From the Archives
Part Two

13^th January 2026

Buddleja davidii

I thought it was time to update my Buddleja davidii page. I have found out so much more since the original page was written and in recent weeks I have been again delving into the archives. The new page has much more about the history of the species in cultivation, which was often called Buddleia variabilis back in the day, and details about the early cultivars from before WW2.

As well as the main page, I wanted to share many of the references from the early 20th century I used to compile the page. So there are now two additional pages:
B. davidii species references, showing the first publications for the species, some with botanical illustrations;
B. davidii references for the varieties, mostly about the origins of the first types grown in gardens such as B. davidii var. veitchiana.

'Fortune' is an old cultivar, bred by Paul Schmidt of Youngstown, Ohio (U.S.A.) sometime prior to 1935, and was originally marketed as a cut flower. One of the earliest to be given a cultivar name, rather than be called a 'variety', it was the first Buddleja to be granted a US plant patent. The patent application tells us something interesting - this is a hybrid plant that has some contribution from B. asiatica, a species that is considered very tender. 'Fortune' now looks nothing special with its rather mundane violet-lilac flowers when compared to more modern cultivars with their bigger and vivid-coloured inflorescences. At some point, it was exported to the UK and, surprisingly, is still available from some specialist nurseries.

Publicity for 'Fortune from the 1940s
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From the Archives

1^st January 2026

Buddleja colvilei

In the winter, there's not much to write about hardy Buddlejas and this gives you the opportunity to trawl through some old publications and look into the history of a few plants. Looking back into these journals can be instructive and may even offer some clues to the mysteries around the origins of the plants we still grow today.

Buddleja colvilei was introduced into gardens earlier than B. davidii, but its appeal was limited by its needing space and being shy to flower in all but the most sheltered positions. The climate of Britain and Ireland has warmed since the 19th century and now the species will flower more reliably in many gardens.

The first report of the species flowering in Europe was in 1893, at a garden in County Cork, Ireland; the plant is described by the author, a Mr. Gumbleton of Belgrove, as having pale rose-coloured flowers with a white throat. The illustration takes some artistic licence, with the outer corolla much too flattened and the white extending into the petals in a way I've never seen in a real plant.

I grow a pink form of the species, which corresponds to his description. It's now impossible to confirm, but I'd like to think this pink-form of B. colvilei is the same plant as that grown by Mr Gumbleton in his Belgrove garden back in the 1890s. In honour of this piece of Buddleja history, I think it would appropriate to rename it 'Belgrove Pink'.

The 19th century articles by Gumbleton, Hooker and others can be read here, including all the colour illustrations. Unfortunately, Mr Gumbleton incorrectly spelt the name "colvillei" with a double-l, a mistake then repeated in some later articles.

Gumbleton's Illustration of 1893
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Buddleja × ladhamii
'Elstead Hybrid'

The origin of the B. × weyeriana hybrids is perhaps more complex than assumed. In addition to the well-known van de Weyer report, it would seem from correspondence The Gardeners' Chronicle of 1938 Ernest Ladhams of Elstead in Surrey was also making the same crosses at about the same time. To cut a long story short, among all the spurious names for these F2 hybrids of B. davidii and B. globosa, there really is (or was) a B. × ladhamii 'Elstead Hybrid' (perhaps that should more correctly be ladhamsii with an s?), a culitvar genetically distinct from the plants of Mr van de Weyer.

The evidence from pre-WW2 journals suggests the plant we now call B. × weyeriana 'Moonlight' ('Moonlight Pale') might in fact be B. × ladhamii 'Elstead Hybrid'.

The full story can be found here.

Is the plant we call 'Moonlight' actually
B. × ladhamii 'Elstead Hybrid'?
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