Deutzia 'NCDX2' YUKI CHERRY BLOSSOM® deutzia

Deutzia

Deutzia and its hybrids are deciduous shrubs from the hydrangea family, native to East Asia and America. The first mention of it can be found in Japan, where Engelbert Kaempfer first saw the species Deutzia scabra in 1712, but it took more than a hundred years for Deutzia to reach Europe. The name Deutzia was given by the Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg in honour of his friend and patron, Johann van der Deutz, an 18th-century Dutch botanist. The plant is popular for its abundant white or pink inflorescences that bloom in late spring. Being easy to grow, pollution resistant, and very hardy, it has become one of the key landscape plants even in locations with poor growing conditions and limited maintenance. The shrubs provide shelter and food for garden animals, thereby contributing to biodiversity. The bark and leaves of some species have been used in traditional Chinese medicine long before the Western world even discovered Deutzia.

You are surely familiar with the work of the distinguished American breeder, Thomas Green Ranney, from North Carolina State University in the USA, where, apart from his dedicated work, he is also a favourite professor among students. He has gifted us with such beauties as four pink-flowering varieties of sevenbark hydrangea from the Annabelle series, Calycanthus ‘Aphrodite’, and the Double Take™ series of large- and double-flowered quince. He is considered a visionary in the field of breeding new plant species suitable also for cold climates. He managed to raise over a million dollars for breast cancer research from the proceeds of licences for the above-mentioned hydrangeas. In 2004, he was awarded the prestigious Scott Medal, which is given annually by the committee of the Scott Arboretum in Pennsylvania, USA, for his work. Among his favourite plants is also deutzia, and in 2007, he crossbred two varieties – the white-flowering Nikko (D. gracilis) and the pink-flowering Carminea (D. x rosea). This breeding resulted in two new varieties – YUKI CHERRY BLOSSOM with pink flowers and YUKI SNOWFLAKE with white flowers.