THE DOUBLE-FLOWERING KERRIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20702, 27 April 1929, Page 7

THE DOUBLE-FLOWERING KERRIA.

Eerria Japonica is a shrub that ia not commonly met with in gardens. Its merits seem to have been overlooked by most garden owners and many nurserymen; yet it is quite a hardy and decorative flowering shrub, growing about five or six feet high, and forming a rather slender, upright-growing bush of interlacing whip-like branches. The flowers are yellow, about one and a-half inches across, and provide quite an attractive display as they stud the older shoots along their length. The single-flowered form is outshone, however, by its doubleflowered relative, known as E. japonica fl. pi., which is more commonly grown. This form was introduced to Kew about 120 years ago from China, and it was for long unrecognised as a relative of the single-flowered type. From the garden standpoint it is a much more decorative plant, with slightly larger and more showy flowers that resemble small yellow cushions. It is more erect in habit and inclined to be straggly in growth, with its long, slender stems shooting up from the base; but when m full flower it looks remarkably well either in a shrub bed on a lawn, where it has some shelter from taller evergreens, or against a wall. It ia in the latter position where it ia usually seen and where it grows to best advantage, since it is not so hardy as the type and requires protection. Against a wall it wi reach about six or eight feet in height. It thrives best in a good loamy soil, and may be increased by means of soft-wooded cuttings, which will root easily in a propagating case with bottom h at. After flowering, some of the older wood should be cut away and all dead wood removed, so that the shape of the shrub may be preserved as far as possible. Once established, it grows away’ rapidlv.