Winter Heliotrope, Petasites fragrans

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A few days ago I wrote about my Heritage Seed Library order, an early Christmas present. Another Christmas present from the Plant Kingdom is one I bought for myself back in the summer, a Winter Heliotrope plant. It is now in flower, in time for Christmas.

Winter Heliotrope

Winter Heliotrope, Petasites fragrans, is a member of the Daisy Family, the Asteraceae, and a close relative of Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara, which I wrote about back in March 2012. (It is sometimes known as Sweet-scented Coltsfoot or Sweet Colt’s-foot.)

It has kidney-shaped, bright green leaves, which are hairless above and hairy on their undersides. They look a bit like Coltsfoot or Butterbur leaves but are shinier and greener than those of Coltsfoot, without the scalloped edges, and are smaller and rounder than Butterbur leaves.

The plant can be found in hedge banks and by roadsides and on waste ground. It prefers wetter ground, and often grows by streams. I have usually found it growing close to habitation and this is not surprising, as it is not a British native but has escaped from gardens. It was introduced in the early 19th Century from the shores of the Mediterranean. It is native to south-western and south-eastern Europe and North Africa but now grows through much of lowland Britain, though it is scarcer in Scotland. Good sites to see it locally include the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich and to the west of Norwich, not far from Runhall Church.

In the open ground Winter Heliotrope can be invasive, as it spreads by branching underground stems (rather like Coltsfoot) and it can form large patches, where its leaves shade out other plants. Mine is in a pot and I don’t intend to let it escape, though since I bought it the plant has already reached the edges of the pot in a bid for freedom.

It is the flowers that make the Winter Heliotrope (see the Wildflower Finder website for some lovely photographs). They are subtly pretty – in pale pink clusters on the end of short spikes. Only male flowers are produced in the British Isles, so the plant cannot spread by seed.

The fact that the plant is in flower in the depths of winter is one reason why I love this plant but the main reason is the delicious vanilla scent of the flowers. On Christmas morning I will venture outside to my plant and take a long, deep sniff.

Heritage Seed Library

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Heritage French Beans

Heritage French Beans

I’ve just had an early Christmas present – my order from Garden Organic‘s Heritage Seed Library.

The Heritage Seed Library is a collection of vegetable seed varieties that are not generally available. Some are varieties that were dropped from seed catalogues, others are heirloom varieties that have been saved by generations of farmers or gardeners and others are what are known as landrace varieties, adapted to specific growing conditions.

The Heritage Seed Library (HSL) currently holds about 800 varieties and every year around 150 of these are included in the Heritage Seed Library Seed Catalogue. Members of the Heritage Seed Library (£18 per year for Garden Organic members) can choose six free packets of seeds from the catalogue, which is sent out in early December. They can also choose to receive a seventh “lucky dip” variety.

My choices this year were Carrot “Red Elephant” (a 19th Century Australian heirloom variety described as fast growing, large and tasty), Beetroot “Avon Early” (an early, round rooted variety developed at the National Vegetable Research Station at Wellesbourne), Kale “Shetland” (from organic crofters Tommy & Mary Ibster of Burland, near Scalloway on Shetland), Lettuce “Bunyard’s Matchless” (an open-hearted cos lettuce with a distinctive nutty flavour), Tomato “Aranyalma” (a 1950s German variety of yellow tomato with a Hungarian name meaning “Golden Apple”) and Pea “Eat All” (a tall mangetout variety saved by growers from Halesworth in Suffolk, described as “hardy, vigorous, tasty”).

I will save seed from the lettuce, tomato and pea and perhaps the carrots. On my allotment I can’t guarantee that kale and beetroot won’t cross with other people’s plants, but at least I’ll be able to grow the varieties for a few years.

It’s well worth joining the Heritage Seed Library for the chance to grow unusual and lovely varieties of vegetables.

Over the years I have grown and saved seed from French Beans (as in the picture above), Broad Beans, Peas, Lettuces and Tomatoes, plus more unusual crops such as Achocha. Highlights have been some lovely, tasty varieties of tomatoes of various shapes, colours and sizes, and some wonderful tall Victorian varieties of peas, with the sweetest of flavours.

EU Seed Laws favour large multinational seed companies and make it illegal to sell unregistered varieties of seed, hence the need to join the seed library, rather than pay per packet. Seed registration costs about £3000 per variety, making it uneconomic to register seed that is useful to gardeners but not large scale farmers, such as tall varieties of peas that are very productive and tasty but need to be grown up supports.

Although seeds can be stored in seed banks, the best way of ensuring the survival of unusual varieties and protecting the genetic diversity of our vegetable seeds is to grow them. This is a very important reason to grow heritage seeds and support the Heritage Seed Library.

Friends of Earlham Cemetery Black Poplar Project

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Earlham Cemetery in Norwich contains many fine trees, including the native Black Poplar, Populus nigra subspecies betulifolia, one of our largest and most striking native species. Until recently there were six trees but three have now been felled, leaving just three survivors.

Native Black Poplar, Earlham Cemetery

One of the Native Black Poplars in Earlham Cemetery. November 2014.

There was a native Black Poplar in Chapelfield Gardens in Norwich until 1932, when it was felled, and the Earlham Cemetery trees were probably grown from cuttings from the Chapelfield tree. There is no absolute proof of this, but I was concerned that we could lose these trees altogether, which would be a great shame.

During spring 2014 members of the Friends of Earlham Cemetery group took cuttings from the remaining native Black Poplar trees in Earlham Cemetery. They are currently in pots in several gardens in Norwich. I have five cuttings, which rooted well in water before I potted them up in late spring. Once the trees are a bit bigger, we will pass them on to Norwich City Council so they can be planted at suitable locations such as Bowthorpe Southern Park, on the western outskirts of Norwich on the floodplain of the River Yare.

The native Black Poplar is a rugged, heavyweight tree with a straight trunk, usually with a distinct lean. In suitable growing conditions it can reach 30 metres in height, with a girth of 1.3 metres at chest height. The branches arch and sweep downwards. The trunk appears black from a distance because the bark is deeply ridged and gnarled, though at closer range it is actually a grey-brown colour.

While the English name comes from the colour of the trunk, the scientific name comes from the Greek papaillo, to shake, after the movement of the leaves in the breeze. Betulifolia describes the birch-like shape of the leaves.

There are separate male and female trees. Male trees are covered in bright red catkins in early April, sometimes known as “Devil’s fingers” and said to bring bad luck to those who pick them up. Female trees produce huge quantities of down seeds that float in clouds upon the wind.

Black poplars are one of only two native poplar species in Britain, the other being the Aspen, Populus tremula. The related Hybrid Black Poplar (Populus x canadensis) and Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra ‘Italica’) are found much more often. The Lombardy Poplar has a fastigiate (upright) growth habit, very different from the native Black Poplar.

The native Black Poplars in Earlham Cemetery are rather out of place and it is probably too dry for them, though they can withstand atmospheric pollution, such as the fumes of cars on Bowthorpe Road. The tree’s natural habitat is along riverbanks, where the seeds can fall onto mud and germinate. The mud must remain wet during the critical first summer of growth. The fallen twigs also grow easily if they fall onto wet mud. But wild riverbanks are now very scarce and most native Black Poplars have been planted and occur in fields and hedges, often near farms and ponds.

The tree can be used to make stakes, bowls, veneers and even artificial limbs and poplar wood arrows were found aboard the wreck of the “Mary Rose”. A well in Viking York was made from a hollowed out Black Poplar trunk.

In medieval times the native Black Poplar was relatively common in East Anglia, especially Suffolk and Essex, but by the end of last century there were fewer than fifty trees left, all of them male. Since the early 1990s, cuttings have been taken from as many remaining trees as possible and planted out in suitable sites.

Thanks to Imogen Mole (Arboricultural Officer) and Paul Holley (Natural Areas Officer) from Norwich City Council, who have been very supportive of this project.

This piece is adapted from an article I wrote for the Friends of Earlham Cemetery Members’ Newsletter earlier this year.

In February 2016 we planted nine of the trees we raised at Marston Marshes – read more here.