Lottah Nursery Tasmania, Australia
Syn. "Albert Burkwood', 'Somerset', 'Lavenirii'
The original hybrid first arose in France in 1920 from a natural cross of D. caucasica x D. cneorum and was named D. lavenerii. A decade later a similar cross was made by the Burkwood brothers and introduced to the trade as 'Albert Burkwood' and 'Somerset'. D. x burkwoodii is a fairly popular deciduous variety although much less common than D. odora.
Flowers are very fragrant pinkish white covering the shrub in mid-Spring. Outer lobes of flowers are 20 mm across, inner lobes slightly shorter; perianth tube 12mm long by 2 mm with outer set of four anthers visible, inner set hidden within. Inflorescence consists of up to 15 flowers on both terminal as well as axillary clusters in Spring on vigorous young plants but mainly as terminal clusters on mature plants as well as on new growth in late Summer/Autumn. Unlike most flowers that begin a darker color and fade to near white this begins near-white and develops into a rich pink as it matures.
Leaves are deciduous, lancelolate, obtuse at the tip, 40 x 7 mm, almost sessile.
Mature plants are usually found as rounded shrubs of around 1 m, although substantially larger plants may also be located. It is not altogether clear which clones are found in Australia; we are unable to identify our clone more precisely.
Several attractive variegated selections are also available, including 'Somerset Variegated' from the U.K. and 'Carol Mackie', discovered as a limb mutation in the U.S. Since some Australian nurseries use these names as synonyms it is near impossible to identify locally available clones.
White describes in his book several new very attractive variegated clones but we are not aware they are available in this country.
(click on thumbnails for larger images)
51105-6585 (1, 2, 2, 363)