Surrey Homes | SH109 | February 2024 | Education Supplement inside

Parrotia persica
A few of my
favourite things...
Sue Whigham chooses a few firm plant favourites that have left a lasting impression
A
girlfriend and I spent a few
days in New York a decade
ago. It was rather like being
in a film set to be honest and if you
asked me what the highlights were,
we might be here for a while.
One day we walked across the
Brooklyn Bridge and into Brooklyn
itself, a world of beautiful brownstone
houses and glorious street trees. We
then got on the subway and headed
towards the Brooklyn Botanic Garden,
a 52 acre oasis of calm in a bustling
city. It was autumn and the salvias were
in full swing. One particular treasure,
soaring above our heads, caught my eye
to the extent that when we got home
(having failed to find anyone to ask
right away), I wrote to the Garden to
find out which salvia it was. They didn’t
write back! So if anyone is asking, this
salvia, still unknown to me, is high on
a list of ‘a few of my favourite things’.
I’ve always loved Parrotia persica, or
Persian ironwood, and think that it
would be one of the first trees I would
plant if I was starting again. There’s
a fabulous specimen at Sissinghurst
growing by the South Cottage which
Harold Nicholson used for his writing,
no doubt inspired by the rich colours of
the Cottage Garden. Everything about
this tree – from its bark, which peels as
it matures, to its extraordinary winter
flowering petal-less flowers – is lovely.
It is in the Hamamelidaceae family
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