Schefflera Schweethearts
- Subject: Schefflera Schweethearts
- From: T* L*
- Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 10:02:27 +0100
OK, so they're not even vaguely Mediterranean. Let me off if I promise
to be brief?
I've only just discovered these aralia-relative trees from places such
as China, India, Vietnam, Taiwan. Few are grown in the UK though
cheery and adventurous optimists such as Dan Hinckley's collecting
colleague, Bleddyn Wynne-Jones, reckon many should be hardy down to
-10C or lower. They are certainly striking foliage plants, whether
with huge undivided leaves like the blades of an old-fashioned
aeroplane propellor or with delicately pinnate leaves of exeptional
size and elegance (as in the species from Taiwan which is either S.
taiwaniana or S. taiwanensis but memory doesn't tell me which: my
absolute favourite in the genus so far but, of course, not
commercially available in the UK - though there's a splendid specimen,
the one I fell in love with, in the garden at Bleddyn W-J's nursery in
North Wales).
I've never seen one in flower. I assume aralia-style flowers??
The notion seems to be that they flourish is moist, warm, humid,
semi-shade. They certainly do at Bleddyn W-J's and at the fine garden
of Jim and Jamie Taggart, The Linn, on the mild Roseneath peninsula in
S.W. Scotland.
Not perhaps conditions easily found in Californian gardens? but in
some in NZ, perhaps?
*Are* any species grown in 'Mediterranean' gardens? If so, any
information about species worth trying, about hardiness levels, about
'cultural requirements' - and about seed-sources, too, of course! -
gratefully received.
Tim Longville
