Canary Bird Rose, Rosa xanthina ‘Canary Bird’

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Rosa xanthina 'Canary Bird'

Rosa xanthina ‘Canary Bird’ in our garden.

One of the joys of spring, in our garden and elsewhere, is the Canary Bird Rose, Rosa xanthina ‘Canary Bird’. It was one of my Dad’s favourite roses and we planted a specimen four years ago in our own back garden.

Rosa xanthina ‘Canary Bird’ is a cultivated form of the Manchu rose, Rosa xanthina, which is a wild shrub rose native to central China, where it grows in scrubby areas and on open hillsides. It usually has an upright, arching growth habit and will grow from two to three metres (six to nine feet) tall and spread to become about three metres wide. Its stems are reddish and have reddish-brown thorns with delicate mid-green leaves. Rosa xanthina has semi-double flowers and R. xanthina ‘Canary Bird’ has the same growth habit but its flowers are single and more open.

‘Canary Bird’ is one of the earliest roses to flower, usually in late April and early May, although ours started to bloom by mid April this year. The flowers have a delicate, musky scent. Our specimen bloomed in its first year but it has been more spectacular every year, as it has developed a bigger framework of branches. Sometimes the rose can have a second flush of flowers later in the year, but I haven’t seen this yet.

Rosa xanthina ‘Canary Bird’ is very hardy and can cope with quite dry soils, provided they contain some organic matter. It will grow in a sunny or partly shaded spot. Ours is in an east-facing border in sandy loam and is in sun from late morning to late afternoon during the summer. Although the RHS website lists a number of possible pests and diseases, species roses such as ‘Canary Bird’ are generally trouble-free, unlike sickly Hybrid Tea thoroughbreds. This makes it an ideal candidate for an organic garden.

‘Canary Bird’ is easy to prune and can be cut into an informal hedge where its thorniness will act as a deterrent to intruders. It is sometimes used in municipal plantings and there is a fine stand of it next to the Canaries (Norwich City) football ground here in Norwich.

It is hardly surprising that Rosa xanthina ‘Canary Bird’ has been praised in the gardening press. It was The Guardian’s Plant of the Week in March 2012 and featured in Alan Titchmarsh’s gardening column in the Express in April 2016.

But I have left the best thing about ‘Canary Bird’ until last: it is great for wildlife. A mature specimen will provide nesting places for birds but it is the flowers that are proving to be very popular with insects in our garden, including hoverflies, and bees such as the delightfully named Chocolate Mining Bee, Andrena scotica.

Chocolate Mining Bee, Andrena scotica, on a 'Canary Bird' flower.

A female Chocolate Mining Bee, Andrena scotica, on a ‘Canary Bird’ flower.

Winter Purslane, Claytonia perfoliata

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Winter Purslane, Claytonia perfoliata

Winter Purslane, Claytonia perfoliata, growing along Christchurch Road in Norwich

Winter Purslane, or Miner’s Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata, is an attractive edible plant which can be found in winter and spring in many parts of Norfolk. I grow it on my allotment, where my plants are the self-seeded descendants of plants grown from a bought packet of seeds about ten years ago. In the countryside you can find it growing on sandy, disturbed ground, including under hedges on sandy soils, in places that are too dry in summer to support many other plants. This winter I also found it growing at the bases of Lime trees along Christchurch Road in Norwich.

Winter Purslane comes originally from North America, and its alternative name of Miner’s Lettuce comes from its use by miners in the Californian Gold Rush as a preventative of scurvy. In the UK, the plant was introduced into cultivation in 1794. It was first recorded in the wild in 1849 and by 1853 was the most troublesome weed in the Chelsea Physic Garden. It is an annual and it certainly seeds prolifically, but it is shallow-rooted and very easy to weed out by hand. Its leaves turn yellow as temperatures rise in late spring and you will find no sign of it in summer and early autumn.

Winter Purslane’s small white flowers look rather like those of its distant relative Chickweed (Stellaria media, Caryophyllaceae) but Winter Purslane is in a different family, the Montiaceae. (In older floras it is classified as Montia perfoliata, in family Portulacaceae.) The other member of the Montiaceae naturalised into the British Isles is Claytonia sibirica (Pink Purslane or Siberian Spring Beauty), which has pink flowers and comes from from Siberia and western North America. It can be found in damp woods and has a more northern and western distribution than C. perfoliata.

Winter Purslane is hardy but you can have fleshier, larger leaves a month or two earlier if you grow it in an unheated greenhouse.

Winter Purslane has a mild taste with a mucilaginous texture but I enjoy it raw in mixed salads, where it provides a contrast to stronger flavoured ingredients such as Land Cress, Garland Chrysanthemum or Coriander leaves. (I also allow these three plants to self-seed around the allotment.) I include the flowers in my salad too – they taste just as good as the leaves and look interesting. The Plants For a Future website says that the roots can be eaten too, and taste of chestnuts. They must be peeled first, which would be very fiddly. The leaves can also be cooked too but I haven’t tried these last two methods of preparation.

As well as providing Vitamin C to prevent scurvy, the plant has mild diuretic and laxative properties and can be used as a poultice to treat rheumatic joints. The Californian Superfood Evolution website describes more possible health benefits and has some good photographs of the plant, plus some harvesting tips.

By the way, I don’t recommend harvesting the Christchurch Road plants: they are next to a road and pavement, so the probablilty of contamination by motor vehicle and canine is very high. But seeds are readily available, with instructions, if you want to grow the plant yourself, from Sarah Raven, for example. I think I bought mine from The Organic Gardening Catalogue or Kings Seeds.

Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem, Gagea lutea

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Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem, Gagea lutea

In mid March we visited Wayland Wood, near Watton in the Norfolk Brecks. This beautiful wood is managed by Norfolk Wildlife Trust and is linked to the story of Babes in the Wood.

In past years we have visited the wood in early May to see its Bluebells, or in winter when we have taken part in coppicing work parties. (Coppicing is a traditional form of woodland management and involves broadleaved cutting trees down to the base and allowing them to regrow. It allows extra light to reach the woodland floor, which encourages the growth of woodland wild flowers.) However, this year we went at a slightly different time, mainly to see the Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem, Gagea lutea. This was a plant species we had read about, but had never seen.

Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem grows in moist, shady habitats on basic soils and, although it occurs from Spain and Norway across Eurasia to Siberia and Japan, including Finland, it is restricted in its distribution in the British Isles. In Norfolk, Wayland Wood is the spot to see it.

Our visit was a success. We found a small patch of the plant beside a main path, but there was a much bigger stand further into the wood.

Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem, Gagea lutea

Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem is often described as being “shy-flowering”, so our sighting of the plant exceeded our expectations. A friend visited last week and it was still in flower, but Stinging Nettles were growing fast and threatening to engulf the plants. In another few weeks the Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem will die back for the year as the woodland canopy closes overhead and it will seem like it was just a lovely dream.

Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem is a perennial and, depending on the location flowers from March to May. It is a member of the Lily family, the Liliaceae. The plant arises from a bulb and the flowerheads form an umbel-like cluster of 1 – 7 flowers and each tepal has a band of green on its back.

Thanks to James Emerson for letting me know that the plant was in flower.