Scent

Can YOU help us?

In the period of the late 1940s to the 1970s there was considerable interest in delphinium species within Delphinium Society circles. Two which were extensively studied were Delphinium leroyi and Delphinium wellbyi, both of which were scented. The photograph of Delphinium wellbyi was taken by our President H R Watts AH RHS, from a plant which he grew in his glasshouse. The seed was obtained from the Hon Lewis Palmer, who was then the Royal Horticultural Society's Treasurer. The species is South African. His plants, when in flower, filled the house with scent. Our President also grew Delphinium leroyi which similarly scented the house.

We wish to repeat this work in order to produce hybrids with which to provide a basis for introducing the genes for scent into our Elatum Hybrids and perhaps also into Belladonnas. To determine whether D. wellbyi and D. leroyi exist in both diploid and tetraploid forms or just as diploids will require help in location of plants in the wild from which seed can be sent to the Society. Alternatively, there may be someone, somewhere, who grows these plants and would be prepared to provide seed. Analysis of the F₁ hybrids of these species would then provide the information about the seed and we could then proceed to carry out tetraploidisation work which then would enable hybridisation with Elatum Hybrids and so perhaps introduce scent to the elatums.

Such experimental procedures would be long term ones and the Promotions & Publicity Secretary requests that if anyone can supply him with seed of these species that they get in touch with him. His e-mail address is roger.beauchamp at btinternet.com, his Skype name is roger.d.beauchamp and his telephone number is +44 (0)1895 464694. He will be glad to hear from anyone interested in this project and who can help him.

Of course, readers of this page may know of other species having scent; if so, please get in touch.

If there are members of The Delphinium Society prepared just to grow the species and maintain viable stocks in order to help this breeding programme, please get in touch.

In the summer of 1958, I had a relative staying with me who lives in the Kenya Highlands. We were going round our garden and he was admiring our Delphiniums when he told me that he grew a scented one. Naturally, I demanded some seed and the result, to cut a long story short, is that it duly arrived. In January 1959 we planted it in a box over gentle heat in the greenhouse. Germination was excellent and we eventually raised over thirty plants. We treated them as ordinary Delphiniums and they finally arrived in an outdoor nursery bed in a walled garden. They started to flower the same year during the last week in September, and continued to do so all through October and November. Most of these plants were left out in the ground, protected with ashes and slug bait, and covered with cloches until about April. Many survived and are now (late October) in full flower again this year. Other plants were lifted and put in pots in the greenhouse and, although we saved some of them and put them out in the garden again this year, they have not done so well as those left out of doors. Delphinium wellbyi is not a spectacular plant when growing. Roots are fibrous and the plant varies in height to a maximum of four feet. Its flowers, which measure about one and a half inches in diameter, are rather sparsely arranged. The colour covers a wide range of blue, from very pale to quite dark, with an intermingling of mauve. It is extremely pretty when cut and put in a vase, particularly if mixed with other flowers. Its scent is really quite overpowering when it has been in the house for a few hours; and it and its scent last for a week to ten days. It is a lovely and very unusual smell which I cannot liken closely to anything else. Perhaps a lily fragrance comes nearest. As Delphinium wellbyi flowers so late in the year in this country it has not been possible for me to get a good outdoor picture either in black and white or colour and I have no flashlight. I am sending a line drawing done by a kind friend and hope it can be reproduced. I should now like to submit it to the R.H.S. for an award and should like to feel that others could enjoy this rather exciting plant. Incidentally, I gather from an article written some time ago by our President, Miss Sackville-West that D. wellbyi was grown in this country some years ago from seed from Abyssinia but that it has since disappeared. Abyssinia is its country of origin and there, I understand, it still grows in drifts in the valleys along with wild wood anemones.