North America in the Proven Winners and Monrovia retail ranges and by mail order from Garden Crossings and from Nature Hills.

Image courtesy of Proven Winners - www.provenwinners.com

A few days ago we went out to buy our Christmas tree. After five stops at different places we finally found one we were happy with and were told it was a Canaan Fir, a hybrid between the balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and the Fraser fir (Abies fraseri). I’d never heard of it so when we got home I looked it up.

It turns out that there’s a good reason that I’d never heard of this hybrid – it doesn’t exist. And the name Canaan Fir doesn’t mean that it’s found in Canaan (as in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan).

The Canaan Fir is actually a variety of the balsam fir, A. balsamea var. phanerolepis, which is distinguished from the regular balsam fir in details of the shape of parts of the cone. Not only that, it’s actually a local ecotype, a specific regional variant.

Abies balsamea var. phanerolepis grows wild from Labrador south to Ontario, and continuing south along the coast of Maine all the way to the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. But some that grow in a small area of West Virginia, known locally as the Canaan Valley (with the weight on the second syllable of Canaan) are slightly different and it is from seed of these, collected at elevations over 3000ft, that cultivated Canaan Fir Christmas trees are derived.

The Canaan Fir has become popular as a Christmas Tree in recent years because it’s especially long lasting when cut, it retains its needles well and also retains the fragrance of the balsam fir. At first I thought its branches seemed rather weak but now, after a couple of days fully laden with ornaments and lights (nine hundred of them!), it’s actually holding up very well. I’ll add an update to this post around Twelfth Night/Little Christmas/Women’s Christmas (6 January, when we take the tree down) and report on how it’s doing.

Also, on a related topic (deep breath, please)… When we unpacked our nine strings of red and gold Christmas tree lights it turned out that after a year in a box in the basement only three of them still worked. So off I dashed to Lowes (Brits: = B&Q) to buy more.

And I was amazed at the price. Amazed! The price was absolutely outrageous! Each box of 100 minilights cost me $1.44 (including sales tax). Yes, $1.44.

Of course, they were made in China. And they were so cheap because wages there are so low. So if Mr. Trump brings these jobs back to America and pays American workers an American wage to make them, how much do you think those lights will cost? $15? $20? Will you buy them at that price? And, if you do, what will you do when they pack up after spending a year tucked away in a big brown box? You’ll be back to Lowes raising hell. And, if you want better lights that last for years, how much are you prepared to pay? It’s not as simple as Mr. Trump would have us believe.

National Public Radio reported this week that lilacs were in bloom in Washington, DC. A friend near here in Pennsylvania reports picking salad leaves from the open garden just a few days ago while anther says her spring crocuses are in bloom. It’s been mild back in Britain too.

Here in our garden the mild season has ensured that some plants developing late fall color have lasted and lasted. One young seedling of Geranium phaeum ‘Samobor’ has produced some spectacular leaves (above, click to enlarge); the original plant and other seedlings are more of a blotchy yellow.

One of my favorite shrubs, Hydrangea Little Honey (‘Brihon’) (right, click to enlarge), a dwarf yellow-leaved form of the oak-leaved hydrangea, always turns burgundy red in the fall but often a couple of sharp frosts reduces the plant to bare stems. Not this year, the leaves have been wine red for weeks with a few just starting to develop fierier tones as they prepare to drop.

The other effect of these unseasonably mild weeks has been that after the first few, relatively gentle, frosts turned everything in the riverside meadows tawny brown – that’s how they stayed. The foxtail grass in the fields where the rudbeckias are such summer stars, I think this is Setaria viridis, has neither been crippled by frost nor battered by rain or snow and still stands out against the leafless escarpment. Lovely.

We’ve gentle frosts forecast for the weekend, with a high of 57F and a low of 39F forecast for Christmas Day. The snowdrops are in bud, but check out the Snowdrops In American Gardens Facebook group for news of plenty of snowdrops blooming merrily all over the country.

Oh, and a friend in Downeast Maine reports that the grass is growing and needs a trim. But I don’t care how long it gets here we’re not cutting the grass in December.

Just back in Pennsylvania, after a trip to England, and it’s been an unusually mild late fall and early winter on both sides of the water. Britain saw its warmest November day ever when the temperature reached 72.3F (22.4C) in mid Wales - “Remarkably mild for the time of year,” said the BBC radio weather man - and here in PA a friend told me last night that he’d just been out harvesting mesclun and baby greens from the open garden. Not bad.

Back in Britain the thing that especially struck me was the amazingly prolific flowering on Viburnum tinus, laurustinus as it’s sometimes called. Front gardens were full of their billowing flowers last week.

This is one of my favorite shrubs, with neat evergreen foliage, pink buds, clusters of white flowers and blue-black berries. The only problem, for American gardeners anyway, is that it’s not as hardy as we’d like. At USDA Zone 8 (perhaps 7) it’s fine in our English garden but wouldn’t survive even a relatively mild winter here in PA.

In his classic monograph on viburnums (still available on UK amazon and on US amazon), Michael Dirr describes twenty forms although almost twenty years later the RHS Plant Finder lists over thirty. My favorite variety is ‘Gwenllian’ with pink buds, blushed white flowers and reliably prolific berries that often last so long that they sit next to the following year’s flowers. But ‘Lisarose’ (inset left, above), with almost scarlet buds, certainly looks tempting and the pure white flowers of ‘Purpureum’ (inset right, above), with their white buds have a very clean look and in spring there’s purple-flushed new growth.

The other thing about the mild autumn in England has been now long the annuals have been flowering. In some parts of the London suburbs, the roundabouts and roadsides were planted not with geraniums and petunias and marigolds for the summer, but with direct sown hardy annuals such as Linaria ‘Fairy Bouquet’ (left) in mixtures with Cosmidium ‘Brunette’ and the blue bracts of Salvia viridis. They were still attracting attention when I left a few days ago.

Next time: What’s striking about the late fall and early winter back here in PA.

The five volume Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles by W. J. Bean, usually referred to simply as “Bean”, is a monumental work running to over 4,000 pages. It does what it says: it describes in detail the woody plants (including climbers) that can reasonably be expected to grow outside in Britain (mostly zone 8, some zone 9).

The four A-Z volumes were last revised almost forty years ago, then a supplement appeared in 1988 (see below, click to enlarge), so it does not include recent classification and name changes and recent introductions. Otherwise, it's impressively comprehensive with good descriptions and boundless information on origins and differences between similar plants. It’s invaluable.

Now you can read it - free.

In the first part of a two part initiative, the International Dendrology Society has published the whole thing – all 4,027 pages of it – online. And it’s free: no charge for access. The original four A-Z volumes plus the supplement are currently priced on abebooks.com at £325/$504. Did I mention that the online version is free?

The new online version is easy to navigate and attractively presented. The next step is adding pictures.

You can read more about it on the excellent blog post by John Grimshaw, who’s been heavily involved with the project - and I see he’s had the same idea of including an image of his five volume set as I did!

Take a look at Bean's Trees and Shrubs online - it's invaluable, and it's free.



And what's coming next? Britain's Alpine Garden Society is well into the process of making its invaluable two volume Encyclopaedia Of Alpines available online. It's currently available from abebooks.com for £150/$250.74. You can track the progress of the operation here.