Olearia × scilloniensis Dorrien-Smith

A hybrid between O. lirata and O. phlogopappa, resembling the latter parent but not aromatic. Leaves oblong-elliptic, up to 41⁄2 in. long, blunt, sinuate at the margins, grey-green and reticulate above, pale whitish green and closely felted beneath, stalks up to 1⁄4 in. long. Flower-heads in numerous stalked corymbs, rather larger than in O. phlogopappa, with longer, more densely tomentose involucral bracts; ray-florets ten to fifteen, pure white. Gard. Chron., Vol. 129 (1951), fig. 94.

This very floriferous hybrid arose spontaneously at Tresco Abbey in the Isles of Scilly around 1910. ‘It makes a solid, rounded bush 5 ft high or more, grey-green; and every shoot becomes so covered with white daisies in May that the leaf almost disappears. It is wind-hardy, strikes readily, grows fast, and requires no attention except the removal of flowered shoots after flowering, (W. Arnold-Forster, Shrubs for the Milder Counties, p. 267). Although not reliably hardy, it should come through most winters uninjured in a sunny, sheltered position and flowers freely when quite young. Award of Merit 1951.