Plant Hunting in England

The great part of being involved in New Plants for a commercial business is that you get to travel to great places to find new products. This is my 3rd trip to England, and my 2nd for plant hunting specifically. England is the Horticulture Mecca, great little nurseries cover the country, all with new varieties tucked in the back greenhouse. Sports, seedlings, active breeding programs are what we encounter on our trips. My last trip in November took me about 600 round trip miles from London to Wales, and a short plane trip to Cornwall. Cornwall was great, it has a mild climate similar to the Central Coast of California were I live and work. With this climate growers and gardeners have embraced Mediterranean plants as the foundation for their gardens. Cordyline australis can be found in almost every yard, and has received the common name of 'Torbay Palm', named after the town of Torbay in county Devon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torbay Here are some highlight pictures from the trip.

Cordyline Electric Pink

I mentioned prior that I had done a great deal of research on Cordyline.
I have amassed a nice collection of Cordyline australis varieties. Many are very
new and are not yet commercially available. Electric Pink pictured below is on the market and is an excellent variety. It is notable for being a clumping type, giving you a grass/Phormium like look in the garden. Electric Pink is also a great item for mixed containers. Cordylines are notorious for being slow, Electric Pink is far from slow and will bulk up quickly in warmer months. Hardiness is still typical Cordyline, I would say Zone 8 minimum. More to come -Ryan

Back at it.

Well I'm back with more motivation to continue the Blog. I was a bit frustrated by not being able to find it on Google. But I have had some good encouragement from fellow plant nuts (Thanks Mom) and I hope to continue posts on a regular basis. The Physocarpus 'Lady in Red' post was the top hit on Google so thats nice to see. I invite your feed back on subjects you are interested in. I have a tendency to get interested in a plant group, and then research it to the max. In the last few months I have done allot of research on the following genera.
Heuchera
Helleborus
Cordyline
Fritillaria
Astelia
Sedum
Dianella

I will continue to post my results and some great photos of the different varieties out there.
Bye for now. Post again soon - Ryan