#eucryphia

Dear Musical Maestro,

Surprisingly, music is not an art that comes easily to my kind. Perhaps it is something to do with our planet’s atmosphere—or, in some cases, its lack of one. Perhaps it is the fact that a set of audio receptors programmed to instantly, perfectly transmit radio-wave pulses makes us less sensitive to the subtle atmospheric acoustics and changes in vibration that mark organic symphonies. Either way, our early efforts into the field of music trend towards the crude. In some Primax universal streams, Praxian dulcimer-synths adorn the cultural wings of our museums. In Viron realities, Autobots study the ornate, handcrafted ætherphones of their forebears and historically-minded Predacons might practice the percussive instruments their ancestors maintained.

Either way, when we developed space travel, we found ourselves in an entirely new world of music. Nothing we performed on our instruments could possibly hope to compare to the depth of radio-acoustic experience from an Abraxan Laser-Harp or an Aghartan electrobass.

Name: Cupressus macrocarpa 'Lutea'Family: Cupressaceae Planting Date: 1880 Area: Walled Garden - Lower South Quarter Accession no: 1880/LSQ-13/44689/HA  Photograph Date: 19/09/24 08:07

New plant (for my brain): Eucryphia x nymansensis

Plants of Distinction Eucryphia x nymansensis ‘Nymansay’ a Small Columnar Tree – A Delight for the Garden Senses

There are plants in our lives that transport us right back to where we first connected with them, our recall with scent, and our senses, a kind of memory time-travel for gardener’s. Gardener’s often have hundred’s of plants that generate this kind of response, fortunately not all at once.

A recent visit to my first garden, an apprenticeship completed over a three year training programme with the…

Eucryphia moorei

Eucryphia moorei produces attractive four-petalled white flowers. In the centre are a multitude of soft paintbrush bristle stamens. The flower is produced on the current season’s growth. From this the flower stalk emerges. Developing in two stages there is a small bract at the mid point. This is formed by the sepals fusing together. The plant is set in the sheltered courtyard to the north of the Front Range. Mid green pinnate leaves clothe the plant, these have a grey colour to the reverse.

Attention should be drawn to the seed capsules. Those from the previous year are retained on the plant. Soft brown in colour when dry, the covering of bristly white hairs can be appreciated under a hand lens.

Eucryphia moorei – seed heads

Eucryphia moorei is native to the New South Wales area of Australia, where it grows on hillsides in cool, temperate rainforest. It has been in cultivation in Britain since 1915.

Eucryphya glutinosa

Native to the Southern Hemisphere the Eucryphia are a mass of white this year. In the border south of the herbarium E. glutinosa shows a delicate wave to the petal formation. Initially the anthers are red oxide colour gradually fading. Planted next to this is E. glutinosa Plena Group, multi petalled, each white petal reduced in size

A wild collected specimen of Eucryphia glutinosa is growing to the north of the front range collected by Martin Gardner and Sabina Knees at 850m in dry forest in Chile

The less vigorous multi-stemmed Eucryphia cordifolia is in the upper woodland garden. Single leaves light shade to the reverse. Also with white petals, the flowers are less prolific in this species and tend to hang down so are not as showy as E. glutinosa.

The hybrid Eucryphia x nymansensis ‘Nymansay’ has parentage of cordifolia x glutinosa, E. cordifolia evergreen and E. glutinosa deciduous. Showing variable leaf characteristics it remains evergreen throughout the winter. Specimens of these are at Inverleith House, towering and in scale with the building and a mass planting to the west of the peat walls.

Agapanthus campanulatus ssp patens

Agapanthus campanulatus ssp. patens: A Hilliard and Burtt collection from Temperate South Africa. The strong stems holding a mass of blue flowers. Look up and across the boundary wall of this Alpine House border, to appreciate the slender formed and slightly windswept Eucryphia x nymansensis covered in white blossom.

Berberidopsis corallina: Growing against the south facing wall in the alpine area, collected in 1996. Originally thought to be almost extinct but the ICE expedition to Chile firstly identified the habitat in which likely to grow and then using this information identified sites where plants did actually grow. Seed and cutting material were collected to establish an ex situ conservation collection of living plants of which this is a very successful example. Producing arching growth with sturdy holly like leaves, chlorotic look to the mid rib and laterals, the red petals are waxy in appearance, and attract wasps.