Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Brad Evans and Dick Hammerschlag visit the Asian Collections...

...and examine Calycanthus x raulstoni 'Hartlage Wine'.

Brad donated two of his hardy Musa's to the Asian Collections and came out to consult on their siting. We put one in the Central Valley, and the other in China Valley in bed C-5.

This means we've added yet another selection of hardy banana to the collection. This one is Musa itinerans var. xishuangbannaensis 'Mekong Giant'. The plants were a gift from Angela Treadwell Palmer, the president of Plants Nouveau, a uniquely fascinating company that finds, introduces, promotes...cool new plants. Angie was a supervisory horticulturist here for a while and still has a soft spot in her heart for the Arboretum or for Brad or something. Anyway I'm psyched about these bananas. They're already almost 5 feet tall so I'm thinking with the addition of compost and water we ought to be able to get them upwards of 15 feet this year and who knows after that.

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