Plants introduced by Sampford Shrubs

Buddleja davidii Castle School Introduced 2004; pale lilac fat spikes, highly fragrant and fairly early to flower, we prefer it to Lochinch but then we would! A seedling poking up between the cracks in the tarmac of this Tiverton school.

Buddleja davidii Croyde Introduced 2004; a findling on some waste ground near the village of that name, long, long and slender racemes of purple in summer.

Viola Connigar -violet blue with indigo markings, flowers 25mm, fragrant, reliably perennial. (intro 1997)

Viola Hackpen - palest silvery mauve washed with lavender, purple markings, 25mm across, strongly fragrant but reliablility as a perennial is not looking so good. (intro 1997)

Sorry, no picture.

Agapanthus Holbrook - selected from Headbourne Hybrids and rather more statuesque with taller flower stems (90cm compared with 70cm for "Headbourne" under our conditions) and compact flower heads above slightly glaucous and rather narrower leaves which remain as a neat, low rosette. Flower stems remain standing and turn a warm straw colour in autumn. Plant is fully herbaceous. (intro 1991)

Chrysanthemum Sarah's Yellow - A very late (Nov - Dec) flowering double rubellum type chrysanthemum which is locally grown in several Sampford Peverell gardens. It reaches about 1 metre with a somewhat untidy habit. It is fully winter hardy. (intro 1991)

Lamium Elaine Franks - A first rate ground covering and spring flowering lamium. The result of a deliberate cross by gardeniing illustrator Elaine Franks and named and introduced by us.

Monarda Duddiscombe - 80 - 100 cm tall a bright purple-pink bergamot flowers midsummer. Very little, if any, mildew (intro 1992) and regularly performs well for us.

Euphorbia amygdaloides Brithembottom - collected from the wild in the Devon hamlet of that name. A good bronze in winter and of compact habit. The new leaves become light green during the growing season. Has none of the tendencies to mildew which is seen in "rubra". (intro 1994)

Calluna Sampford Sunset - seedling from "Sunset" with golden foliage rather stronger growing than Sunset and coloration tends to be more towards red especially in winter. (intro 1991)

Sanguisorba officinalis ex Odenwald intro 2003/4. We collected this in the Odenwald in 2002, a good form of this damp meadow plant which we have planted in one of our moist wildflower swards. This is the texture that the dark maroon flower heads create in a native sward with the flowers poised a metre above the leaf sward.

Viola Mavis Tuck - A chance seedling of pale blue overlaid cream with darker blue ray markings. Comes almost true from seed. Reliablility as a perennial is not so good.(intro 1991)

Sorry, no picture.

Pittisporum sport from "garnettii" This promising plant has been introduced in 2005. A golden sport on the nursery of the silver mottled parent Pittisporum garnettii. It occured during propagation and has been launched as Pittisporum Holbrook.

Monarda Gewitterwolke We saw this completely free of mildew at Weihenstephan in Bavaria and it is looking just as good in Devon. Prof Bernd Hertle kindly let us have some and we introduced to UK in April 2005. An excellent rich purple-red bergamot selected and introduced in Germany by Peter and Barbel zur Linden.

Hoheria Holbrook This is our own selected and highly fragrant, late flowering form. It was selected from 50 or so seed raised plants of an alleged plant of Hoheria Glory of Amlwch (which wasn't). Garden visitors pretty much selected it for its outstanding fragrance when it flowers during August - a good month after H Glory of Amlwch intro 2005.

and coming?

A number of Heleniums -both deliberate crosses and chance seedlings are being appraised and some look quite promising. Here's one that looks hopeful. We're actively screening many seedlings but they've got to be really good to merit introduction.

We're still trialling some hybridised seedlings of Rhododendron (Odee Wright x Brocade) which we crossed in 1989. Some of these show real promise both in plant form and flower attributes.

Seedlings from Euphorbia Brithembottom are being selected for more persistence of red colouration and of a colour which is a shade lighter, semi glossy leaves and continued mildew resistance.