Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Sarcococca orientalis: flowering with the other sarcococcas

Stefan got this from Cistus Nursery; it's been in the ground about two years. The flowers have a bit of color to them, unlike the other species I know. I didn't pick up a strong fragrance today, but it was cool and the flowers are mostly not open. We have, in the Asian Collections, a lot of S. hookeriana and, like this orientalis, it is just on the verge of flowering. I have a large S. confusa in the garden here in Adelphi that's been flowering for about a week. I like the look of orientalis; it looks like it'll be a bit shrubbier than confusa whose weak stems grow vertically until their own weight pulls them down. The leaves on our plant are gracefully saliciform, narrowly lanceolate and nicely colored. It's an attractive plant visually.

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