Hybridising hebes happens overseas

Press, 24 June 1983, Page 12

Hybridising hebes happens overseas

Gardener’s? W diary

Derrick Rooney

Some New Zealand nurseries have built up a thriving export trade in recent years, and have been praised and publicised for it; what has been less widely publicised is that often the trade goes the other way. Strange though it may seem, with the exception of a few genera — the flaxes, the pittosporums, the myrtles, the manukas — relatively little attention has been paid in this country to the breeding or selection of worth-while garden plants from among our native shrubs. In the case of one of our most important genera in horticultural terms — the hebes — the traffic has moved mostly in reverse. The most successful hybridising of this group has been done not in New Zealand, but in the British Isles, and the hybrid hebes imported from Britain are some of our finest “native” shrubs. At the top of the list I would place, without hesitation, “Lindsay” a strikingly attractive bushy shrub usually growing no more than about 60 cm high, with large, fleshy, rich green, leaves, arranged in symmetrical overlapping rows on erect branches. A strategically placed specimen can be a very bold feature in a garden. Little information is obtainable about the origin of this plant, other than that it was raised by a Mr R. 1 Lindsay in Britain late in ' the nineteenth century and < was grown in the garden of the famous horticultural 1 writer, E. A. Bowles, who ? used it as a foil for choice 1 fems. ' Apparently it was named 1 by the large English nursery, Hilliers, and first j appeared in the Hilliers * catalogue about 1950. J The raiser did not record * the parentage but the shape and arrangement of the J leaves strongly suggest that *

one of the Hebe amplexi-. caulis complex — possibly Hebe pareora — is one of the parents. According to Bean’s “Trees and Shrubs” the other parent is probably a form of Hebe pimelioides. However, certain features suggest that Hebe decumbens might be involved also. Whatever the parentage, this is a fine shrub, one of the most attractive bred from New Zealand plants, and it is extraordinary that the nursery trade has never latched on to it. The flowers, which are freely produced in early summer, are a cool pink shade that I have not seen in any other hebe. “Eversleigh Seedling” is a hybrid of British raising that seems to have made its first appearance in print about 1950. It is of unknown origin, but is apparently very similar to — and may even turn out to be the same plant as — another little hebe from the late Mr Bowles’s garden which is frequently mentioned in English publications, as “E.A. Bowles.” As grown in New Zealand, it is a neat, narrow-leaved bush which grows quite large eventually but can be accommodated in a rock garden for a good few years. A specimen in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens is about 60cm high and Im across. The flowers are mauve and produced in spasms throughout summer and late into the autumn. Hebe pimelioides, again, is thought to be one of the parents. Hebe “Waikiki" was also English-raised, about 1950, but only in the last few years has it got about much in New Zealand. This is a shrub of real quality — so free flowering ip early summer that is

disappears under a foam of lavender-violet flowers; handsomely decked out in evergreen leafage during the rest of the year. The soft-textured leaves are long and narrow, and deep green when mature. Young leaves and shoot tips are richly plum-toned, so that even in winter the shrub is colourful. Its parentage is not recorded. However, a delightful and possibly apocryphal story about the origin of its name has made the rounds. It seems that the English raisers wanted to give the shrub a name with a distinctly New Zealand flavour and settled for “Waikiwi.”

But because of a typing error the name was published with a “k” instead of a “w.”

Once again, Hebe pimelioides, has been suggested as a possible parent, perhaps in a cross with one of the tender northern species. Though “Waikiki” is quite hardy, very young growths are sometimes singed by severe frost. The heath-like Hebe pimelioides comes from one of the coldest and driest parts of New Zealand, and is very hardy, an attribute which enables it to grow well in the British Isles, where it is a highly regarded small shrub. Because of this it has been very extensively used for hybridising. One of its offspring of Scottish origin has become very popular in New Zealand in the last few years. This is Hebe “MacEwanii,” a tidy little shrub, usually growing about 30cm tall, with erect branches. Its flowers, produced in great abundance in early summer, are violet blue, and the glaucous leaves have a blue tinge. “Pagei” and “Glauca” are two more “imported natives” with bluish-toned foialage.

The former is either a form or a hybird of the widespread South Island subalpine species, Hebe pinguitolia, which grows along the dry eastern side of the Alps. The forms which grow in the Central Canterbury mountains in low scrub at about 100 metres altitude have glaucous-greyish leaves, sometimes with red margins and a habit varying from prostrate to erect but straggly. “Pagei” has a neat, bushy habit and the leaves have a distinct bluish' cast. The margins are bright red. As a garden plant “Pagei” . is an improvement on • “ordinary” H. pinguifolia, . though it is not as blue as - • either “MacEwanii” or H. pimelioides itself, both of - which also have blue flowers. Bluest of all in leaf, and deepest blue in flower is “Glauco-coerulea,” once listed as a variety of H. , pimelioides but now considered to be a natural hybrid, possibly with H. pinguifo-. lia. “Glauca” is listed in the catalogue from which I ob- ■ tained it as a form of Hebe colensoi, which is the North Island equivalent of Hebe pinguifolia. It is a very dense, bushy little shrub which will even- . tually grow about 60cm high, according to the catalogue. A specimen in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens is about half that. The leaves of “Glauca” are fleshier than those of the common forms of H. . colensoi, and the flowering period is greatly extended, the two indicators of possible hybridity. The flowers are white. My small plant is still producing flowerbuds as midwinter approaches, and frost and snow have had no impact on them.