Trifloras

Norman Todd January 2005

The beginning of the month’s snow closed the Malahat, preventing our scheduled speaker, Ingeborg Woodsworth, from attending. On very short notice, Norman Todd presented his celebrated Trifloras. These are the scaly-leafed lepidotes originally centred in Western China. Many of them sport flowers in their leaf axils as well as their branch ends, presenting a huge show and frustrating the diligent deadheaders. Some of these ‘three-flowered’ are polyploidy, having double the usual 26 chromosomes, which restricts hybridization with ‘lesser’ breeds.

The most famous Triflora would be the splendid augustinii, which presents clouds of blue in both its original and its hybrids. Rarer are the white and burgundy, but Norman showed examples of these in his array of slides. Augustinii was named for Augustine Henry, a medical doctor serving in China who took refuge in plant collecting to stave off the boredom of his existence there.

Claiming that Triflora is much underrepresented in our local gardens, Norman recited a suitable admonition: “If at first you don’t succeed, ‘Tis a lesson you should heed, Try, try, try again, TRIFLORA”. We were then taken on an illustrated journey across the species’ spectrum, from the yellow lutescens, pink March davidsonianum, white rigidum, purple tricanthum, through hanceanum, keiskei, yunnanense, and ambiguum. It was a fine performance by Norman. Even though he didn’t show my favourite augustinii hybrid, Blaney’s Blue.

[Ed’s note: Having forgotten a pencil light, the mess of notes scribbled in the dark have been augmented by Norman’s essay on Trifloras, written perhaps ten years ago, and reprinted in the book on rhododendrons to be published for the upcoming Silver Salute conference in April. Do reserve early to obtain your copy.]

The 5 Minute Speaker, Jacqueline Bradbury presented an illustrated talk – not with slides – but with some fine specimens of hollies, the ilex fraternity. Most area residents are familiar with the common North American holly; Jacqueline chose a number of the rarer exotics to show. We learned that hollies can be either monoecious (hermaphroditic) or dioecious. Unless you happen to be horny-handed, cotton gloves are useless as protection; leather is best to thwart the prickles. Hedgehog holly is especially prickly and well suited for hedges. There were several examples of attractive variegation among Jacqueline’s cut branches. Her Bratislava holly sported fine yellow berries. There was a tiny ‘Rock’ holly, a contrast to the massive trees common to the Victoria scene. We remembered “…of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown”