University of Oxford Botanic Garden

[Chad]

Been looking through my many pics. Can anyone ID this plant. It was in one of the greenhouses.





Appeals to me but I know it won’t to many!

Breynia disticha f. nivosa. Hardy down to about 0C.

Chad

[MartinNicklin]

Thank you Chad. I’ve never heard of this plant but given what you report I’d love to give it a go. Typically, however, it appears to be unobtainable in the UK based on my internet search. Have you grown it?

[Chad]

I haven't grown it Martin.

There is a form with pink as well as white variegation called Breynia disticha 'Roseo-picta'.

It looks even sicker.

Chad

[MartinNicklin]

:o

[MartinNicklin]

This post appears to have attracted an unusually large number of views. Based on the timings when most users are online, I imagine many are overseas friends planning to visit the Botanic Gardens at Oxford and Oxford itself. It would be nice (and interesting for us) if a few joined the forum, to add to our limited number of valuable oversees contributors, to demonstrate what their gardens and local botanical hotspots are like and how they push the boundaries of what can be grown.

It is unfortunate in the breathtakingly lovely city of Oxford that many of the college gardens are not freely open to the public or charge, in some cases quite an astronomical fee, to visit. When I was a young student decades ago it was all free. However, St Edmund Hall (a delightful medieval college in the heart of the city) was open when I visited a few weeks ago. It demonstrates the typical Oxbridge style of quadrangle planting which I certainly find appealing, with some nice plants sheltered by the cosy walls:


















There may be others open to the public but this time for me it was but a fleeting visit.

[MartinNicklin]

One of the good things about visiting other gardens is that you see a plant you like and you are reminded to get it for your own garden. For plants you are unfamiliar with, you are always guaranteed an ID on the forum and then you can look out for those plants as well. At the OUBG I saw plenty of plants I want. I know I can get Mandevilla laxa from Charlie so that is on my list for the Roseland House Nursery trip up north next year, along with Eupatorium ligustrinum and Abutilon Nabob which I saw at Hidcote. I’ve found a supplier of Pelargonium Red Gables and I’ve also since managed to get hold of a new Berberis valdiviana to replace the one in my old garden after having been wowed by the size of the Oxford plant. I got it from Exclusive Plants, along with Colquhounia Nepalese Flame, to replace the one I lost last winter. I don’t think it was cold which did for it since it was a big shrub a few years old, rather the fact that it had been swamped by other things and deprived of light. Anyway, here they are:



They are only small and were quite expensive so note to myself to look after them. The manager of Exclusive Plants was explaining how difficult it is to propagate the Berberis, hence the cost and the fact that I just couldn’t get hold of one. I think my original came from the Duchy in the days when it was more of a treasure trove of good stuff.

He does sell a form of the other Oxford plant I mentioned, Mahonia lomariifolia, but his is the smaller growing form rather than the tall version seen at Oxford. Again I can’t find a supplier (Pan Global used to) so if anyone knows otherwise…
PS I think it may go under an alternative species name. I’ve found it a little confusing during my searches for it.

[Chad]

Mahonia lomariifolia... may go under an alternative species name. I’ve found it a little confusing during my searches for it.

Horticulture seems to have settled on Mahonia oiwakensis subsp. lomariifolia.  Botanists have gone one further and it is now Berberis oiwakensis and they are not recognising botanical subspecies. I don't know how horticulture is supposed to!

As Mahonia oiwakensis subsp. lomariifolia it is fairly widely sold, RHS give 7 sellers.

I don't know about a tall and short form, but I nearly gave in to the small leafleted Mahonia oiwakensis ssp. lomariifolia var. tenuifolia.  Then I weeded round my Mahonia x lindsayae 'Cantab' and agreed with myself not to plant anything else that sabotages hand weeding so effectively. 

Chad

[MartinNicklin]

Exclusive plants have it as longibracteata and describe it as “compact”. I took that to mean small! The one labelled at Oxford as lomariifolia was a towering giant, as far from compact in a Mahonia as you could imagine! That’s the one I would like.