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New plants: Philadelphus Pearls of Perfume

The first long-season Philadelphus for fantastic flowers and fragrance all summer

Philadelphus, mock orange, is an easy-to-grow shrub that’s indispensable for its clouds of white blossom and fantastic summer scent. The drawback of Philadelphus has always been its short flowering season – sometimes, it’s been and gone in a fortnight. But not any more.

Philadelphus Pearls of Perfume ('G15097') is the first variety that flowers both on the previous year’s growth, as all Philadelphus do, and also on new growth. The addition of bud and flower formation on current season’s growth extends the flowering season significantly.

Born in the USA

Philadelphus Pearls of Perfume was developed in Pennsylvania, USA by plant breeder Rick Grazzini. Rick’s aim in creating new Philadelphus has been to produce re-blooming plants that are compact and densely branched, with large, sterile, strongly scented flowers.

He has also looked for plants that are easy for nurseries to propagate from cuttings, and aims to build in disease resistance and exceptional cold hardiness.

Pearls of Perfume is the result of a cross between one of Rick’s own existing seedlings of Philadelphus x virginalis with P. lewisii 'Snow Velvet' back in 2011. Plants of each were vernalised (subjected to a cold spell to replicate winter and spark flower formation), and then brought into flower in a greenhouse in late winter for hand pollination. Pearls of Perfume was selected from the seedlings grown from that hand pollination in June 2015.

Philadelphus Pearls of Perfume ('G15097') will be available from Thompson & Morgan, Suttons and Hayloft Plants later in 2023.


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