Chinese photinia great winter value

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 14

Chinese photinia great winter value

(Hardener’s ! W DIARY

Derrick Rooney

Gardeners, or should I say nurseries, are a fickle lot, willing to scrap old favourites at the twitch of a label when something newer and brighter (not necessarily better) comes along. Take the case of the Chinese photinia (P. serrulata).

Chinese photinia is a large shrub or small evergreen tree, usually four to six metres tall but sometimes taller. Its typical habit is to branch low on the trunk-and form multiple leaders but it can be pruned to give it a more open, and thus more attractive, appearance. The handsome, leathery leaves are oblong, shallowly toothed on the margins, and lustrous dark green when mature. Buds are red, and young leaves soft coppery orange-red, a much more agreeable colour in the garden than the garish reds of the more popular hybrid photinias. Growth does not happen all in a rush in spring, but is staggered throughout the season, so that all three colours are to be seen at most times of the year. Clusters of flower buds, also soft red, form at the ends of the branches in autumn, and open (white) in fits and starts throughout winter, whenever the weather is mildish. Frost does not seem to harm them.

Chinese photinia tolerates a lot of wind and, once established, a lot of drought also. And its growth, at least in the early years, is rapid; my plant shot up to a height of about four metres and for several years I was carving big sideways chunks out of it annually, but now its growth has slowed almost to a

standstill and it has turned to flowering instead. There is hardly a branch on it which is not, at present, tipped with a cluster of flowers. The display began two months ago, and there are enough unopened buds to carry it on well into spring. Offhand, I can’t think of any other medium-to-small tree capable of flowering so prolifically, and over such a long period, in the colder months of the year. But where could I go if I wanted a second specimen?

I bought the Chinese photinia about 10 years ago, from a garden centre belonging to a chain noted more for the enthusiasm of its advertisements than for their taxonomic accuracy. As far as I know it was the last one in stock, and I don’t think this particular chain has stocked the Chinese photinia since. In fact, I haven’t seen it anywhere for quite a few years, so I can probably count myself lucky in addition to being puzzled as to why so fine a small tree is neglected.

It’s not as if Chinese photinia is something new and strange in gardens. The truth is that it has a long history of cultivation, extending over several centuries in China and nearly two centuries in England since its introduction there by, so the

story goes, a shipmaster of the British East India Company in 1804. As yet I haven’t been able to trace its introduction to New Zealand, but in all probability it has been here at least a century. Californian gardeners have been able to grow it since 1874, . when it was listed by James Hutchinson, a nurseryman of Oakland. It was planted in the Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, about 1880. When crossed, whether deliberately or accidentally is not clear, with the Japanese photinia (P.

GARDENING

by

Mike Lusty

Laurus nobilis is the true laurel, well known by such common names as sweet bay and bay laurel, and belongs to the Lauraceae family. It is a tree of considerable historic significance, for not only its medicinal qualities and aromatic properties but also for providing material for wreaths and crowns for distinguished personalities in various fields.

Although its cure-all reputation has not been widely persevered with, victors of the Boston marathon are but one lot of acclaimed champions who still receive a crown made up of bay laurel.

At one time this tree was much used for hedging, but this is rarely seen now. However, there are still plants much used for ornamental purposes both in the garden and as tub specimens, for which they are very suitable. Left to grow unchecked it will grow into a sizable tree, but it lends itself readily to regular cutting back, and to shaping as well. Laurus nobilis is a dioecious plant — male

glabra) in the Fraser Nursery in Birmingham, Alabama, the Chinese photinia produced one of the first of the modem hybrids — a plant which was eventually, in 1961, propagated and named “Birmingham.”

The same cross occurred, probably earlier, in Australia, and resulted in a plant which became, until the more recent introduction of the New Zealand selection named “Red Robin,” the most popular photinia in New Zealand — "Robusta.” I don’t know when this plant was first raised and

and female flowers are produced on different trees. The flowers are yel-lowish-green, slightly scented, and come in small but prominent umbels; they are produced in exceptional abundance during the last flowering

distributed, but there are old specimens about which must have been planted before ,1961. For many years this was sold in New Zealand as “Photinia glabra ‘Robusta’ ” but it is clearly a hybrid and should be called Photinia fraseri “Robusta,” “fraseri” being the American name for this group of hybrids. Although the Australian plant is probably much older, the American name was published first and therefore takes precedence.

“Robusta,” incidentally, has all but dropped out of

period, which is usually towards the latter part of spring. The fruit, not often seen, is round, shining black, and very similar in size and shape to that of the cherry laurel, Prunus laurocerasus, a member of the Rosaceae..

sight since the introduction of the more brightly coloured “Red Robin, which has considerable popular appeal. ! grew the latter for a few years, but then grubbed it out because I thought its colour and texture too heavy, and frankly garish. Nothing growing around it stood a, chance of being noticed. The growth rate was alarmingly vigorous, too, and after a few years it became apparent that it could not be restricted to the space allotted to it without brutal pruning. So its head came off and went into the tumbril.

“Robusta” is similarly vigorous and will grow to tree size; Its young foliageis a coppery red, along: the lines of the Chinesephotinia but' less subtle. Like its parent, “Robusta”. is best If allowed to grow without restraint on its height, and in due course its youthful brashness is converted to a sort ofseedy, middle-aged, charm.

I saw a specimen re-, cently that had been pruned as it grew to have a clear trunk up to about three metres, and It really was a most handsome small tree.