Is it a sign of incipient senility when you can remember the tag line for a 1970’s corporate PR campaign, but you can’t remember why you came into a room?   I’m sure I came in here to do something other than write this….

Anyone who posts a reply naming the “ideas in action” corporation gets the Barlow Nurseries “Daft stuff lodges in your brain too then” Award…

Ilex x altaclerensis 'Lawsoniana'

Our own version of ideas and action is shown in the picture.   We visited Westonbirt Arboretum last autumn (and never got around to completing the blog of the visit, which is still languishing in the drafts folder).  We were looking for inspiration to extend the range of trees and shrubs we stock on the nursery.  Boy, we found loads!

We now have several Westonbirt inspired additions to our sales tables, one of which is Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Lawsoniana’.   It’s a very dense holly with bold yellow leaf variegation, and almost spineless leaves.   It’s female, bearing red autumn berries.   It grows to maybe 6 mts (20 feet) tall, but will take a long time to get there.

We were particularly impressed with it because its growth habit is very dense (we’ve grown Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Golden King’ for years, but that has a much more open habit) and its leaf variegation is a very strong yellow.  It will grow  in pretty much any soil, and any aspect.  Just the thing to brighten a dark corner, or lift a dull shrubbery.

Our other Westonbirt-inspired lines will appear here soon – when they start looking good (they’re deciduous, so a bit unremarkable right now!).

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 20:26 and is filed under Plants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.