Lavatera Week

2008/24: The woody version of Lavatera x clementii 'Rosea' makes a powerful debut this week, picking up the slack as the whites and purples of Digitalis purpurea begin to fade. Now there is no doubt that Lavatera is a wonderful garden plant, but it does appear to have its moods. Conventionally, the varieties 'Rosea' and 'Barnsley' are seen as twins, the one pink, the other mauve. But the only Barnsley I ever bought was a thin thing that grew weakly and died at the first frost. The Roseas, from Baumschule Eggert, are tougher in every way. I fatally injured one by digging it up and cutting its long rubbery main root. It was dead the next spring, with its fibrous trunk tattered and frayed, though a cutting from it prospers in a next-door garden. The next Rosea delivered by Eggert survived a mild winter with most of its green leaves still intact and grows vigorously in the sun. I have seen a Lavatera at the Walsrode bird park with a two-inch trunk to it, so the things are evidently very robust if well cared for. The Kolkwitzia amabilis has been very sparse this year after transplanting and the Sinocalycanthus sinensis has again suffered from a black blight on its buds, though some have opened in the past and the current week. Escallonia is giving its all below knee level, while Philadelphus is coming into bloom.