Radermachera Summerscent

Hi folks, this seems to be the busiest of the post-Ausgarden forums that I've found so far. (GardenWeb Australia seems to be dead these days.) I saw a mention of this plant in another thread, but I can't find it again. That plant was bought at BigW; mine at Bunnings, which I believe is part of the same corporate groups so that makes sense. The photo shows my potted plant in full flower.

Anyway, I was wondering two things: (1) Do you think this is a cultivar of Radermachera kunming, if not R. kunming itself? (Frustratingly, the label just describes it as Radermachera 'Summerscent'.) It looks exactly like the images of R. kunming posted at [http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=radermachera_sp&language=en&user=tt].

(2) That website describes the scent as follows: 'scent resembles roses, juicy fruit, candies, fine cologne all together and can be smelled from many yards away'. The scent is strong, agreed, but there the resemblance ends. There is no smell of roses, juicy fruit, candies etc. at all (both to me and a friend who smelled it). The label simply says 'As my name suggests, I have scented flowers'. Yes, but how to describe that scent? Not unpleasant, but indescribable by me as it's not floral, fruity, spicy or sweet. If you've smelled it, how would you describe it?

Hello Cestrum.

I bought my plant from Big W before Christmas and it looks the same as yours..same blue pot so same source. Mine has flowers at the moment and I also still have it in the pot. It has a scent and, although it is pleasant, it is certainly not in the same league as honeysuckle or quisqualis and does not remind me of those things you mentioned. I Googled the name looking for details on height etc and only found it mentioned in a list of plants from the hybridiser. I can't help you with any details. I got sucked in by the fact that it was a big multi-branched specimen with glossy green leaves and great looking flowers. It was in bud then. I haven't planted it out yet as I don't know what spot would be best for it and, as we have water restrictions here, I can only hose for half an hour on the weekends and I always miss the time because I am usually out. I will be interested if you find out anything more about it. Cheers, Kat

I've checked out that site and it sure looks like the same thing!

Hi Cestrum - good to see you again!

Radermachera 'Kunming' is a cultivar as far as I know, so yours can't be a cultivar of it, but it may easily be that it has had a more "attractive" trade name given to it (such an infuriating habit!!).

It looks nice: do you reckon it might grow down here (on coast nr Sydney)?

Kat, I couldn't find any more info on it either, other than that it's a new release. And I agree that it smells nothing like the description of the kunming cultivar on the Top Tropicals website. (Gosh but it's nice to be able to refer to other websites without resorting to ***.) I just cannot describe the smell--it's so frustrating.

Re drought: I moved to this house with over 100 pots full of cuttings/seedlings. I placed them all in shade near the tap and stuck saucers underneath them, and found they could be watered without too much fuss, and the saucers let them retain the water until the next watering (but not long enough to breed mozzies). When I planted them out into the ground, watering became a backbreaking job--one bucket per plant every allowed watering day. And some of the plants were a long way (when carrying two buckets) from the nearest tap. For most of them, this watering regimen stopped when they become established. Some--quisqualis, hibiscus, caesalpinias and other trees, and most of the gardenias--survive solely on rain now. Others, like some of the brugs, I still water by bucket as necessary. So, that's a long way of saying that maybe keeping it in a pot might be your best choice for the time being.

Alistair, according to the label (see photo), you should be able to grow it anywhere from Coober Pedy to Mt Kosciuszko :-) Seriously, you should have no difficulty growing it--probably easier to grow than most of your brugs. I'm going to plant mine beside a group of murrayas, because without the flowers you would swear it was another murraya ... until you get the surprise of the blooms. Lovely!

Thanks: I'll see if I can find one down here and give it a go.

Those claims about it do seem rather, shall we say, extravagant? LOL

Yes, that's the problem when you buy plants on their reputed fragrance: until it actually flowers for you, you won't know if reality matches the description. Some plants, though, deserve their reputations, eg Osmanthus fragrans, Boronia megastigma, Philadelphus mexicanus ...

Sorry, double post ...

This message was edited Feb 12, 2009 2:52 PM