Olearia Week

Week 2008/30 is another quiet one on the shrub scene, with a delightful little plant labelled Olearia solandri perhaps the best newcomer, offering a perfume of vanilla and honey from its covering of tiny cream flowers. I have some doubts about this identification, as it looks a lot more like Olearia x haastii, but we have to trust Herrenkamper Garten, the excellent German supplier of out of the ordinary garden shrubs on this. An Olearia nummularifolia in the garden remains extraordinarily tiny, almost bonsai-like, but also has the same flowers on it, while Aesculus parviflora is now past its peak. Continuing: Lavatera and Hydrangea.