Two rare Philadelphus re-located

by WHF Trustee Chris Sanders, VMH

As a result of the successful Philadelphus study day held at WHF on Saturday 17^th June, two rare Lemoine Philadelphus cultivars believed to have been lost to cultivation have come to light.

Philadelphus ‘Oeil de Pourpre’ (Purpureomaculatus Group)

Trustee Jack Aldridge, who is based at Wisley, brought a handsome specimen from that garden labeled ‘Oeil de Pourpre’.  At first, both Maurice and myself, who had both grown and lost this cultivar in the past, and remembered it as a rather weak plant of poor constitution, were rather doubtful about its identity.  However, on returning home, I dug out some images taken many years ago when I grew a specimen obtained from the National Collection of Philadelphus at Leeds, and I’m now convinced that the Wisley plant is indeed correctly named.  In the attached image its chief characteristics of a deep purplish basal blotch (the deepest colour of any Philadelphus) and the distinctive cup-shaped blooms can clearly be seen. 

 ‘Oeil de Pourpre’ was raised by the famous French Nursery of Victor Lemoine et Fils and introduced in 1910.

Philadelphus ‘Purpureomaculatus’ (Purpureomaculatus Group)

At the study day, there was some discussion about two other Lemoine cultivars, namely ‘Bicolore’ and ‘Purureomaculatus’, neither of which had been seen in cultivation for some time.  I later recalled that a plant from Leeds which had been distributed as ‘Bicolore’ had been misidentified and was really ‘Purpureomaculatus’, but, like ‘Oeil de Pourpre’ seemed to have become very rare and no longer offered for sale.  Arguably, this is the most attractive of the group with widely expanded medium-sized flowers having a good purple blotch at the base of each petal.

A couple of days after the event, the indefatigable Jack alerted me to a small Shropshire nursery (Harley Nursery, near Much Wenlock) who were offering ‘Bicolore’ for sale via their website.  Photographs accompanying the text left no doubt in my opinion that this was clearly ‘Purpureomaculatus’.  A visit to the nursery on the following day resulted in the purchase of five lusty plants for distribution to interested parties.  Also, interestingly, the nursery owner confirmed that he had obtained his original stock from the (now defunct) National Collection at Pershore College in Worcestershire.  As a former student at this college who was very familiar with the collection in its heyday, I was aware that much of the Pershore collection had been obtained from guess where – Leeds!

‘Purpureomaculatus’ was raised by Lemoine and introduced in 1902.

The above two cultivars are really important discoveries and the intention is to propagate them as soon as possible for wider distribution.  Now it just remains to try and track down the real ‘Bicolore’.