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. These plants are amongst the earliest in the collection and it seems that several of the labels have become mixed up. Thus it seems possible that ‘Beverly Caffin’ and ‘Ellen Sampson’ have had their labels switched. It may also be that ‘Henry Price’, the label that used to be on a plant of ‘Daintrie Sievers’, is the correct name for a couple of plants which were both labelled ‘Mattie Cole’. Unfortunately, in the absence of corroborating evidence, I have been unable to reach a conclusion.

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-006 ‘Beverley Caffin’ 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-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.

4A-020 ‘Ellen Sampson’ should be rosy carmine pink semi-double, so clearly wrong.

4A-022 There are two other plants in the collection labelled ‘Daintrie Sievers’, 4E-002, which is wrong and 4A-011 which is a cutting from 4E-002. Thus 4A-022 appears to be the only true ‘Daintrie Sievers’. It is in poor condition and I have taken cuttings to try and get a new plant going.

4A-026 ‘Jupiter’ is an English variety.

4A-030 ‘Wilber Foss’. Originally marked on the plan as ‘Mattie Cole’, which was obviously wrong, this has been re-named to ‘Wilber Foss’, which is still wrong. See 4F-040. It is the same as the 4F-029 plant which is still labelled ‘Mattie Cole’. The real ‘Mattie Cole’ is at 8-020. ‘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!

4A-046 ‘Winter Cheer’ is described as crimson-red, so this is wrong. It is a young plant, probably propagated from something else in the collection; I just need to find out what.