Helwingia chinensis
1st June 2012
I have a quiet corner where the Turtle Doves purr from the branches of an old Hawthorn. Or they would I am sure,
if they weren't effectively extinct in the county. A twining Clematis montana might scent the air
on warm spring evening, but it died thge year after I planted it. Mr. Bowles majestic hybrid willow
towers over the place, or at least it did until one day the trunk split right down the middle
and it fell in two (and I had to spend two days digging out the cloven stump). That was one brittle willow.
In the dappled shade, Laureliopsis philippiana would have been an evergreen picture, but it didn't
make it through a hard winter.
To precis; I have a lovely corner and I have killed a string of lovely things that were planted there.
The latest attempt has been Helwingia chinensis and it seems to be establishing. It was a bit chewed by rabbits
in the first few days, but I put up a little fence as soon as I noticed it, and has recovered.
A strange plant that produces flowers from the midvein of the leaf. Mine appears to be a male, if I had a female as well
I could hope for occasional blackish fruits. It is very demure, hardly noticed in its corner but I have become very fond of it.
6th February 2018
29th May 2019