 |
| 'Audrey Vochins' is one classy lady. |
Rule number 1: Ignore everything the
British say.
This is a good general rule for any
sort of gardening in the US because our climate is so radically
different, but it applies particularly to daphnes. The definitive
book on daphnes is by Robin White, a British gentleman who claims
that many of the species we grow are tender and require an alpine
house to survive winter. Yeah... Come to Arrowhead sometime, and
I'll show you massive 20 some year old bushes of all sorts of daphnes
that have sailed as happily as can be through many a brutal Michigan
winter. I'm not sure if it is the misty-moisty British weather they
hate, or the lack of summer heat that doesn't allow them to fully
harden their new growth before winter, but whatever the reason, daphnes
really seem to prefer our climate to that of England, and are much
tougher, hardier, more reliable plants than you've probably been lead
to believe.
 |
| D. xhendersonii 'Fritz Kummert' as cute as a button with a smattering of summer reblooms |
Rule number 2: Drainage, drainage,
drainage.
Daphnes hate wet feet. Loath it, as it
opens them up for attack by their one nemesis. Daphnes are generally
stunningly pest and disease resistant, I've never seen any sort of
insect munching on them, deer and rabbits ignore them, and never does
a speck of mildew or rust or any other sort of fungus mar their
leaves. Their one weakness, however, is a root rot called
phytopthora. It is usually a problem on heavy wet soils and when it
shows up infected plants up and die dramatically almost overnight.
The solution is simple: drainage. If you have sandy soil, as we do at
Arrowhead, you can grow daphnes anywhere. If not, a raised bed of
sand or a rock garden will grow happy daphnes even if your soil is
the thickest clay. Then all you have to do is resist the urge to
over-water them. At Arrowhead, we never water the daphnes in the
garden, and they never seem to mind. Even during this brutally hot,
dry summer when the toughest plants were dropping like flies,
the daphnes sailed through rainless weeks of temperatures reaching
100 without batting an eye.
Other than drainage, daphnes aren't too
picky. Full sun is best, though they'll take part shade (expect fewer
flowers), and they are one of those happy plants that grows on acid
or alkaline soils.
 |
| D. burkwoodii NOT aging gracefully |
Rule number 3: Don't plant 'Carol
Mackie'
My love of daphnes was severely
hindered by the fact that until I started spending time at Arrowhead,
the only daphne I'd seen was the variegated cultivar of D.
burkwoodii, 'Carol Mackie'. Problem is, Carol is one trashy lady.
Where most daphnes have an elegant, tight growth habit, she, and the
other D. burkwoodii cultivars get tall and leggy and then flop in a
most repulsive, unladylike fashion. Though the spring flower display
is nice, rebloom is marginal to non-existent.
 |
| Variegated D. burkwoodii cultivars looking pretty darn nice |
To be honest, D. burkwoodii isn't ALL bad. The front walk to Brigitta's house is lined with several of them and they look stunning. But though they have their place, they're far from the best of this exquisite genus, so put off Carol and the
rest of her ilk, start with some of these:
 |
| D. xhendsersonii loaded with blooms... again! |
D. xhendersonii
This hybrid grex is my hands-down
favorite group. Fragrant, great rebloom on most varieties in the
summer, and the best growth habit. You could sheer your favorite
boxwood every other day and never get a the perfect, tight little
dome of leaves that a xhendersonii will produce without you doing a
thing, AND the leaves will look better and never show a speck of
insect damage.
 |
| Daphne xhendersonii -- perfect foliage, even without blooms. |
Not to mention the fact that they'll cover themselves
with flowers at least twice a year. Hard to beat that. Usually less
than a foot tall, and about twice as wide, these are perfect for even
the smallest garden or container.
 |
| A little baby 'Kilmeston' |
'Kilmeston'
This is a tiny little guy, only a
couple inches tall, with a spreading growth habit, almost a ground
cover. The foliage isn't nearly as nice as most other daphnes, but makes up for it with the most profuse flowering of the lot. The photo
above is a little baby one that went into the garden quite recently,
and I could have taken a picture of this plant almost any day of the
summer and have it looking the same, liberally covered with small,
fragrant flowers. Even the newly rooted cuttings fresh out of
propagation in the greenhouse are generally a mass of blooms.
Probably because it is so busy blooming all the time, this is a
slower grower than most, but SO worth it. Tuck it in at the edge of a
raised bed where it can trail over the edge and you will be a very
happy person. Also, everyone who visits your garden will be overcome
with jealously, which will make you even happier.
 |
| D. caucasica 'Variegata' |
D. caucasica
If you want a larger daphne, D.
caucasica is one of the best, eventually forming a roughly 3 foot
sphere of wonderfully grey-green foliage. Profuse fragrant white
flowers in the spring, and generally excellent rebloom again in late
summer. For an extra kick, 'Variegata' has lovely white margined
foliage that you really need. For a similar growth habit with a
darker green, glossy foliage, and pink flowers Daphne 'Matens' and
its variegated sport, 'Audrey Vochins' are spectacular as well.
 |
| 'Matens' |
So that is the low down on daphnes. If
you've grown then, especially in very different climates, I'd love to
hear about your experiences. Also (not really related to anything...) can I just say that it is
incredibly annoying that Daphne is also a woman's name? Makes
googling it a pain. I wish there was an option to filter out all
non-plant results from my searches.
