Seriously weird

Am I the only gardener who orders plants purely because their catalogue
descriptions make them sound, erm, *different*...? I've just sent off an
order to a nursery yesterday & one plant I've requested - I'd never heard of
it previously - is Parsonsia capularis, which is described as 'a strange
looking, climbing/scandent shrub, brownish narrow-lanceolate leaves. Fragrant
yellowish small flowers. New Zealand'. Hardly a beauty going by that
description, so I've just got to have it! Anyone else either know and/or grow
it?

Also ordered is Pseudopanax chathamicus: coming from the Chatham Islands it
should, by rights, be a very borderline subject for British gardens, even
coastal ones such as this one. But in a friend's garden some miles away it
has proved to be as hardy as P.ferox & considerably hardier than
P.crassifolius, which was cut to the ground by frosts in the -8/9C region.
These seem to be the only 3 pseudopanax species of the lunar /primitive
variety (as opposed to those with schefflera tendencies, such as P.laetus &
P.lesonii), available in the UK. Presumably, in other parts of the globe
there are other species on offer?

Einion Hughes,
Rhyl,
Denbighshire,
Wales,
UK
(-7C this last winter, which was colder than average)
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