Friday Fabulous Flower - dwarf Forsythia

 

OK this is not Forsythia, although it is in the olive family (Forsythia, Fraxinus, Syringa, etc.).  This is Abeliophyllum distichum var. roseum (pink flowers).  It is often called dwarf forsythia and it flowers just a bit earlier than Forsythia adding a bit to the confusion.  The plant is a rounded 4-6 foot shrub and in full flower it has quite a lacy appearance.  The flowers are quite fragrant, sort of honey scented.  U. of Minnesota says it will grow well enough in zone 4.  No cold damage over the winter of 2021, and it handles shade fairly well too.  TPP tries these plants so that you don't have to.  

Friday Fabulous Flower - False Forsythia, real fragrance

Tomorrow's Friday Fabulous Flower is a much under appreciated early flowering spring shrub in the Olive family.  Wait! TPP is a day early not one or two days late?  Yes, tomorrow is a travel and work day for this botanist, and since this plant was decided upon yesterday, the decision was made to get on with it and not disappoint any readers who rely upon the FFF for a much needed positive, upbeat, mental therapy type of post.  This author is included in that group, and thus the Phactor has been largely silent about the political side of things.

This shrub is sometimes called a dwarf or false forsythia, both rather confusing because there are dwarfish species of forsythia, and this isn't a forsythia at all but Abeliophyllum distichum. This is an easy to care for, shade tolerant shrub, and quite cold hardy.  It isn't screaming gaudy in flower, but more of a lacy whiteness, or light pinkness if you get a variety roseum.  It is one of the earliest of flowering shrubs (28 Feb here, it's earliest ever date to flower).  The flowers do rather look like small white-pink forsythia flowers, but that really just means a typical enough olive family flower. The neatest thing is that the flowers are highly fragrant, and a flowering twig or two will perfume an entire room with a honey-lilac (another olive family member) fragrance.  This is where the scratch and sniff computer screen would be great.  Every yard should have room for one or two of these smallish shrubs although they are not real common in the trade.

Under planted perennials - dwarf forsythia

There are quite a number of perennials that remain very much under planted largely because they are not so common in the trade.  Finding new plants has certainly gotten easier with e-commerce and mail-order nurseries.  Most plant purveyors take the Ohio liquor commission's approach.  After a sales survey (many years ago) discovered that 15% of their stock made up 85% of their sales, the Ohio state liquor stores removed most of their stock, so tough if you don't drink Budswater or Jim Bleem.  Most nuseries carry just the common stock that people are familiar with.  Not much appears for us discriminating gardeners.  So now and again TPP will try to turn your attention to some rather under appreciated plants that you really should consider.  Several come to mind and TPP will do an occasional series on this topic.  First off is the dwarf forsythia, Abeliophyllum distichum, which as you see isn't a forsythia at all although it is in the olive family and is a small to medium sized early spring-flowering shrub.  The flower color is white with a hint of pink, and a pinker variety is also around (var. rosea).  The overall appearance is lacey and they look especially nice against a back drop of dark green.  This shrub handles light shade quite well, and it isn't fussy about soil or water; not sure about the hardiness; zone 5 is not a problem at all.  For some reason dwarf forsythia just isn't known and seldom planted; it seems more common in Europe.   

Olives and Ashes

The botanical mind often makes funny associations, and so this blog was written to please Ms. Mary who specifically thinks April brings to mind lilacs, and lilacs, not April, make me think of olives and ashes. The reason for this is because lilacs and ashes are part of the olive family, Oleaceae, and this spring my teaching includes plant taxonomy. Most people are quite familiar with the rather handsome spring flowering shrubs in the olive family: lilacs, Forsythia, fringe trees (Chionanthus), and less well known members like dwarf forsythia (Abeliophyllum). Fringe tree remains my personal favorite ornamental shrub that isn’t a Magnolia. Maybe you have had tea perfumed with the flowers of Osmanthus, whose name means fragrant flower, and the well known but not so prettily flowered or attractively fragrant privet. Perhaps you have not associated the famous aroma of jasmines to the more mundane, but still exquisite fragrance of lilacs, and somehow connecting these beauties to ashes and olives seems odd, but that is the way of classification. It isn't based on our impressions.