703. INDIGOFERA HOWELLII Brian Schrire, Susyn Andrews and ...

‘Graceful, hardy, Chinese species. The most shrubby of
all the Indigoferas, attaining about 5ft. The long arching
branches bear up to 10 in. panicles of clear pink flowers
.... 3/6 & 5/6.’ (Anon, 1928)
According to John Hillier, this was the first descriptive catalogue
that the firm of Hillier & Sons produced and the work was carried
out by his father, 23 year-old Harold, later Sir Harold Hillier
(1905–1985). This first description was somewhat padded out in
Catalogue No. 1P (1937–1938):
‘A very elegant Chinese species. The most shrubby of
all the Indigoferas, attaining about 8ft. The long arching
branches bear panicles as much as 10ins. long of clear pink
flowers, which are conspicuous from June until the end of
September ...2/6 to 5/6.’ (Anon, 1937)
In the Supplementary List T.S. 20 (1938–1939), there is an interesting
statement in the description of I. amblyantha.
‘Very similar in every way to I. Potaninii and with all the
good qualities of that valuable summer flowering species.
Flowers shrimp pink..... 5/6.’ (Anon, 1938)
Postwar catalogues have a slightly different description and it is quite
possible that a different taxon was involved. In Catalogue No. 49 T
(1952–1953), the description under I. potaninii wasasfollows:
‘Graceful shrub up to 5ft high. Flowers clear pink in racemes
4–5ins. long ...6/6 to 8/6.’ (Anon, 1952)
Suddenly, the flower spikes have gone from 10 in. in length to
4–5 in.! We know there was some confusion over the Hillier names
as specimens of I. ambylantha had been labelled as I. potaninii in their
arboretum. Between 1962 and 1977, the highest number of I. potaninii
(whatever it was) sold per year was 86 plants and the lowest was 19
(John Hillier, pers. comm.).
Reginald Farrer (1880–1920) was a Yorkshireman with a passion
for plants, an author, traveller and horticulturist. On April 24, 1919,
while collecting with E.M.H. Cox in what was then known as Upper
Burma, they came across a shrub growing in light brushwood in
boulders by a stream at 1981 m, at the foot of Hpimaw Hill (Cox,
1930). This was Farrer 866 (E!) and it had magenta-pink flowers. It was
left as Indigofera sp. until described by W.G. Craib and W.W. Smith
© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2011. 77