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Posted by Goldilocks (U2169760) on Thursday, 9th February 2012
This shrub really does live up to its name. A real stunner, standing out 50 yards away. And it produces offshoots readily.
Oh, oh! Thought the Photobucket image title would appear automatically. It is called Cornus Midwinter Fire.
It is a stunner, I am envious.
Your red stems are lovely and cheering in the cold. The other two we have which I love are the orange stems on the corkscrew salix - stunning with a sprinkle of snow on them, and the weird and wonderful knots in the corkscrew hazel. The shrub look rather dull for much of the year, and we never get the nuts because the squirrel gets there first, but the shapes now, especially in the snow, and wonderful and make it well worth its space.
Your red stems really do look fiery, I tried a yellow stemmed one, but was a bit disappointed in it, no where near as good as the red I thought. Winter fire indeed.
Midwinter Fire is a cultivar of Cornus sanguinea, which is different to the red Cornus alba 'Westonbirt', and has a much more startling colour. Unlike the alba forms the colour changes from yellow at the base all the way though to bright red at the top, making it look like a flame. And the stems are more graceful IMHO.
You pay a bit more for one, but they produce sucker offshoots a lot more easily than the albas. I have already transplanted four offshoots but I am in danger of ODing on them. I have given some to MIL and she is selling them through the local WI.
I will be planting a group of these in heavy clayey soil. For cheapness I am thinking of using 40cm bare rooted plants at the end of this month.
Any tips/comments would be much appreciated.
CB
They love heavy clay soil. It is their preferred medium. Just plant them when the soil is not frozen. They are tough - no fuss.
Yes it is lovely, very striking.
I passed a boundary hedge made entirely of skimmia japonica today and I thought to myself "what a good winter plant for edging". It was healthy green, with plenty of red berries, and about 4 feet tall.
Goldilocks: Thanks for the encouragement. All I need now is an end to this cold weather.
CB
As-If, just a warning about skimmia japonica. It is dioecious, which is a fancy word for a plant that has males and females, and only the females produce berries, and they need a male for fertilization. (there are a couple of cultivars that are self fertile, such as s. x reevesiana, but they grow much more slowly and are not good for hedging, and they cost a packet, if you can find them).
Problem is that they are often not labelled as male and female, and some garden centre look bemused when you ask them about it. You only need one male for every five or six.
They also don't like alkaline soil, as I have found out when I moved to Lincolnshire. Last year I dug out several japonicas that looked very yellowish and sickly, and my x reevesia, which struggled even though I kept it in a pot of ericacious compost, has now gone to MIL who has just constructed an ericacious raised bed (or should I say she got me to do it!). My one remaining male skimmia, Rubella, is for the chop this year if it does not perk up having been transplanted to a new spot with loads of well rotted manure / garden compost underneath.
Yes, thank you Goldilocks, you are correct.
I do know about them needing acid soil and a pollinating partner. In fact I looked around to see where the male was. I thought he may be in a tub somewhere, but I couldn`t see him.
Maybe they just borrow him in spring like a farmer would with a bull!
Reminds me of an old joke:
Long time ago a farmer had a sow that needed servicing. A neighbour offered his prize boar for £5. the farmer had no transport so took his sow in a wheelbarrow. After the job was done he asked how he would know if it worked. The neighbour said that in the morning, if it was rolling in mud, it had worked, but if it was rolling on grass, it had not worked and he was to bring it back for a second attempt.
Next morning his wife is looking out the bedroom window and he asks if the sow is rolling in mud. Reply - no, she's rolling on the grass!
Back to the neighbour with the sow in the wheelbarrow. the neighbour is mystified. First time this has ever happened. And so on for the second attempt. Next morning the farmer's wife looks out and announces that the sow is rolling in the grass again.
Back to the........... etc.
On the third morning the farmer asks his wife what is going on. "Is she rolling in the mud?" NO!
"Is sherolling in the grass again?" No"
"The what's she doing for heaven's sake??"
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"She's sitting in the wheelbarrow!!"
"
Ha!ha!ha!ha!
Just thinking Goldilocks, we might have accidentally stumbled upon a new business idea here. ,biggrin>
At £5 a time, we could hire male plants out, keep a few male hollies, male pernettias, male skimmias, etc. ????
Sounds interesting - bordering on immoral earnings!
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