Daphnes 2008-2009

[Michael J Campbell]

David,your Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill' is quite normal for a small plant at this  time of year, it will grow away normally in the spring. They take some time to settle down when moved,just give it a feed about April.
cheers.

[Zdenek]

just wondering how common it is in other parts of europe/globe to grow the northern daphne mezereum..? It being so very cold hardy & floriferous... It would be interesting to know what cultivars there are in your gardens growing, as well?

Matti,
I grow pink flowering Daphne mezereum with some problems here but I suppose that some pest is guilty. Not so the white form which is even weedy in our garden and we have tens plants after years. The best form which I grow is however the low and more prostrate form from higher elevations of Alps, sometimes called var. alpina. It is very hard, long lived, well flowering and giving seeds which germinates true.

[Maggi Young]

David,your Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill' is quite normal for a small plant at time of year, it will grow away normally in the spring. They take some time to settle down when moved,just give it a feed about April.
cheers.

 Helpful advice for my two young plants,  Michael, thank you!

[Martin Baxendale]

My experience with young Daphne bholua plants is, as Michael says, that they sit still and sulk for a couple of years, then they take off. They're said to like a leafmouldy sort of high-humus soil but grow fine on my stony, well-drained soil and are probably hardier in such conditions than when growing lushyly on rich soils.

[David Nicholson]

Thanks Michael and Martin, I'm reassured.

[johnw]

On Christmas Day Matti asked about Daphne mezereum in our gardens. Since e then we have endured a week and a half of below zero temperatures dipping to -10C on several occasions and maybe as low as -15C on one occasion. This without any snow cover at all. Today the temperature has risen above zero (4C) and I have noticed that our Daphne mezereum alba has just started into flower

David  - D. mezereum has endured all sorts of horrors in Nova Scotia, even while in flower and yet has never been damaged. They seems to last about 20 years tops but seed about prolifically. I have been told the white form does not cross with the coloured forms and breeds true which has me scratching my head - different ploidy(?).

johnw

[David Shaw]

John
I have collected seed and self sown seedlings of our white form but they are not at flowering size yet. I understand that they come true.

[Giles]

David(s)
I find my D.mezereum alba is coming in to flower too.
D.bholua is reported as being hardy down to -17C , but given that it is -12C here now, maybe that's not too comforting!!
I have had totally leafless plants bounce back in the Spring without problems (both D.bholua's and D.odora's).
I reassure myself that all is ok if the main stem continues to feel firm when squeezed between thumb and forefinger.
Giles

(The 'official temperature' at the college weather station this morning, was -6C at 11 am )

[Giles]

Some Daphne in flower in the greenhouse today:
1. Daphne odora
2. Daphne odora
3. Daphne 'Spring Herald'
4. Daphne bholua var glacialis 'Gurkha'
5. Daphne bholua 'Glendoick'

[mark smyth]

Why in the green house, Giles?

[Paddy Tobin]

I would also wonder why you grow them in the greenhouse but I imagine the scent when you enter a closed greenhouse with so many plants of daphne must be absolutely heavenly. That might be one good reason.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

I thought Giles told us (me?) he had recently got these Daphnes, in which case they are in pots and why not have them under glass in this weather, to enjoy them?It's what  I would do!

[johngennard]

I agree Maggi,I have two young plants of D.Sir Peter Smithers that I grafted last year and noticing three flower buds before the bad weather set in I placed them in the hepatica house and the scent from just three flowers is amazing.My large bushes of Jaqueline Postill are a month behind last year.

[David Nicholson]

A beautiful show Giles.

[Giles]

This is why I put the Daphne in the greenhouse:
These two plants are the same cultivar of D.odora, bought at the same time last Autumn, from the same place.
One was left out, the over kept (just about) frost free. They are both alive, but one is a more heartening sight in the morning than the other.