A great plantsman dismisses Deutzia outside their flowering season as 'a pile of leaves and brush'. I can see his point - they offer little in the way of autumn leaves or fruits, and keeping them compact and neat requires pruning. So why bother? Quite simply....for the flowers!
We have around 14 species of Deutzia here in the garden in Normandy, so here are some pictures of a few favourites. One favourite is a boring shrub so no picture, but what a marvellous name! Deutzia ningpoensis - sounds like a Goon Show escape! - nice small early-ish pink flowers, and a label to make you smile the rest of the year!
My favourite early season Deutzia is this rarity: D wilsonii, found in a traditional ramshackle family nursery in leafy Surrey, offered in no Garden Centre on the planet, but a rounded neat bush to around 1m maximum. For three weeks from late March it is a blaze of beautiful white flowers. Why is nobody growing this?
Our big species Deutzias here in Normandy are along a rather shady path at the top of the garden, so flowering can be a bit sparse, but most perform really well. Deutzia longifolia Veitchii has (as the name suggests) slightly elongated leaves, but I love these clusters of big bold flowers with a hint of pink - here are the last few for this year.
We have a number of rather similar to one another 'frilly doubles', so we'll let Deutzia scabra Plena serve for them all - this is a well behaved shrub to about 1.5m with a gently suckering habit.
Several popular Deutzias are hybrids prized for their colourful flowers. D Pride of Rochester is a commonly obtainable old variety - again a big bush, but a complete riot of flowers - very similar to the previous species (to which it is related), but a lovely rich pink.
I used this newer variety Deutzia Strawberry Fields as a 'taster' for this article a few days ago - again very common and easy to find, but don't make the mistake I made - around the garden I have three examples from three sources in three different places with three different names - in fact they are all the same plant!
Rare indeed is the Deutzia with any interest out of the flowering season, but D. pulchra is worth finding because mature stems have pretty shaggy bark the colour of mahogany. This is another tall variety, when mine gets bigger it will present a pruning dilemma: prune it upwards to show bare bark, or leave it to 'bush' for the sake of the flowers?
We are trying a crafty trick growing it on a slope by steps - if the plan works you'll enjoy the flowers coming down the steps, or see the attractive stems revealed as you go up.
We'll see how that works out!
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