May 9, 2019
Plant of the Day
Thursday 9 May 2019
In the woodland garden at the Beth Chatto Garden, Essex, there was a powerful plant association of the emerging purple foliage of Polygonatum x hybridum 'Betberg' (Solomon's seal, David's harp) and the bronze of leaves of Rodgersia podophylla (Rodgers' bronze-leaf). The Polygonatum was given to Beth Chatto by Isbert Preussler and was collected by him and named after a small village in the Black Forest, near Laufen, Sulzburg. The emerging stems and young leaves are a purple-brown, slowly fading to green as the leaves mature. The plant is a hybrid of Polygonatum multiflorum (common Solomon's seal) and Polygonatum odoratum (angular Solomon's seal).
Jill Raggett