PURPUREA: forthcoming book on red and purple foliage plants

This book will be available early Fall 2008 and cover everything from lofty trees to tiny annuals, all with rich red to purple colors in summer or winter.

Automated Plant Identification?

Heard of those smart TV cameras in cities which scan your face walking down the street, turn that image over to a computer, look up your criminal record, and as necessary notify the policeman waiting nearby in his car? The do exist in the UK and now in the US.



Could this be done for plants? Not necessarily a case of Toxicodendron radicans wanted for blisterous trifoliate assault (BTA) but perhaps something like basic species identification. Take a typical leaf, scan it into your laptop's portable flatbed scanner, run a morphometric program, and viola! 98.6% you have Plantus vulgaris with a 12.7% you have Plantus pseudo-vulgaris.



Such scenarios are already being tested and perfected in the morphometric community. Now there's a book for those of you inclined to this sort of computer-aided plant analysis with a healthy dose of math....

http://www.amazon.com/dp/084938205X?tag=morphometrics-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=084938205X&adid=18WN2V0G0YGQC8MEJFEF&

Longworth Sweetgum - A Long Lost Cultivar

While reading Andrew Fuller's 1884 book Practical Forestry, I came upon a reference to and illustration of a long lost cultivar of our American native Liquidambar styraciflua that was named 'Longworthii'.
http://www.plantnames.org/liqulongworthii.jpg
Joseph Longworth found this curious plant growing in Cincinnati, Ohio and transplanted it to his property before 1868. It had a less star-like leaf with narrow vein angles and usually 3-4 l"forward pointing" lobes. Such leaf shape mutations are common Acer and Hedera and it's now reported for this genus too. It reminds me a bit of Acer berguerianum. The cultivar was first described in American Agriculturist of 1868 and is not reported in woody plant references and checklists of the genus.

I presume it is lost but perhaps somewhere, someplace in Ohio it still exists. The Longworths were a very prominent and wealthy Cincinnati family so perhaps it exists on an old family estate or park.

Miniers of France at http://www.pepinieres-minier.fr/ has some woody plant introductions not widely reported in the horticulture press:

• Arbutus unedo ROSELILY
• Cornus alba BATON ROUGE
• Betula nigra BLACK STAR
• Syringa vulgaris 'Mindent'
• Prunus persica TAOFLORA RED

www.highcountrygardens.com also has some interesting plants, including some of the dwarf Jerry Morris conifers. They also offer the very rare dwarf Pinus ponderosa 'Mary Ann Haecock'

www.valkplant.com has some interesting offerings too that include:

• Acer palmatum 'Peve Ollie'
• Berberis thunbergii 'Orange Rocket'
• Berberis thunbergii 'Tiny Gold'
• Ficus carica 'Icecrystal', a incised and deeply lobed and very ornamental clone
• Lonicera brownii 'Toisin d'Or'
• Mahonia BLACKFOOT
• Rhus typhina 'Radiance', interesting gold and orange tones
• Tamarix 'Hulsdonk White'
• Weigela cand. MILK AND HONEY, with splendid irregular gold centers

www.gardenbeauty.co.uk offers some treasures as well:

• Acacia retinodes 'Palme D'Or', yellow flowers and blue foliage
• Grevillea 'Spider Man'
• Pieris 'Spring Candy'

Dendrobenthamia elliptica = Cornus elliptica?

Cornus kousa var. angustata, a popular evergreen Chinese dogwood has gone through a number of proposed name changes, the latest (and best in my opinion) being Cornus elliptica.

A proposal to reject the old name Cynoxlyon elliptica in favor of the more popular epithet angustata was offered by Y.F. Deng in 2003 but the nomenclatural committee did not approve this. Thereafter Hui Yu has proposed in this paper...
http://www.sekj.org/PDF/anb43-free/anb43-315.pdf
that the evergreen species be called Dendrobenthamia elliptica (Pojark.) H. Yu

Pictures of the species, a chart on separating it from C. capitata, and a discussion of it's cultivars occurs here in the NOD...
http://www.raretrees.org/cornang3.html

Please feel free to post your opinions in any direction.

Dr. D.H. Hubbers is something of the Richard Jaynes of Germany. His wonderful array of new hybrid Kalmia cultivars can be found here. 'Mitternacht' is a dark beauty, sure to come to the US.
http://www.kalmia.info/html/zuchtungen_-_cultivars.html

Speaking of Dr. Jaynes, his www.brokenarrownursery.com also offers a full range of the best Kalmia plus these other treasures:

• Acer rubrum 'Snowfire' - a very bright tricolored variegate, semi-dwarf
• Chionanthus retusus 'China Snow', Don Shadow's improved, dark-leaved clone
• Hamamelis mollis 'Gold Edge, a new creamy-yellow margined clone
• Hydrangea arborescens 'Terry Greer', huge cauliflower-like double flowers
• Magnolia zenii 'Pink Parchment', Dirr's light pink to blush clone, very early
• Zenobia pulverulenta 'Christoff'', a new bluish clone
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Gold Dawn', a smaller version of 'Ogon'
• Sciadopitys verticillata 'Tumbleweed', slow, semi-loose Waxman clone

Baumschule Hachmann (www.hachmann.de) is world famous for their breakthrough Rhodie hybrids but they also often a number of rare trees and conifers from other genera. Some recent offerings include:

• Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Klippert', a blue weeper
• Chamaecyparis lawsoniana SILBERSTAR(r), A narrowish, blue tower of plumes
• Juniperus communis 'Green Mantle', nice dense green carpet
• Juniperus communis 'Rakete', super dense spire
• Pinus mugo 'Frisby', a very low prostrate plant
• Thuja occidentalis 'Konfetti', liberally splashed in cream
• Ilex aquifolium 'White Cream', huge cream centers to each blade

Nootka Update

Chamaecyparis nootkatensis has been floating out there in journal-space under a variety of new names, including assignments to Cupressus, Xanthocyparis, and Callitropsis. A summary of the main 5 papers involved appears at this link.
http://www.oregonflora.org/ofn/OFNv13n1.pdf

While the species has some lovely clones and a particularly popular one 'Pendula', the largest horticultural significance of the name change is the effect on x Cupressocyparis, a name based on Chamaecyparis x Cupressus parentage only. If Nootka goes back to Cupressus, the so-called bigeneric Leyland is now an intrageneric cross for which the name Cupressus x leylandii would be applied. If it gets placed as Xanthocyparis, the name x Cuprocyparis is already processed.

So where do we go for now? The senior and most experienced taxonomist in the Cupressaceae is unquestionably Dr. Robert Adams of Baylor with over 3 decades of work on the species. In his latest paper from February 2007...
http://www.juniperus.org/AdamsPapersPDFFiles/196-2007JEORXanthocyparisOils19-30-33.pdf...
he continues with the Xanthocyparis nootkatensis name. In his analysis, X. nootkatensis and X. vietnamensis both cluster apart from the Old World and New World Cupressus species.

A formal nomenclatural proposal to conserve Xanthocyparis over the very vague genus Callitropsis (which cannot be tied to another resembling the Nootka Cypress in my opinion) was made and has now been accepted. Some of Callitropsis thinking consider some species such as C. funebris to be a Chamaecyparis and not up for division between the other generic names.

Even persons in the Callitropsis camp vary in their opinions. Little considers the New World cypresses (ie. bakeri, arizonica, macrocarpa) to be part of Callitropsis but the Old World species (ie. funebris, sempervirens, torulosa) to remain with Cupressus.

On the other hand, if one wants to go with the Cupressus assignment, you have the USDA, calflora.org, and the prestigious Jepson Flora of Berkeley on your side.

The website http://www.cupressus.net/Masters.html is another good reference for information on the Cupressus Conservation Project and a list of good books.

The classic and still the best guide to describing plants in a taxonomically cool terminology is found in Radford's Vascular Plant Systematics (VPS). This System of Characterization is very organized, clear, and delimiting. For example, you only need to have a leaf's length:width ratio and whether it's widest above, at, or below the midpoint to find the perfect of more than a dozen terms. Some of this is based on Stearn's classification and I like it better than the Lawrence system out of Cornell. Anyone describing plants in detail needs to know this work and this link.
http://www.ibiblio.org/botnet/glossary/syschar.html

www.camforest.com or Camellia Forest is offered a new book:

Collected Species of the Genus Camellia, an Illustrated Outline(in English and Chinese)

By Gao Jiyin, Clifford R. Parks and Du Yuequiang

One hundred and eighty-eight Camellia species are described in this comprehensive volume with lavish color photos of flowers,foliage and habit. For each species the botanical characteristics, distribution and horticultural merits are discussed in Englishand Chinese. The species are grouped into sections which helps sort the many species into plants with similar characteristics.The distribution and elevation information helps one think about hardiness and adaptability to different climates. As the Chinesehave grown some of these species there is useful information for the garden culture and breeding potential of many species. Ofcourse the features of the plant are described quite completely down to the perules and chromosome number. Only 2500 bookswere printed and these will not be available in your local bookstore. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to my father forCamellia breeding and research.$85 plus $10 for shipping and handling

Besides the best assortment of species and hybrid Camellia on the planet, CamForest is offering these rare woodies:

• Aucuba japonica var. borealis 'Sea of Japan'
• Castanopsis sclerophylla
• Cephalotaxus oliveri
• Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Vokel's Upright'
• Cornus wilsonii
• Cunninghamia unicanaliculata
• Daphniphyllum calycinum
• Ilex intermedia
• Lindera erythrocarpum
• Litsea cubeba
• Magnolia fordiana
• Magnolia tamaulipana 'Bronze Sentinel'
• Podocarpus 'Orangeade'
• Schima superba
• Taxus chinensis var. hupensis
• Torreya nucifera 'Snowcap'
• Zelkova serrata 'Bright Park'

"Everything Oldsted" can be found at the Olmsted Research Guide Online, a searchable database of archives, projects, and other documents

http://www.rediscov.com/olmsted/

Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants: Forest Trees by Chittaranjan Kole (editor) from any major bookstore using ISBN-13: 9783540345404.

Pretty much everyone is going to want to get Dirr's latest horticultural monograph. Viburnums: Flowering Shrubs for Every Season is available most anywhere using ISBN-13: 9780881928532.

Another likely Timber Press hit is Jennifer Trehane's Camellias: The Gardener's Encyclopedia (ISBN-13: 9780881928488). 600 of the best taxa with 800 images are included.

Amazon is accepting pre-orders for Freek Vrugtman's 410-page revision of John Fiala's lilac work. Called Lilacs: A Gardener's Encyclopedia is being released August 2008 as ISBN-13: 978-0881927955 . The expanded, taxonomically clarified by the official Lilac Registrar includes 580 photos and over 2000 named cultivars.

Creative Cultivar Name Thesaurus

In 1998 I put together a list of adjectives which may be used to form cultivar names for plants of various traits. The list is still useful I'm told and just might help overcome a case of "plant namer's block".
http://members.tripod.com/~Hatch_L/cvthes.html

While not a new paper it is becoming a classic and good to have free online

DETERMINATION OF PARENTAGE OF FLOWERINGDOGWOOD (CORNUS FLORIDA) SEEDLINGS USINGDNA AMPLIFICATION FINGERPRINTING
by Malissa H. Ament1, Mark T. Windham2, and Robert N. Trigiano1

New cultivars of flowering dogwood (Cornusflorida L.) are usually selected as sports from existingcultivars or developed from seedlings that show newand interesting horticultural traits. Recently, dogwoodbreeding programs involving only C. floridawere initiated at Tennessee State University and theUniversity of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture(UTIA) to develop new flowering dogwood cultivars.The specific goals of the UTIA program are to incorporatedisease resistance into dogwood seedlingsand develop new disease-resistant dogwood cultivars.Initially hand pollination was used, but thismethod was labor intensive and slow (Trigiano et al.1996; Reed 1998). Honeybee-mediated pollinationwas attempted with some success (Sauve et al. 1996;Trigiano et al. 1996), but this technique had somelimitations. Bees would not visit small flowers unlessa pheromone and sugar solution was applied twicedaily to individual dogwood bracts. Also, large cagesof fine mesh were required to contain bees and trees(Sauve et al. 1996). Although insect-mediated polli-Abstract. Open-pollinated seedlings of Cornus florida L.‘Cherokee Chief’ were tested to identify the pollen donorfrom a list of nearby C. florida trees using DNA amplificationfingerprinting (DAF). Tissue was collected and DNAisolated from the maternal ‘Cherokee Chief’ tree and possiblepollen donors C. florida ‘Cherokee Brave’, ‘CherokeeDaybreak’, ‘Cloud 9’, ‘Springtime’, and ‘Pygmy’. DNA wasalso isolated from C. florida ‘Fragrant Cloud’, ‘CherokeePrincess’, and ‘Appalachian Spring’. Data from DAF wereanalyzed for similarities and differences between geneticmakeup of seedlings and putative parents. Thirteen of 15(87%) evaluated seedlings were the progeny of ‘CherokeeBrave’ and ‘Cherokee Chief’. Using open pollination, progenyof 2 red-bracted C. florida cultivars ‘Cherokee Brave’and ‘Cherokee Chief’ were obtained and subsequentlyverified using DAF.
http://www.treelink.org/joa/2000/july/03_DETERMINING_DOGWOOD_PARENTAGE_USING_DNA_ament.pdf

Also interesting from the Journal of Arboriculture is this update on ornamental Salix.
http://www.treelink.org/joa/2004/mar/kuzovkina3-04.pdf

The whole Sophora to Stphnolobium name change is clarified by Dr. Santamour here.
http://joa.isa-arbor.com/request.asp?JournalID=1&ArticleID=2769&Type=2

Williams, Sibley et. al. have done an elegant evalation of Magnolia grandiflora cultivars that is well worth reading.
http://joa.isa-arbor.com/request.asp?JournalID=1&ArticleID=55&Type=2

A number of the largest plant collections in the US are banding with the APGA (American Public Gardens Association) to catalog their accessions in a common interface. The PlantCollections(tm)
project can be found here.
http://www.publicgardens.org/plantcollections.aspx

The NAPCC has also approved a new multi-site Quercus collection
http://www.publicgardens.org/web/2007/11/napcc_approves_multisite_quercu.aspx

Trademarks: Myths and Realities

Trademarks are Not Names! by Piers Trehane is probably the most widely cited internet article on this subject.
http://www.hortax.org.uk/hortaxnews/text5.html#sect8

Of equal merit and also widely cited is Tony Avent's Trademark Myths article that also bears close examination. Tony has gathered legal documentation to prove that no US court has ever upheld the concept of "one trademark=one clone" as the names are popularly used in the US.
http://www.plantdelights.com/Tony/trademark.html

The National Association of Plant Patent Owners (NAPPO) has also issued guidelines on the topic.
http://www.anla.org/pdffiles/plantpatent.pdf

Plantpatent.com also weights in on the subject.
http://www.plantpatent.com/articles.html#trademark

PlantHaven too has a nice article
http://www.planthaven.com/PatentFAQ.pdf

V.G. Gioia has published another useful article available for purchase online
http://www.actahort.org/books/552/552_25.htm

Here's even a case where a judge ordered a trademark to be cancelled
http://www.goodfruit.com/issues.php?article=55&issue=3

From my viewpoint as a taxonomist and compiler of plant names, these remain the biggest issues for the community to address:

1. Why do the trademark offices grant trademark rights to cultivars already registered by the originator as cultivars? Shouldn't they be required by some process to check first?
2. Should all registrars and authors begin rejecting or rescinding names that were first marketed by the originator as either a trademark or cultivar, and later shifted to the other? (Dr. Dix the Lagerstroemia register has begun to do this)
3. How do we create cultivar groups based on trademark groups if they are nomenclaturally the same type of taxon? And if we use "trademark groups" does the creation of such taxa require permission of the trademark holder?
4. Why do so many growers misrepresent trademarked plants by using the wrong symbol - tm vs. (R) - sometimes the originator's website uses both!
5. Is the acceptance of trademarks a free passport back to the Latin and Greek era? For example, no registrar or taxonomist in the world can reject Juniperus GLAUCA NANA FASTIGIATA HATCHII SUPERBA(tm) on the basis of any international law or code. We're already seeing a bit of Latin creep back in trademarks and generally US patent apps. Unregistered trademark names seem like a carte blanche for originators and nurserymen to do whatever they want - just like the bad old days.

New golden tulip tree

Anyone interested in propagating and evaluating a new golden, Liriodendron tulipifera seedling? I've observed it for three years in a North Carolina woods and it remains colorful until leafdrop. Color is actually brighter in August than in spring. While it looks like 'Glen Gold', it probably holds the color longer and is surely based on a southern population. All the surrounding seedlings are dark and healthy, ruling out a nutrient deficiency - in fact it gets some runoff from a heavily maintained nearby lawn. It's only burned once so far that I know - after a rainstorm followed by 105 degree scorching day. Against these dark tulip tree seedlings, it's really a bright appealing plant - about 15 feet tall now. Let me know if you're interested.

Internet Nursery Catalog Archive (INCA)

The New Ornamentals Society is working to archive most of those fast disappearing nursery catalogs from the web that contain valuable, historical data on cultivar introductions. Your comments and ideas are all welcome.
http://www.plantnames.org/inca.html

AGRIOM is a firm consulting in ornamentals breeding. In the woody world they have projects in Hydrangea and Hibiscus.
http://www.agriom.nl/links-eng.htm

The Virginia Urban Street Tree Selector is fun and serious at once.
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/treeselector/search.htm

A fascinating site for weeping trees and larger shrubs is Pendulous Plants. Among many other choice items, they carry Ginkgo biloba 'Ross Moore', the first true drooping clone of that species.
http://www.pendulousplants.com/

Beth Matney, a rose-of-sharon collector has put together some very nice checklists of cultivars, much better than in any reference work. A very professional type checklist.
http://members.tripod.com/~h_syriacus/cultivar_list.htm

Arboretum Kalmthout has launched a new Hamamelis website complete with lists of registered/accepted cultivar names and synonyms. The site even contains info on the Hamamelis Festival and "Miss Hamamelis".
http://www.provant.be/en/vrije_tijd/domains/arboretum_kalmthout/collecties/hamamelis/index.jsp

Dr. Ruth Dix has an online checklist of Lagerstroemia cultivars, updating on the previously printed USDA/Santamour book. I especially admire the concept of rescinding cultivar names which in fact were or are trademarks - haven't seen another ICRA do that but they all should.
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Research/Herbarium/Lagerstroemia/

Last year I started planning most of my garden visits with the aid of Google Maps, especially if the grounds were not very familiar or totally new. One can "spy" on most of America's private an public gardens and even see remarkable specimen trees if they're large enough. Here's a sample satelite view of the famous Gotelli Collection beds.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=national+arboretum&ie=UTF8&ll=38.91588,-76.957182&spn=0.000989,0.001808&t=h&z=19&om=1

Archive.org has many fine, primary documents on woody plants. Wilsons' ground-breaking Conifers and Taxads of Japan is worth a peak and downloading to your digital, portable library.
http://www.archive.org/details/coniferstaxadsof00wilsuoft

While you're at archive.org consider txt downloads of the 2 volumes of Bean's 1916 Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles. The PDF versions take forever and cover over 200MB. His plant descriptions, histories, and comments HAVE YET and may never be superceded. Bean is still the Master Guru.
http://www.archive.org/details/treesshrubshardy02beanrich

The newish Georgia Gems website covers many new UGA intros from various breeders, notably Dirr and Robaker in the woody plant realm. It's also a nice model site for other universities to adopt for their collective cultivar releases.
http://www.ovpr.uga.edu/georgiagems/index.html

Kim Coder has published an interesting evaluation of Pyrus calleryana cultivars, including the new stuff not found in older references.
http://www.urbanforestrysouth.org/Resources/Library/callery-pear-cultivar-review/at_download/file_name

I haven't found a library with this journal yet (and hesitate to fork out $30 US for one article) but this paper sounds interesting:

Genetic Relationships of Ornamental Cultivars of Ginkgo biloba Analyzed by AFLP Techniques

Li WANGa, Shi-Yan XINGa, , , Ke-Qiang YANGa, Zheng-Hua WANGb, Yan-Yan GUOa and Huai-Rui SHU

College of Horticulture Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, ChinabShandong Yaoxiang Forestry Centre, Taian 271000, China Received 7 December 2005; accepted 6 March 2006. Available online 15 November 2006.

Abstract
Eight primer combinations that produced clear and a large number of polymorphic bands were screened from 64 EcoR I/Mse I primer combinations (Mse I fluorescent labeled). The genetic relationships of 21 ornamental cultivars of Ginkgo biloba L. from the United States of America, Holland, Japan, France, and China were analyzed. These primer combinations produced a total of 1 119 bands, 229 specific loci (including 54 absent bands, and 175 monomorphic bands). Among them, 983 polymorphic bands (PPB), accounting for 88%, were detected. The percentage of identification per primer combination was as high as 100%. The average PPB of 14 foreign cultivars was 35.86% and the average PPB of seven domestic cultivars was 31.51%. Genetic similarity coefficient (SC) among all cultivars varied from 0.4899 to 0.8499, and all cultivars were divided into the four clusters when SC was set at 0.7300. The cultivars from the same origin did not fall into the same group. The cultivars from France and China were classified into three groups. According to the comprehensive analyses based on specific loci, similarity coefficient, and clustering results, eight cultivars ‘Fastigiata’, ‘Tit’, ‘Tubifolia’, ‘Daeryinxing’, ‘Variegata’, ‘Horizontalis, ‘Pendula’, and ‘Yiyuanyeziyinxing’ were considered to be important germplasms of ornamental cultivars of Ginkgo biloba.

Anthony Aiello discusses new woody plant introductions from Gansu
http://www.rhs.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/798F2009-6315-4E0B-90CF-B4DD2E905954/0/Gansu.pdf

The Plant Varieties Journal of Australia is one of the most useful publications of detailed data on new cultivars. It is similar in some ways to the US Patent applications but is often more precise. The numerous releases often require a comparison with existing, standard cultivars in chart form using numerous traits - and those comparisons are often amazing clear and important for cultivar-level identification. The volumes are all free in PDF form. Pretty much any woody cultivar of merit for the Australian market will end up in these volumes.
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/pbr/journal_download.shtml

METRIA or the Metropolitan Tree Improvement Alliance has since 1976 produced interested conferences on the subjects of ornamentals breeding, selection, evaluation, germplasm management, urban forestry, and commercial cultivar marketing. A huge range of individual articles are hosted on Dr. Tom Ranney's website. There are DAYS AND DAYS of good reading here for people who are interested in any of these topics.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/nursery/metria/

Plants of the Chicago Region by Floyd Swink and Gerould Wilhelm is out in the 4th edition. It covers 1638 native 892 non-native taxa in the 22 surrounding counties. It was not on Amazon (this edition) today but we understand the www.mortonarb.org store is selling it (630-719-2454). It not only describes these plants but offers identification keys.

E.H. Wilson's Aristocrats of the Garden has always been one of the most elegant and effective works about the Asian flora. There is no finer advocate for this once new plants than Wilson himself. The chapter on Davidia alone is worth a long look. It's scanned on Google Books for our enjoyment today.
http://books.google.com/books?um=1&as_brr=1&q=aristocrats+garden

Novalis is offering some new and exclusive woodies that include:
http://www.novalisinc.com/PlantsThatWork/Exclusives.aspx

• Acer palmatum SHIRAZ(tm), an improved pink marginate
• Hydrangea macrophylla LEMON DADDY(tm), a gold-leaved clone
• Hydrangea macrophylla MYTICAL(tm) EMERALD, a pale green flower
• Hydrangea macrophylla BITS OF LACE(tm), a very nice blushy lacecap
• Hypericum MYSTICAL(tm) clones in various colors
• Lonicera nitida EDMEE GOLD(tm)
• Weigela 'Shining Sensation'

My absolute favorite listing of new woody plants is of course from the firm of SHADY DEALS NURSERY. Their selection must be seen to be believed (or not).

http://www.shadydealsnursery.com/

Here's a very nice study on the taxonomic differences between Acer saccharum and A. nigrum (subsp. nigrum)

http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v80/n4/pdf/6883120a.pdf

The RHS have a new journal dedicated to horticultural taxonomy called Hanburyana. The first two volumes (at least) are free as PDF files:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/publications/hanburyana/index.asp

Topics of interest have included nomenclatural standards, proposals to amend the Cultivated Code, Hydrangea cultivar registration, and the identity Schima yunnanensis.

A recent surprise website is the nursery firm of www.allenton.co.nz. They are offering this new and rare material:

• Acer davidii 'Silver Lining'
• Zelkova serrata 'Kiwi Sunset', their own 2001 intro.
• Alnus incana 'Goldstrike'
• Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea 'Allenton'
• Fraxinus excelsior 'Green Glow'
• Salix matsudana 'Ikebana Gold'
• Liquidambar styraciflua 'Little Richard'

Some of you already know about this storehouse of new woody plant treasure...

http://starhillforest.com/cultivars.htm. The site has a nice photo gallery of uncommon and rare oak species. They offer among many other items:

• Platanus x acerifolia 'Old Bones'
• Aesculus glabra 'April Wine'
• Quercus alba 'Lincoln', a cut-leaved clone of f. pinnatifida
• Quercus x deamii 'Champion'
• Quercus 'Windcandle', a nice columnar clone
• Quercus 'Chimney Fire', very narrow with red new growth
• Fagus 'Prince of Darkness', a new interspecific hybrid

A.J. Laros has developed a very useful site about Lonicera including keys, photos, and descriptions from the Dutch National Collection.

http://www.lonicera.nl/engels/index.htm

More info on the diverse and usually large dutch cultivar collections can be found here..

http://www.nationale-plantencollectie.nl/UK/Intro.htm

Will the real Pinus strobus 'Contorta' please...

Pinus strobus 'Contorta' of the nursery trade is 99.99% the wrong thing - an imposter clone also sold as 'Tortulosa' or 'Tortuosa' but in correct, post-1959 vernacular 'Torulose'. A couple years back I went to the Durand-Eastman Pinetum in Rochester NY to track down the original tree of Slavin's 1932 'Contorta', the only clone which can bear this name. The tree shown here is that tree. As suggested by some experts, the real, original 'Contorta' has 1) a distinctly twisted or zig-zag trunk and 2) rather straight needles not unlike the basic species. You see the left-right, bamboo-style zig-zag of this old trunk and hopefully the lack of twist in the needle clusters. The twisted needle clone masking under this name is to be called 'Torulose' since the Latin versions were never published prior to 1959. I have three more shots of this rare, original plant on the NOD website. Conifer expert Bob Fincham says he think that Greg Williams of Oregon is growing the real clone and he also saw one at Gimborn Arboretum in Europe. In general, we must consider the real 'Contorta' very rare in collections and possibly endangered over the next few decades.

Juniperus: Garden Taxonomy Part I

While one of the most common of all genera in the modern landscape, junipers are amongst the most poorly understood and nomenclaturely confusing. Just look at how many divergent and not very clear opinions we find in the major woody plant and conifer books. Fortunately, we in horticulture are able to learn much from Dr. Robert Adams of Baylor University. He has worked on wild Juniperus taxonomy for over 37 years using morphological, cytological, chemical, and now DNA analysis. His results are staggering and bring clarity to the names and associations of the 671 garden cultivars which have been named over the last two centuries. Dr. Adams has put his findings in a wonderful book called Junipers of the World. Many of the key articles, identification keys, and discussions are available at no charge from his website. This material is highly recommended if you want to figure out that whole J. squamata/pingii thing in gardens, J. conferta now being a var. of J. rigida, and why J. nipponica is considered a variety of J. communis.
http://www.juniperus.org/index.html

I get quite a few questions each year about the names of the so-called Hetz Nursery junipers and what is the best name for the big blue beast called 'Hetzii Glauca' among twelve other names. Is it part of the Pfitzer type junipers and how is it different from 'Pfitzeriana Glauca'? And what about the green columnar thing also called 'Hetzii' or 'Hetzii Columnaris'? These answers and some others are available from this article on the NOD.
http://members.tripod.com/~Hatch_L/junihetz.html

Another common question is about the so-called Shimpaku junipers. Originally this name applied only to wild collected, exceptional individual specimens of bonsai-worthy potential from the mountains of Japan; likely all versions of J. chinensis var. sargentii quite unlike our American concept of Sargent Juniper. Brought to western gardens, the name stuck for a particular tiny-leaved, mint greyish-green clone of limited vigor that's like a more spreading 'Plumosa'. There are several Shimpaku Group clones in western gardens, including bluer, slower, greener, more tufted, and more juvenile forms. One nursery offering several clonal selections is...
http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/juniperu.htm

Another common nomenclatural error is use of the name J. chinensis 'Spartan'. Believe it or not, this very popular and quite useful clone proves to be a dense and dark columnar version of...J. scopulorum. Arthur Lee Jacobson suggested this in his 1996 North American Landscape Plants. I examined an old tree at the Raulston Arboretum and it most definately has female strobili with tiny (3-5mm), few-seeded cones and not the big ones of any and all Chinese junipers.

Very few plant fora (forums) are worth even signing up for all the "pooled ignorance" and lousy images. One very worthwhile site with knowledgeable and kind people is the University of British Columbia group of genera-based fora. The Acer, Pinophyta (conifer), Fagus, Cornus, and Magnolia groups will have something new and interesting for most every level of collector.
http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=259

Besides Google Books and the archive.org engine, there is another good place to find online horticultural books which had an expired copyright. This is the Mann Library of Cornell University's Core Historical Literature of Agriculture. This just might hold your attention for days...
http://chla.library.cornell.edu/

Sometimes getting to know the true concept of a species requires us to view one of it's various type specimens. Today on the internet, the virtual herbarium makes this possible. What should Acer subglaucum Bush look like. That answer and about 91 other Aceraceae types are available at:
http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/hcol/vasc/index.asp
You'll also find Cupressus forbesii, Juniperus saxicola, and Metasequoia neopangea, among a vast number of other interesting species. How about Magnolia striatifolia or Manglietia patungensis? Give it a look sometime.

Despite rumors to the contrary, yes there really is a Flora of Japan online.
http://foj.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gbif/
The Japanese version is here...
http://foj.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gbif/ja/
Searches by Latin name can be tricky but they will work okay.

Cercis: Garden Taxonomy Part I

Working with the wonderful JC Raulston Arboretum collection of Cercis taxa (and their great, knowledgeable staff), I've been trying to construct a key to the cultivated taxa that holds up with real world, living material and some of the known hybrids too. It's not an easy proposition and I expect to update this key many times. Try it out and let me know your thoughts.
http://members.tripod.com/~Hatch_L/cerciskey.html

Preliminary measurement of leaf base vs. overall leaf length may allow some differentiation of taxa. Here's a brief summary of the first year's (2007) data:
http://www.plantnames.org/cercislbdgraph.html

Anyone interested in redbud taxonomy will want to read this fascinating paper.
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~ccdavis/pdfs/Davis_et_al_Syst_Bot_2002.pdf

Next February I should have out a new book on weeping and semi-pendulous trees that will include the most comprehensive encyclopedia of weeping species and cultivars ever published. There will be quite a bit of new research on the history, origins, and early garden uses of the major weepers as well as many photographs. If you have anything interesting or new to say about any weeping trees, please let me know. I'd be happy to share your thoughts and credit you by name (or not if you prefer).

The New Ornamentals Society has started a webpage to begin awareness and motivated conservation of rare, endangered woody ornamentals, mostly of North American origin.
The Variety Conservation Group or VarCon page invites your assistance.
http://www.raretrees.org/varcon.html

Some of you may be interested in the IACPT (International Association for Cultivated Plant Taxonomy). They just completed the 2007 meetings in Wageningen.
http://www.iacpt.net/wakka.php?wiki=PagePrincipale
Among their objections are the following:

• Contribute to revisions of the International Codes of Nomenclature.
• Promote international symposia.
• Foster links between taxonomists and the national and international bodies responsible for granting Plant Breeders’ Rights.
• Promote international registration of new cultivar names.
• Provide authoritative reference lists of cultivated plants and associated data.
• Liaise with other organizations concerned with taxonomy, horticulture, agriculture and forestry.
• Publish a hard copy journal and a website newsletter.

Arthur L. Jacobson and Peter Zika have named a new, naturally occuring hybrid of Prunus avium x P. emarginata called P. x pugetensis. Looks like it might have a bit of ornamental merit.

http://www.arthurleej.com/a-pugetensis.html

Spring Meadow Nursery and Tim Wood have put together a collection of very nice articles involving the best, new cultivars as well the best of the oldest material. Every one of the articles gets my recommendations as doe Tim's own blog, the Plant Hunter. His article on new plants from Hungary is well worth reading.

http://www.springmeadownursery.com/articles_8.htm

One of the more interesting overseas nursery websites I've seen in a very long time is the one from www.huldonk.com. They have scores of new and rare conifers not known here, including a number of cultivars of their own discovery. Juniperus pingii 'Hulsdonk Yellow' may just be the one new juniper we actually need - a super pretty, ultra-classy plant.

Barry Yinger's amazing nursery www.asiaticanursery.com is a source of not only wild and crazy variegated tropicals and ferns but some very cool woody plants. Some recent additions include:

• Clethra barbinervis 'Takeda Nishiki'
• Broussonetia kazinoki 'Color Palette'
• Campylotropis macrocarpa
• Corylopsis spicata 'Golden Spring'
• Daphniphyllum teijsmannii 'Mountain Dove'
• Disanthus cercidifolius 'Mine-no-yuki'
• Halesia macgregori
• Hamemelis japonica 'Falling Star'
• Magnolia champaca x baillonii 'Pure Joi'

www.klehm.com aka www.songsparrow.com has some new stuff too:

• Alnus glutinosa 'Razzmatazz'
• Cornus sericea 'Avalon Gold'
• Fagus sylvatica 'Klein's Copper'
• Forsythia 'Little Renee'
• Ginkgo biloba 'Majestic Butterfly'
• Salix repens 'Bridal Rice'
• Taxodium distichum 'Fallingwater'

Arnoldia now online!

Probably the most deep, historically rich respository of woody plant information is Arnoldia of Harvard's Arnold Arboretum. Just the articles by Sargent, Wyman, Meyer, Fordham, Weaver, Spongberg, and Del Tredici will amaze you - and that' s just the beginning. Decades of papers and photos are available by date, author, title, and plant name text search at no cost. A search for pretty much any species on earth will yield assorted primary documents back to 1911. This site is a wonderful gift to the people of the horticultural and botanical worlds and is one of the sites that makes the internet more valuable than ever imagined.
http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/static/home

Among the articles I find myself pulling up most often are these highlights:
1. Yinger and Hahn's two-part study of Japanese variegated plants
http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1153.pdf
2. Art Tucker et. al's list of cultivar checklists (I had a small hand in this)
http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/924.pdf
3. Wyman's order of bloom records
http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/924.pdf
4. Weber's huge, amazing checklist to Chaenomeles
http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1590.pdf
5. DeWolf's story of Forsythia..very good read
http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1723.pdf

Cultivars of Woody Plants Volume I

Thanks to all of you who shared information to make the first volume of CULTIVARS OF WOODY PLANTS (CWP) a scientific and so far commercial success. For a limited time, Volume I is available at a discount ($49.00 vs. $59.00) from the NOS/HatchArt store.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170152678479



For those of you unfamiliar with this massive, 3000+ page tree encyclopedia project here's some FAQ data:

CULTIVARS OF WOODY PLANTS (CWP)
VOLUME 1
GENERA A – G
By Laurence C. Hatch

PDF format eBook – 1031 pages
Digital delivery only
No photographs
ISBN 13: 978-0-9714465-0-2
Retail Price: $59.00 – only $49.00 from this page

A product of more than 25 years of research, CWP is the most comprehensive and exhaustive enumeration of the cultivated varieties of ornamental trees, shrubs, vines, and conifers ever published in any medium. Written by a noted horticultural taxonomist, this series provides the latest, accurate nomenclature and new information from recent research studies, theses, and dissertations.

This thorough treatise provides very detailed, cultivar specific data including plant descriptions, history, origins, nomenclature, landscape uses, original evaluations, cultivar-level identification tips, literature references, and selected internet nursery sources. The author presents thousands of plants that include the popular, the rare, odd collectior’s item, very recent introductions, and some new taxa published for the first time.

CWP Volume I (A-G) spans 1031 pages and covers:
37 Abelia cultivars
107 Abutilon cultivars
971 Acer cultivars
61 Berberis thunbergii cultivars
158 Buddleia cultivars
271 Chamaecyparis obtusa cultivars
129 Cornus kousa cultivars
67 Daphne cultivars
119 Fagus cultivars
82 Forsythia cultivars
224 Fraxinus cultivars
149 Ginkgo cultivars

CWP makes an excellent fact-checking and plant selection reference for students, researchers, garden designers, garden centers, nurserymen, plant collectors, curators, and anyone in the landscape professions. This book helps you select from the very best cultivars available around the world – and provides online nursery links to order new and rare ones.

If you’ve noticed how many plants your favorite woody plant manual or plant database is missing, then CWP will thrill and impress you. You, your students, employees, and clients deserve and demand the very finest plants and CWP provides a wealth of both technical and practical information.

Many of us remember what an accomplished photographer and lecturer JC Raulston was. Due to hard work at the JCRA, his priceless slide collection has been preserved, scanned, and is now searchable and viewable as an image database. It is am amazing resource for any woody plant enthusiast and provides a virtual tour of world's great plant collections.
http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum/photography/raulston_slides/raulston_slides_search.html

The Japanese and Chinese have introduced over 300 cultivars of Prunus mume over the centuries. This website has wonderful photos of dozens of cultivars, some weeping, others double, some of green calyx, and some very, very red. This is an exciting photographic resource.
http://www.pref.saitama.lg.jp/A06/BQ30/treelist/ZZID.htm#p

Garden taxonomy is no better than the quality of the native floras that support it. One of the most impressive, practical, and thoroughly fresh floras from the US is Dr. Alan Weakley's Flora of the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, and Surrounding Areas, a publication of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Those states have lots of important cultivated woody species and thus the ID keys are especially valuable. If you're not ready for the wholesale shift of most Myrica species to the genus Morella, this is a good place to learn about that. Fortunately this flora is free in PDF and portable - I keep a copy on my laptop ready for trips to gardens and the woodlands. I find it especially wonderful for keying out Quercus, Acer, Betula, and Rhus.
http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/flora.htm