European Romuleas

David Nicholson d.avensis@virgin.net
Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:55:02 PST
Earlier in this thread Jane McGary mentioned Romulea bulbocodium 
'Knightshayes' and I thought I might add a little background information.

'Knightshayes' refers to Knightshayes Court and Gardens here in the county 
of Devon in the far south west of England. The house and the gardens are 
managed by our National Trust and are open to visitors at most times of the 
year. Indeed my wife and I visited the gardens today, unfortunately minus 
camera!! Narcissi were in full splendour with drifts of N. obvillaris; banks 
of N. cyclamineus underplanted with Chionodoxa; blue and white Scillas; some 
early Rhododendrons and Magnolias.

More information on Knightshayes from the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knightshayes_Court/

Romulea is not the only genus bearing a 'Knightshayes' as there is an 
Erythronium 'Knightshayes Pink' thought to be either a hybrid or form of E. 
revolutum.

Knightshayes does have another Romulea contact in that the gardens have a 
patch of England's only indigenous (I think!) Romulea, columnae, which is 
also found on sand dunes close to my home. I have to say that having visited 
Knightshayes many times I have seen neither of the two Romulea species. I 
had meant to track down one of the gardeners on todays visit to ask further 
but they proved to be invisible and much like buses, when you don't need one 
there are many, they were en masse as we were in the car leaving the 
property.

Some pictures of a visit we made to Knightshayes in April 2008 can be seen 
here including one of Erythronium 'Knightshayes Pink'. It's a beautiful 
place.

http://srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php/…

David Nicholson
in Devon, UK  Zone 9b


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