Exochorda 'The Bride'

Hi Northpool, I've never tried to grow Exochorda "The Bride" from seed. I do have the plant and it's a lovely shrub. To be quite honest I've never met again who has propagated it by seed so it'll be interesting to see how you get on. Keep us up to date on your progress.

 

Hi Aesculus, Exachorda is a nice shrub. It's a spring flowering, low spreading plant that came into favour over ten years ago. It was suddenly in the Nurseries being high-lighted on the front row and then disappeared as a marketing failure. You can still find it in Nurseries but usually tucked away in a corner. I got mine from Hodnet Hall when visiting the gardens about 15 years ago and haven't regretted it.

 

We have a couple of three year old exochordas. They are superb plants and well worth having.

Haven't tried growing from seed.

ARMANDII, I don't know about low spreading. I saw one in a garden near here and it is 5ft tall and a diameter of about 6ft but I don't know how old it is.

 

Hi Shiney, the oldest Exachorda I've seen was at Hodnet Hall in Shropshire, I think it was getting on 50 years old,. and it was on the side of a stepped path going up a bank to the Hall rising some 80'. Because it was on the bank it had followed the flow of the bank downwards and was probably about 4' high but about 15' in spread. The one I've got is, being generous, two and a half feet high in partial shade, but it's spread is around 6' to 7' foot. It wouldn't surprise me to hear you've seen one around 5' in height, I think what I was try to say, although I didn't do a good job of it!, was that the spread being so wide seems to counter what height there is. I love it, it seems to shout "Spring is here!!" with those lovely white blooms and it has jogs some very good memories of gardening with my wife.

 

Hi ARMANDII,

We planted ours in 2008 and these photos were taken last May 4th (Star Wars Day - groan, groan). They are growing as standards but one has already branched out and started drooping over. They are a good 4ft high.

The flowers are so white that they appear to glow.

 

They look absolutely great, Shiney. If you were growing them as Standards I can see why they've gained height. I think I bought mine from Hodnet Hall in the early 90's and as I said it's low in height but has a good spread, and I HAVE never pruned it whatsoever. As I said for me it's the advent of Spring and my only regret is that the blooms are gone too soon - but then, I can think of a lot of shrubs/plants like that!

 

Ours are now completely covered in lovely green buds

 

Yes, I sauntered down to the bottom corner of the garden where mine is and it's budding up nicely!

 

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