Even Sciadopitys has cultivars
Yesterday while sorting through the mail for the Scott Arboretum library, I came across the Conifer Quarterly from the American Conifer Society. I was intrigued to find on the cover of the magazine a photograph of a cultivar of Sciadopitys verticillata.
I have been familiar with this living fossil also known as Japanese umbrella-pine because it is coveted by many collector gardeners. It has attractive whorls of needles and is very slow growing. As result of this slow growth, it is found rarely in the trade and is highly valued. Naively, I assumed because of its slow growth no cultivars had been…
Early this week, we talked about some of the scented Clethra cultivars found here at the Scott Arboretum. In addition to cultivars of the species alnifolia, we have several other species of Clethra. A favorite of Rhoda Maurer, our Collection Documentation and Programs Manager, is C. barbinervis, Japanese clethra. These past couple of weeks she has been awash in intoxicating scent of C. barbinervis on her daily walk to work along Cedar Lane.
