 | | Above, Don Teeple’s rose which is up for identification (!); and a fine specimen of ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’ dogwood growing here in Parksville. Below, Henry M. Eddie in a sketch I commissioned in 1967; and a photo of the staff of the Royal Nurseries, Vancouver in 1910. The picture was taken at 50th Avenue and Maple Street. Since Mr. Eddie originally worked for Royal Nurseries when he first came to Canada in 1909, it is quite possible that he was in this photo. [Original photo courtesy William C. Livingstone who, along with his brother James, was a prominent member of the Vancouver parks board staff in the 1960s and 70s when I knew him well. Now deceased, Bill and James were sons of John Livingstone who operated a greenhouse and nursery for many years in the east Vancouver area.] Author photo. | 
 |  Don Teeple of Kitchener Ontario was my first questioner this week, with this: “Hi Art, hope you are not too busy to reply. I have attached a pic of a rose I planted this summer. I lost the 'name tag' that came with it and am hoping you can identify it for me. It is a burgundy/wine color with black highlights around the edges and has grown to about 3 feet. I would also appreciate pruning tips for the winter.
“PS: this pic was taken with no flash as ones I take with a flash come out a red color. Thanking you in advance.”
There are thousands of rose cultivars, but fortunately (or unfortunately if you are a real dedicated Rosarian!) most garden centres and nurseries only handle a small representative sample that are in common production in any one year. From your photo, which I’ve included with this item, your rose could possibly be ‘Crimson Glory’ hybridized by Wilhelm Kordes and first introduced (in Britain) in 1934. It is no longer popular but is available, and has remained so because of its enduring fragrance. Another one that is similar but newer is ‘Mr. Lincoln’, hybridized by Herbert C. Swim and O.L. Weeks in the US in 1964. I well remember its introduction. It too is fragrant. Finally, I wondered if it might be ‘Chrysler Imperial’ hybridized by Walter E. Lammerts in California, and introduced in 1952.
Unfortunately, my good friend Anne Graber, former secretary of the Canadian Rose Society is seriously ill, and I am not able to consult with her. When she recuperates, I will run your photo by her and get her comments.
As regards the pruning, on that I can confirm that you should do no pruning of the canes this fall. That should be left for early spring--about mid April in Kitchener. The only reason to prune rose bushes back in the fall is if the canes of adjacent bushes prohibit you from gaining access to them to do the hilling up (now best done with rose-hilling-up collars available from garden centres). Hilling-up should not be done until immediately before freeze-up in late fall, and the mounds of soil around the bush(es) should be tramped hard to make them solid. The idea of the soil mounds is to keep the bushes frozen just as the soil in which they grow remains through the winter.
Also this week, Audrey Bakker, of unknown location, wrote to Donna Dawson, about a Burning bush shrub: “We have a ‘burning bush’ in our garden and have been unable to get it to turn the brilliant reds that it should. The bush is about three years old and on the southern part of the lawn, since we live in Ontario we felt that the bush would add colour to the garden in the fall. Other neighbours have ‘burning bushes’ that turn red, so what can we do to make ours change? Thanks for any help.”
In addition to not knowing exactly where Audrey resides, I wonder if she read what I wrote about the Burning bush shrub (Euonymus alatus ‘Compactus’) in my item on this site two weeks ago (October 12). As with any shrub or tree, occasionally they do not perform. In the case of Euonymus, it may have something to do with the acidity/alkalinity of the soil, but I doubt it. To diagnose the problem is very difficult. It could even be that you do not have the E. alatus species; other similar Euonymus do not colour up as this one does. Is yours definitely deciduous (i.e. loses its leaves for the winter)? The even-more-common evergreen species do not, of course, colour up.
To conclude this week, some news about a “new” plant, though the news is extremely meagre! Those of you who know me know that I have a strong interest in “new” plants and like to chase them down. This past week the Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association held its annual Fall Garden Expo. My old friend Larry Sherk retired from Sheridan Nurseries Ltd. e-mailed to say that he had seen a very unusual shrub/tree there--a hardy fruiting olive (Olea europaea ‘Eddie’s Winter Wonder’), that the British Columbia wholesale nursery, Specimen Trees of Abbotsford, were showing for the first time.
I have checked it out, but information is definitely short in supply. Across the entire Web, there are only two mentions, one for what I presume is the introducing nursery, Växt & Trädgårdsbutiken AB of Nyköping, Sweden and the other strictly on the plant’s availability from Specimen Trees.
Now the interesting thing about this new plant is it is apparently named after Henry Matheson Eddie, one of the founding fathers of the nursery industry here in British Columbia (his son, J. Henry Eddie was the first president of what is now the B.C. Landscape and Nursery Association back in 1953). I have not talked with him for years, but I understand he is still in reasonable health. His (and his father’s) nursery was responsible for the introduction of many new plants, but likely the most famous one is the Cornus X ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’ which was a cross of C. nuttallii and C. florida 'Rubra' done by his father, nurseryman and rosarian Henry Matheson Eddie (1881-1953).
I understand the original hybridizing of this famous plant was done in the late 1930s and early 40s, possibly as a result of a disease that was beginning to hit the native B.C. Pacific dogwood (Cornus florida). Unfortunately all of the clones and trees that resulted from that hybridizing work were lost when a major flood struck the Fraser River Valley in 1948--all but one--a tree that had been moved to near what is now Richmond, B.C. And that was the real beginning of Eddies White Wonder.
I’ve included a photo of one of these wonderful trees growing here in Parksville in what is obviously a very nice front garden.
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by Art Drysdale
