“Powerfully fragrant” is used to describe the scent of this winter-flowering shrub. Selected as a self-pollinated seedling of Daphne bholua 'Gurkha' by Alan Postill of Hillier Nurseries, the name honours his wife – I hope she was very pleased, because this cultivar has since gone on to receive a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.
If the fragrance is so compelling (and it is, in the majority of species in the genus), why are there few Daphne species used in the landscape? Two reasons come to mind from what I've been told: 1) protocols for mass commercial propagation of many Daphne species have yet to be discovered so current production requires labour-intensive processes, and therefore high prices; and 2) susceptibility to fungal pathogens. UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research's Dr. Andrew Riseman and his doctoral student, David Noshad, are researching both of these difficulties with an eye to expanding the palette of Daphne species and cultivars available to gardeners. As part of their research, they've sourced a number of difficult to find species of Daphne. Many of these species will eventually form the backbone of the planned Daphne collection in the garden.
For gardening information on 'Jacqueline Postill', you can read this piece from the Royal Horticultural Society: Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill'.
Natural history resource link: The Tucson, Arizona-based The Firefly Forest and companion web site, Wildflowers of Tucson. Firefly Forest was suggested to me by Angus Pratt at the Northern Voice conference, where he and I had a thought-provoking discussion on weblogs being used as natural history journals (with Firefly Forest being a prime example).
I'd say their susceptibility to various virus diseases, and the ease of transmission of these diseases by aphids, is a major cause of their rarity.
This link has some info:Virus diseases of Daphne.
Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill' - Z8 - RHS Index of Garden Plants, Griffiths
Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill' - Z8-9 - A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, Brickell, Cole, Zuk
Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill' - 'very hardy' - Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs, 2003
Also worth mentioning that in spite of its looks and scent all parts of this are I believe highly toxic so perhaps not one if you have small children etc in the area regularly. Otherwise its stunning.
TBeth's firefly forest blog is my favourite website - I check it every morning with my coffee. Its a stunning resource and a fine tribute to her obvious qualities as a naturalist.
Daniel
I'd love to know what other similar blogs you and Angus recommend/discussed.
Our discussion was more along the lines of advocating the use of weblog software to create online natural history journals as opposed to talking about specific weblogs – introducing the broader natural history community to weblogs as a way of recording local, date-based observations seemed to us to be a natural fit.
If this species were thought a potentially hot item here by commercial interests one of them would probably set their sights on it and crack mass production of it. The indifferent leaf retention and "leggy" habit I suspect would be considered major strikes against it, from their point of view--which will have been developed by years of catering to a market that so often wants a compact meatball of a plant. Why bother with something like this when they already have Daphne odora, for intstance? Enthusiasts, of course, look for other attributes.
So far down here for the most part all I have seen offered to us on the general market is large, expensive plants labeled merely as the typical plant. I suppose it's possible these might actually be one of the superior named cultivars, in the meantime I await one so named to cross my path before opening my wallet.
Hi Ron,
"Why bother with something like this when they already have Daphne odora, for intstance?"
The query raised was why the genus as a whole is rare in gardens, not just D. bholua. That certainly applies over here too, they are not easy to find for sale, and I rarely see them in gardens. What little I've seen strongly suggests disease problems play a large part in this; most of the Daphnes I have seen have looked in a very poor way with virus symptoms (sparse, mottled, mis-shapen leaves, few flowers, etc).
I saw Daphne bholua'Jacqueline Postill' yesterday
28th January 2008. at Holehird Gardens (above Windermere in Cumbria. U.K.) I could actually smell the perfume from the blossom before discovering the plant. The plant looks extremely healthy and stands at a height of about 2 to 3m high X 2 to 3m across. For anyone interested in seeing and smelling this beautiful plant, get over there A.S.A.P. as it is well worth looking at. I also took some photo's of this beautiful plant. GORGEOUS.
hi all i have just purchased a daphne bholua j postill this very morning,i bought a medium sized plant at 30 euro in powerscourt,wicklow,ireland,
iam thinking wheather to plant in a container, or in ground,i know she doese'nt like root disturbance,
my local botanic gdns have a beautifull specimen
The UW Arboretum in Seattle, WA has one of these beautiful plants in their brilliant winter garden. Just spent the better part of an abnormally mild January afternoon marvelling over this little gem. Next to lilly-of-the-valley, this is my favorite fragrance from natural plants/flowers. Along with the nearby Japanese Garden & Vancouver BC's Van Duesen Gardens and UBC Botanical Gardens, this arboretum is a must-see for visitors to the northwest. Visit if you can.
Hi, This plants grows here in n.Dublin, Ireland and is very similar (but larger) than that shown. It is very floriferous and highly scented.
My information is that it was micropropagated about 10 years ago. Subsequent propagation was by layering (difficult with such an upright plant)
Strangely, the plant in Glasnevin Botanic Gardens is far more rounded and more evergreen, though equally large.
Now that I have a copy of Robin White's daphne book from Timber Press, I should attempt to see if the D. bholua that continues to have some presence in local outlets fits one of the named cultivars.
Although they are now mostly past bloom an independent garden center near here has a display of multiple kinds of daphnes along one wall. This is the first time I have seen one break out of the small, standard set of D. x burkwoodii, D. cneorum, D. odora etc. to such an extent.