Area 4A – Notes.

This section runs along the lower side of Earl’s Drive for a distance of about 100 metres. It is steep, overgrown and has suffered from trees falling or shedding branches. It was split into two sections, 4 and 4A, but neither was very big and not a few plants have died, so I have amalgamated them into one. The old plants here are amongst the earliest in the collection and it seems that several of the labels have become mixed up or were perhaps wrong from the start.
I have planted several new varieties in recent years but establishing them has proved difficult, with some succumbing to deer damage or disease.

4A-004 Like many ‘Ballet Queen’ bushes, this bush appears to have picked up the virus that produces white blotches on the blooms and turns it into ‘Ballet Queen Variegated’.

4A-012 ‘Debbie Felix’ is presumably a synonym for ‘Debbie’s Carnation’, which was raised by Felix Jury, while ‘Debbie’ was raised by his older brother Les. There are old plants of both here and I cannot distinguish between them.

4A-018 is labelled ‘Edith Linton’, which is the solid pink sport of the bicolored ‘Jean Lyne’. It had until a few years ago always carried only solid pink flowers. However, a shoot has arisen from ground level which is producing ‘Jean Lyne’ type flowers. It should probably be removed but is much healthier than the rest of the bush.

4A-020 ‘Jean Lyne’ was labelled ‘Ellen Sampson’, a variety that should be a rosy carmine pink semi-double. It matches plants of ‘Jean Lyne’ and its sports in all respects so I have relabelled it accordingly.

4A-026 ‘Jupiter’ is an English variety, out of place in this antipodean section.

4A-006 was labelled ‘Beverley Caffin’ but this should have large semi-double white flowers with carmine flecks. These are small and pink.  There is a pink sport called ‘Beverley Caffin Rosea’ but that seems unlikely.

4A-011 was labelled ‘Daintrie Sievers’ and was a cutting from the plant at 4E-002. See 4A-022 for what ‘Daintrie Sievers’ should be like.

4A-030 Originally marked on the plan as ‘Mattie Cole’, which was obviously wrong, this has been re-labelled to ‘Wilber Foss’, which is still wrong. See 4F-040, which is correct. The real ‘Mattie Cole’ is at 8-020. This plant is the same as the 4F-029 plant which now has just a number tag. ‘Azurea’, ‘Pilida’ and ‘Australis’ have all been considered as possible identities, see blog of 28/1/2022. I really want to know what this is!