Daphne × burkwoodii
Common name:
Burkwood Daphne
Pronunciation:
DAF-ne berk-WOOD-e-i
Family:
Thymelaeaceae
Genus:
Type:
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon:
No
- Broadleaf deciduous to evergreen shrub, vigorous, upright, to about 5 ft (1.5 m) high. Leaves alternate, simple, linear-oblanceolate, about 3-4 cm long and 0.5-1 cm wide, tip may have an abrupt sharp point (apiculate, mucronate) or be rounded, base narrowed, bright green. Flowers abundant, fragrant, in clusters of as many as 16, white flushing rose to pink.
- Hardy to USDA Zone (4)5 Part shade.
- Daphne × burkwoodii is from a cross between D. cneorum and D. caucasica, crosses were made independently by the brothers Albert and Alfred Burkwood. Some say that the crosses resulted in only three seeds and that only two of seedlings survived, each giving rise to a cultivar, one named, ultimately, ‘Arthur Burkwood’ and the other ‘Sumerset’. Alice Coats (1992, p.71) states that each brother "selected the best of the resultant seedlings", and that Alfred's plant was distributed by company under the name of Daphne ‘Sumerset’ and that Albert's plant was distributed by the frim of Burkwood and Skipwith as D. × burkwood, presumably this later became known as ‘Arthur Burkwood’.
- ‘Arthur Burkwood’ --- broad shrub to over 3 ft (~1 m) high, leaves to 3 cm long × 0.75 cm wide, linear-oblanceolate, tips apiculate, flowers white ageing to deep pink.
- ‘Sumerset’ --- upright shrub to over 5.5 ft (~1.75 m) high, leaves 4 cm long × 1.2 cm wide, narrow-oblanceolate, tips mucronate to rounded, flowers light pink.
- Two more popular variegated cultivars:
- ‘Briggs Moonlight’ - leaves with cream centers and green-edged margins
- ‘Carol Mackie’ - green leaves with narrow, cream-edged margins
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