Wealden Times | WT208 | June 2019 | Kitchen & Bathroom supplement inside

Garden
foxgloves and the odd pink-yellow geum ‘Cosmopolitan’
(Cocktail series), which is happy in semi-shade.
And then there is another little treasure, purloined from
the marvellous Cotswold Garden Flowers nursery up at a
plant fair in Sutton Valence recently and recommended by
Rosemary Alexander, Principal of the English Gardening
School, who was also looking at the gems on the Cotswold’s
stand. Beesia calthifolia was discovered in China by the plant
hunter, George Forrest, in the early part of the 20th century,
and is interesting as it didn’t fit into any known genera so
was named after the nursery, Bees of Chester, who had hired
Forrest to bring in new specimens from the Far East. It wasn’t
in cultivation for long but was reintroduced by modern day
plant hunters, Bleddyn Wynn-Jones (Crug Plants) and Dan
Hinkley who spotted it in a Japanese nursery in the 1990s.
It’s a woodland plant; happy with a little bit of morning
sun and content with plenty of leaf mould to keep the soil
moist around it. It has beautiful heart-shaped, deeply-veined
leaves which are all shades of green. The flowers are star
shaped and a greenish white growing off wiry stems a little
like the epimediums I’ve mentioned. I’ve put it in a shadier
part of the garden where the canopy of the oaks soon fill
in and it’s a complete treasure. I can see that that’s another
one which will need a visit from the watering can regularly
or at least until it is well established. It is well worth a try.’
The only other thing to mention is this year’s tree.
It’s a large crab apple, Malus hupehensis. Why grow it?
Well, it is a vigorous and very beautiful tree. From pink
buds come fragrant white flowers followed by ‘cherry
like’ fruits. I love it, as it has such an abandoned looking
habit with branches spreading out in a rather relaxed
fashion. And yes, this is another one that will need to
be kept well-watered until it has settled in. Sorry to be a
killjoy, but I hope that this summer doesn’t break records
as last summer did. Otherwise there’ll be no time to
sit down and enjoy the fruits of being a plantaholic!
Sue Whigham can be contacted on 07810 457948
for gardening advice and help in the sourcing
and supply of interesting garden plants.
Beesia calthifolia
157 wealdentimes.co.uk
PetalsForPlantsWT207.indd 1 12/04/2019 09:48