PUSHING THE BORDERS

At the risk of dominating - at least temporarily - the first section of this forum with my name, I have a question about this unusual tree.

I first grew it about 30 years ago, having been ‘tricked’ by the ludicrous photos on sites like T and M, van Meuwen etc etc, of a tree festooned with an incredible, beautifully balanced blend of shocking pink and bright yellow tassels. My plant flowered and ended up in the bin as it only produced a dirty copper coloured flower.

However, I’ve recently seen undoctored images and the video made by Charles Williams of his lovely tree at Burncoose/Caerhays. So … I decided to try again.

From a local nursery I had a choice of trees, either single trunked or multi-stemmed. I went for the multi-stem, assuming there to be more likelihood of a blend of at least two and possibly three flower colours. It’s a nice little plant but has started to flower!!!





All the same colour and on every branch! It’s pleasant enough and the tree is absolutely loaded with buds but my question is: as the tree gets older, am I likely to see the differing coloured flowers of the two parents emerge as they battle it out, or have I picked another dud? In which case, I can only assume that the only safe way to buy this tree is to buy one already in bloom.

You seem to have the right thing there, the raceme morphology is laburnum with the flower colour influenced by the Chamaecytisus purpureus.  So you have both cell lineages, currently mixed.

As it grows, some branches will be of disaggregated cell lines, and will flower either yellow in racemes or 'purple' [a generous appellation in this case, but more purple than the current flowers] and not in racemes.  The disaggregated Chamaecytisus  growth looks like a witches broom, not like the laburnum at all.

Just give it time and space.
If you ever want to propagate it, only take from a shoot with the not yellow flowers in racemes, otherwise you will have a plant of  'pure' either laburnum or Chamaecytisus.

Chad