White House Farm Garden and Arboretum

A good year for hellebores

Colour range when grown together can be effective

In the dark days of winter when snowdrops and hamamelis are the only spots of colour a range of different hellebores can offer an eye-catching unexpected pastel patchwork.

Hardy perennials that provide good colour in the winter garden
Their pastel colour range when grown nearby each other is itself attractive

Briefly upstaged by far more evanescent signs of spring the steady hellebores carry on holding their own until late April.

White House Farm conditions mean we have learned over the years the enormous difference between removing vs. not removing the spreading leaves as they drop to the ground in November. This is because here, if left on the plant to droop and flatten over the winter, mice find them ideal shelter and feed on the nascent flower buds underneath. On the years when we have remembered to spend a couple of hours in late October/early November with secateurs removing the dying leaves at the stem before they could start to attract mice under their layer of shelter the inflorescence the following January – blooming through to late April, in some cases – has been unparalleled in scale and vigour. If we don’t take this protective measure at WHF, sometimes only one or two late flowers will appear.

The most remarkable thing about Hellebores is they start blooming in January when very little other colour is visible, and many are still going strong in late April, others till elegant blooms fade to pastel green. This picture was taken on April 21st 2022:

For an excellent range of hellebores, John Massey’s Ashwood Nurseries offers one of the best selections of available plants in the UK, John having been a keen collector of hellebores as in the last two decades breeders like himself radically expanded the range of hellebore colours and petal markings. The private garden of the late plantswoman Veronica Cross in Stoke Lacey, Hertfordshire has an outstanding collection of hellebores, mainly based on John’s creations.

By Clare L. E. Foster, WHFAF Trustee

Deutzia seedlings at WHF: the problem of selection

‘Deutzias are a group of plants that all keen gardeners are aware of, that most gardeners with an interest in woody plants grow, that very few understand as a group, and that are greatly confused in cultivation.,’ says Rod White (Vice-Chair of the RHS Woody Plants Committee with responsibility for Trials). ‘The range of Deutzias that exists is well displayed by the mature collection at White House Farm, which ranks in comprehensive range and variety alongside Glasnevin, Kew, and Hilliers in showing the breadth of the genus. Of particular interest is the plant of Deutzia grandiflora, a great rarity.’

WHF Deutzia 19 and 20 re-propagated together for comparison

‘The great late 19th century nurseryman, Victor Lemoine, recognised the importance of Deutzias and carried out hybridising to great effect until the 1920s. Since that time the group has not received the attention it deserves. So knowlegeable consciousness of it has been lost.’
Rod White, Vice-Chair of the RHS Woody Plants Committee with responsibility for Trials

In 2021 we photographed and labelled the collection of Deutzias at WHF, the result of up to four generations of hybridizing. Many new shrubs look to be of garden value, for flower, foliage, hardiness and habit, ranging in age from 5 to 25 years old. Some are tucked away in corners, as is to be expected with limited space but also with a genus that is ideal for underplanting, and for co-planting amid other genera for year-round interest. Maurice has bred mostly forms of purpurascens, calycosa and longifolia, looking for free-flowering compact shrubs suitable for small gardens and with improved continuity of flower.

We selected, labelled and photographed approximately fifty unnamed seedlings unique to White House Farm, and will track them year on year, so we can get acquainted with the best overall performers. For example, we’ve already seen some difference in hardiness between seedlings after the 2022’s April 2nd wind-born frost (-3C at WHF).

These WHF seedlings (with flower and form good enough to compare) are grown at White House Farm side by side with various favourite cultivars and named species, particularly D. longifolia, D. compacta and D. purpurascens, among others. This gives context for comparison – not just the prettiness of flower form and colour, but also of tolerance to cold, drought, timing, and continuity. Most Deutzia are free-flowering and last for around three weeks in late May or early June: but some differ significantly from this.

Deutzia x elegantissima ‘Fasciulata’ – rare but excellent

WHF’s D. grandiflora, for example, which Rod White mentions above, grown from seed collected by Chris Sanders near the Great Wall of China, 100km north of Beijing, now a compact bush (c. 1m by 1m) some twenty years old, came into flower in late-February 2022 and is still covered in delicate fresh white flowers with no sign of browning in late April.

Deutzia grandiflora, coll. Great Wall of China

By Clare L. E. Foster, WHFAF trustee

Magnolia ‘Premier Cru’

Coming into bloom early in March, this hybrid combines extraordinary intensity of colour with free-flowering habit in a 40 foot tree (some twenty years old) that appears to be still growing.

Premier Cru is one of the most noticeable magnolia seedlings raised by Maurice Foster at White House Farm. It is a sister seedling of another WHF seedling, Grand Cru, both the result of a putative cross between M. sargentiana robusta ‘Blood Moon’ and M. sprengeri ‘Claret Cup’, which grow together and overlap in flowering time.

Premier Cru, grown as a tree, reaches 40ft+ in twenty years – but blooms as soon as 5 years after grafting.

This magnolia is remarkable for the intensity of its hot pink lipstick colour, what its breeder Maurice Foster calls ‘hot magenta’. It blooms so early that its bright intensity makes an eye-catching splash against the still-leafless trees and evergreens of late winter. This makes the plant an event in itself, especially against clear winter skies, its shocking colour well-suited to solo performance. It is also remarkably frost-resistant, and has excellent continuity of flower.

blooms early, when little else offers intense colour
resists frost and wind when fully open
holds its bloom for 3-4 weeks, with fair-to-good bud follow on

Bud on March 14th 2022: the colour is true to life – it is extraordinarily intense

Warmth intensifies colour is many early spring flowering trees and shrubs – certainly Magnolias. As Maurice Foster says, “‘Pickard’s Ruby’ in the South of Switzerland (in Sir Peter Smithers’ garden) is richer, darker and well-named versus a rather unexceptional nondescript typical M. soulangeana style flower in colder England. This is why some magnolia cultivars like Vulcan are magnificent grown in New Zealand but inferior in the UK.” After slight frost or a longer cold spell the same impact can be seen in Rhododendron augustiniae – the blue is fugitive to cold.

“‘Pickard’s Ruby’ in the South of Switzerland (in Sir Peter Smithers’ garden) is richer, darker and well-named versus a rather unexceptional nondescript typical M. soulangeana style flower in colder England. This is why some magnolia cultivars like ‘Vulcan’ are magnificent grown in New Zealand but inferior in the UK.”
Maurice Foster, WHF

Premiere Cru ignores this tendency by offering an intense pink in mid-March, throughout spring frosts in the South-East of England – another reason why its colour is remarkable.

By Clare Foster, WHFAF trustee