Daphne bholua Buch.-Ham.

A sparsely branched evergreen or deciduous shrub up to 12 ft high. Leaves borne near the tips of the branchlets, on very short stalks, elliptic-lanceolate to oblanceolate, 2 to 4 in. long, pointed or bluntly acuminate at the apex, tapered at the base, thinly leathery. Flowers fragrant, borne from midwinter to spring in terminal and axillary clusters; perianth-tube slender, downy on the outside, about 1⁄2 in. long, purplish pink. Fruit ovoid, black. Bot. Mag., n.s., t.681.

Native of the Himalaya; apparently first introduced in the thirties. It flowered with the late Fred Stoker in 1938 and was given an Award of Merit when shown by Mrs Stoker on 3rd Dec. 1946. It is also in cultivation from seeds sent by Dr Herklots from Nepal in 1962. Plants from this introduction may not prove hardy. In the same year, however, Major Spring Smyth collected and sent to England (under Field Number T.S.S. 132 A-C) three seedlings that he found growing at 10,000 ft on the Milke Banjyang ridge, Nepal, where severe frosts and snowstorms occur during winter. Of these plants, which are deciduous, one has flourished in the introducer’s garden in Hampshire.

The colouring of the flowers in D. bholua is variable. They are said to be normally purplish pink on the outside, with a paler limb, but in some forms the colouring is diluted to almost white. The bark of D. bholua is used for making paper in the Himalaya. There are two related species whose bark is put to the same use, and might, with D. bholua, be known collectively as the ‘paper-daphnes’. These are:

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

This species is portrayed in Bot. Mag., n.s., t.681.

Three clones have been named:

cv. ‘Gurkha’. – The original plant was one of the seedlings introduced by Major Spring Smyth, mentioned on page 8. It is quite hardy and will in time attain 6 ft or even more; flowers white flushed with rosy purple, intensely fragrant.

cv. ‘Jacqueline Postill’. – A seedling from ‘Gurkha’ (self-pollinated), differing from it in being evergreen but just as fragrant. Raised by Alan Postill and named after his wife.

cv. ‘Sheopuri’. – This is a selection from the 1962 introduction by Dr Herklots, also mentioned on page 8. The original plant, growing in the Savill Garden, Windsor Great Park, is of compact habit and very beautiful in late winter when bearing its white flowers slightly flushed with purple at the base. A.M. 1973.

In the wild this species varies greatly in flower colour, and the best forms have still to be introduced. See further in The Garden (Journ. R.H.S.), Vol. 101, pp. 454–7 (1976) and op. cit., Vol. 110, pp. 172–3 (1985).