Chinese Goat Horn Tree finally flowers at Rowallane Garden after 91 years
Last updated 7/10/2010 10:59:05 AM
you may have guessed this is NOT a flowering goat horn tree
It's been 91 long summers, but a tree that's been tended by staff at Rowallane Garden near Saintfield, County Down has finally flowered.
Gardeners have tended the Chinese Goat Horn Tree since 1919 hoping that one day it would show off it would produce a flower.
The first buds opened into a pale white scented flower, after going into bud in June.
"We were intrigued to see what they were going to look like," explained head gardener Averill Milligan. After the flowers come long, curved, spindle-shaped fruits which resemble the horn of the goat and give the plant its name.
Plant collector Ernest H Wilson brought the tree home from Sichuan in Western China in 1908. A sapling from the original seeds was planted in the gardens of Rowallane country estate in Saintfield in 1919.
There are only two specimens from the original Wilson seed introduction currently alive, with the other at Birr Castle, County Offaly in the Irish Republic. All others appear to have died out in the middle of the 20th century.
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