Description
A garden hybrid plant raised by E. B. Anderson in 1956 but not named until many years later by Kath Dryden who inherited at least a part of E.B.’s collection on his death. Two similar plants were raised under the record number of EBA 4656 (the other entered horticulture as “Jeanette Brickell” ). I have seen the supposed parentage (which is not actually known or recorded) quoted as E. tuolumnense x E. oregonum. The idea of this parentage has been quoted and requoted but it is at best speculative and in fact this plant bears no trace whatsoever of tuolumnense in its makeup. Even allowing for the fact that it looks nothing like tuolumnense nor its known hybrids and that it bears none of the very characteristic features of that species, to my knowledge all tuolumnense hybrids to date have been yellow, none are white. I would go so far as to say that any suggestion of tuolumnense in its parentage is simply nonsense. It is almost certainly a hybrid or selection of E. californicum.
The 4cm x 4cm flowers are creamy white, with a lovely cool, greenish-yellow cast to them, especially towards the inside, centre of the flower which is a brilliant, deep yellow, hinted with green and visible both inside and outside the flower (where the tone is noticeably more inclined to yellow-green). One to three flowers are borne 15cm tall stem from early April onward. It is worth mentioning, with regard to possible parentage, that with advancing age, the flowers show hazy and ephemeral rusty red ghosts of markings in the throat, which is usually an indication of E. californicum in a parentage. It is known (“Seven Gardens”) that EBA grew this later species as an “early flowering form” and he also grew its widespread cultivar White Beauty.
The anthers are white as is the style, though this become infused with a trace of pink as the flower goes past maturity. The style is trifid at the apex but not deeply so. The part of the flower stem (reaching some 15cm tall) which curves over to hold the flower downwards also becomes pink-red tinged with age. The undulate leaves are mid-green with a silvery cast and veining.
Delightfully easy to grow, outside, in a spot that suits other garden Erythronium, this appears to clump well and flower nicely.
Introduced to our lists in July 2021, from a stock that accords totally with the description given in the 1994 Wisley Trials of Erythronium which included this selection.
