Planting of the Biodiversity Garden; the area of ground that reaches out to the south and east of the John Hope Gateway provided an opportunity for recently collected plants to move out of the nursery to permanent planting positions.

Philadelphus schrenkii was an ideal choice, collected in 2005 during a plant hunting expedition to Japan. It eventually makes a huge deciduous shrub, 4m in height x 2m in breadth, a shrub the size of which seed to produce these plants was selected from.

Found growing in dry stony loam on a steep SE facing mountainside in dense mixed woodland in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Companion plants included Lindera sp., Corylus sieboldiana, Philadelphus satsumi, Cephalotaxus harringtoniana.

It is presently covered in flower, white petals and prominent anthers make up the multi flowered racemes. These exude a delicious fragrance. Walk through the Garden just now to appreciate the vagaries of fragrance emitted by the many species of these “Mock Orange”.

Philadelphus schrenkii

Philadelphus schrenkii

Philadelphus schrenkii