Spiraea × sanssouciana K. Koch

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Spiraea × sanssouciana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/spiraea/spiraea-x-sanssouciana/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Genus

Glossary

hybrid
Plant originating from the cross-fertilisation of genetically distinct individuals (e.g. two species or two subspecies).

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Spiraea × sanssouciana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/spiraea/spiraea-x-sanssouciana/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

A hybrid between S. japonica and S. douglasii originally named and described from a form raised in the government nursery at Sans Souci, near Potsdam, Germany, shortly before 1857. However, the form of the cross cultivated in this country is of independent origin. This is:


'Nobleana'

A shrub 4 or 5 ft high, with erect, brown stems covered with a close grey felt. Leaves oblong to narrowly oval, 2 to 4 in. long, {3/4} to 1{1/4} in. wide; mostly tapering, sometimes rounded at the base, irregularly and rather jaggedly toothed except near the base, green, downy on the veins above, covered with a dull greyish, close down beneath. Flowers bright rose, produced during July, and densely crowded in broad, corymbose panicles which form an inflorescence 3 to 10 in. across, terminating the shoot of the year; flower-stalks and receptacle grey-felted. (S. nobleana Hook., Bot. Mag., t. 5169).This hybrid was sent to Kew in 1859 by Charles Noble of Sunningdale and was named S. nobleana by Sir William Hooker. In an accompanying letter, still preserved at Kew, Noble stated that it had been raised from a plant of S. douglasii growing by the side of one of S. japonica. Hooker nevertheless identified it with a spiraea that had been collected by William Lobb in California, and for many years ‘Nobleana’ was regarded as a native of that State. There is no doubt, however, that Lobb’s plant is different, and that Noble’s plant had the origin he indicated.Also coming under S. × sanssouciana is ‘Intermedia’, a hybrid between S. japonica ‘Albiflora’ and S. douglasii, raised by Lemoine. It is similar to S. × semperflorens ‘Syringiflora’ (see below), but the leaves are finely woolly beneath.S. × semperflorens Zab. – A group of hybrids between S. japonica and the Old World S. salicifolia. It is represented in commerce by ‘Syringiflora’, a spreading shrub to about 4 ft high. Leaves lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, up to 3 in. long and {7/8} in. wide, acuminate, almost glabrous, toothed above the middle. Flowers light pink, borne over a long period in late summer in broadly conical trusses; stamens longer than the petals. The parent on the S. japonica side is ‘Albiflora’. A fine hybrid, distributed, and perhaps raised, by Messrs Lemoine.S. × watsoniana Zab. (1907) S. × nobleana sens. Zab. (1893), not Hook. f. – Similar to S. × sanssouciana and of about the same garden value as ‘Nobleana’. Like that hybrid it unites S. douglasii with the Japonica group, but the second parent instead of S. japonica is its American ally, S. densiflora var. splendens. It was raised by Zabel, the latter being the seed-parent. The two parents both occur wild in western N. America and it has been suggested that S. subvillosa Rydb., described in 1908 from a specimen collected wild in Oregon, may belong to S. × watsoniana, but other authorities consider it to be a variation of S. douglasii var. menziesii.