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Watsonia

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  •  @Joycegoldenlily
    Edgeworthia chrysantha?
    You could very well be right. Well done. Thank you. I will go back to check. Hands firmly in my pockets. I knew there was a "w" in the name somewhere!
  • Yes! Thank you. I knew it had a "w" in the name somewhere. I have a feeling the price was almost double the one quoted on Google. I had a strange attack of the wobblies when I looked at the price at the GC.
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @Joyce Goldenlily I have seen it for sale at a very expensive GC near here, underglass. It is a plant that 'stops you in your tracks'. I have never seen it growing locally it wouldn't survive outside. 
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited January 2023
    Garden centre have a role, but are not the best places to choose a shrub.  Better to visit some gardens over the course of a year (or more).  Either one of the RHS gardens, National Trust, a Gardens Open to the public.  Better for you if you don't visit their plant sales area.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited January 2023
    Edgeworthia chrysantha.
    My avatar!
    One of my favourite winter flowering shrubs....buds hang down and are white/hairy  on outside. The  flowers open golden yellow.
    Had one in South wales where it was very happy in moist, acidic soil in a very sheltered spot in a wood.
    Leaves are in 3.'s.

    Branches are so supple you can tie them in a knot.
    In Japan the bark used to be used to make high quality paper.

    Tried one in a pot in conservatory here...not happy...gave it away to NTS...see last pic.

    Yes...very  expensive if mature.
    Smaller the shrub the cheaper it will be.


    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    edited January 2023
    @Silver surfer I hoped you might have some photos, I love the colour of the flowers especially at this time of year. Some very interesting facts about it too. I read that it is related to Daphne so on the right track
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • It is a stunning plant for this time of the year. Brilliant pictures. I am not sure that it would survive in my garden despite being in the centre of Cornwall, only about 5 miles from the nearest beach.
    My garden faces South/South West with nothing between it and the incoming storms in the Spring and Autumn. The rainfall throughout the year is high to very high. Recently I had 5 ins of snow while the other side of the town had a mere dusting. My soil is almost totally deficient in minerals etc, soil test done, very gritty, clay pit spoil heap rubbish, which leaches out anything put on it. I have to feed throughout the growing season, in the summer it is like a dust bowl and in the winter is waterlogged although it does drain quickly because there is a layer of compacted shale only a spades depth down. It is just on the side of slightly acidic.
    I knew nothing of this when I moved here!
    The garden is sandwiched between two fields of uncultivated agricultural land so field grass is a nightmare, like a miniature bamboo, has thousands of tiny bulbils, and really coarse blades of foliage which grow into large dense clumps.
    Why do I bother!
    I am a sucker for a challenge and peas love it. I am a bit reluctant to take a chance on trying to grow an Edgeworth chrysantha not only because of the cost but because it is such a treasure of a plant. I have an unheated double glazed conservatory but it is not really an indoor plant and will probably not be happy in a container. Also, I have never seen it growing down here.
    Soppy I know. Another plant to lust after, along with many more.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    .Silver surfer said:
    Edgeworthia chrysantha.
    My avatar!
    So tht's what avatar means.  I was reported recently for innocently guessing (correctly) the meaning.

    Now I want an Edgeworthia chrysantha. 
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • UffUff Posts: 3,199
    That's a lovely shrub, I have a severe case of envy. 
    SW SCOTLAND but born in Derbyshire
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