in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - Davidsonia

70tion for the Curtis Botanical Magazine entry which was not publisheduntil 1949.In autumn 1994 I received seed of Carrierea calycina, PW 68, fromPeter Wharton. I gave the seed to the Surrey plantsman, Harry Haywho, apart from having a noted garden and arboretum, has an uncannyskill at raising plants from seed or cuttings. Two years later, Harry returnedto me a tray of sturdy seedlings, which I potted on. One ofthese I planted in my garden whilst the rest were distributed to amongothers, Hergest Croft in Herefordshire, Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardensin Dorset, Dunloe Castle Hotel Gardens in Co. Kerry, Ireland andthe National Arboretum, Westonbirt, Gloucestershire.My plant settled in and began to put on growth. In May 2004, almost10 years after I received the seed, it produced its first flower buds fromthe tips of several shoots. A month later, these buds began to open andthe characteristic bell-shaped, greenish-cream, five-lobed downy calyx,2.5cm (0.98in) long, appeared. On examining these flowers it was clearthat they were male as there was no discernable ovary present, just aconspicuous brush of cream-coloured stamens of varying length to 2cm(0.78in). The flowers lasted for less than 10 days before falling intact.The same week, I took some cut specimens of the flowering stems to ameeting of The Garden Society held at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kewwhere, to my surprise, Maurice Foster produced flowering specimens ofa tree from the same Peter Wharton collection growing in his garden inKent. It was clear that the flowers of Maurice’s tree were female as theywere virtually no stamens present, only a downy ovary with a conspicuousflattened three-lobed stigma. The calyx in both sets of specimens,were a pale greenish-cream.On 6 th July 2004, I attended a gathering at Nymans in Sussex to celebratethe 50 th anniversary of the National Trust’s stewardship of thoseGardens. I was once more surprised to find the lunch tables decoratedwith cut flowering specimens of Carrierea calycina provided by the Earlof Rosse from the Wilson tree at Birr Castle. It was clear that they weretoo, were female.In 2005 my tree did not flower but more than made up for this in2006 when it flowered abundantly (flowers all male) from late June into