Belfast Botanic Gardens Tree Archive

This is a super small flowering garden tree for late summer and valuable through the year as it is an evergreen. It is best in sheltered locations as the leaves are prone to burn round the edges and the petals blow off in windy situations.

Nymans Eucryphia is a cross between E. cordifolia and E. glutinosa, both South American species. It was raised in 1914/1915 at Nymans in Sussex by James Comber. It was awarded the RHS Award of Merit in 1924 and the Award of Garden Merit in 1984.

It makes a columnar tree, often multi-stemmed and described as fastigiate by some authors. It is fairly fast growing and will reach about 20m. The leaves are variable with some simple and some compound (tri-foliate). They are slightly downy on both sides and are evergreen. The shoots are green and very hairy and the stems are smooth.

The flowers are large, up to 6cm across, white with pink stamens, and are produced prolifically in August and September. The example in Belfast Botanic Gardens is opposite the gate into the works yard and flowers spectacularly each year.