It has been a very good year at White House Farm for Melliodendron xylocarpum, which has lived up to its reputation as an outstandingly attractive newly introduced small tree. A quiet, warm, sunlit spring, and cool at night has meant the flowers have lasted well, and the trees have been effective for two months.
We have six accessions here of which four are now regularly flowering freely – the Hillier form, one from the University of British Columbia and two seedlings from a collection in Hunan.
We have noted that no two are quite the same and there are variations in flower size and colour as well as flowering time. Seedling forms are thus likely to vary, and forms of a richer pink may well emerge and be worth naming – so it will be interesting to keep an eye open for seedling variations in the next decade. There was a good seed set last year (pace squirrels) and trees take around 10 years to flower from seed, so it may be a while before potentially richer pink forms emerge. Clare has been photographing the accessions for four years and has observed variation in degrees of pink from year to year, presumably due to varying conditions. In all our accessions pink is most intense in bud then pales significantly as flowers age, in some cases to an almost pure white – the comparison photographs below were taken with the smaller earlier-flowering specimens in their later colour.
Flowering times vary slightly. The Hillier form is first to flower and is truly precocious, its solidly pink (rather than pink-streaked) flowers opening before the leaves. It is the deepest pink of those we grow but fades slowly in warm sunshine. The Hunan seedlings flower as green leaf growth is just emerging, with pink buds and white open flowers appearing with the first leaves in a three-colour display; but the flowers hang well clear of the foliage, so it does not spoil the effect.
The UBC form is late, at least two weeks after the Hillier form, and this year, as our specimen reaches maturity, the UBC flowers have been a full three inches across – significantly larger than all the others – appearing both before and with the foliage.
We also discovered by chance that Melliodendron has remarkable longevity as a cut flower. A specimen of the Hillier form picked on March 30th for our Open Day and left on the table outside in rain, wind and full sun looked like this on April 9th.
The Hillier form earlier in the season on the tree:
For more on Melliodendron, see the introduction to the plant I wrote in the 2020 IDS Yearbook: ‘Meliodendron xylocarpum: a new star’ . Please get in touch if you have thoughts on this exciting recently-introduced genus to share.
Next events at White House Farm:
Saturday May 24th IDS Deutzia Study Day
Saturday June 14th – Open Day (species roses) – to book, email us at whitehousefarmarb@gmail.com
Wednesday June 25th Open Day (Hydrangea serrata et. al.) – to book, email us at whitehousefarmarb@gmail.com
White House Farm Garden and Arboretum 