Potentilla atrosanguinea ‘Chadwell’s Tibetan Velvet’
30 seeds per packet. An absolutely beautiful, clump forming, herbaceous perennial plant with slightly nodding, rich blood red, velvety flowers with black centres and three-lobed, silky-haired, strawberry-like leaves. A much dainty plant all together than normal forms of P. atrosanguinea. Flowering June to July. Height 50 cm. Sun to part shade in a moist, well-drained soil. Warm germinator.
50% of sales of this seed will go directly to Chris Chadwell's plant conservation and botanical projects along with charities he supports in Nepal.
We grew this plant originally from seed collected by Chris Chadwell and described as Potentilla ex Tibet with affinities to Potentilla atrosanguinea. With a view to getting this plant into wider cultivation, we got in touch with Chris after finding that the collection number had been long lost and that results gleaned from searches on the internet proved to be muddled and confused. Chris suspects the plant is likely to have come from his 2005 expedition of the NW Himalaya and borderlands of Western Tibet as one collection is described as having blood red flowers. We asked Chris if he thought this form might warrant a name so that, in the future, the plant could be referenced back to one of his collections and, therefore, its history wouldn’t become more confused. He agreed to have the plant named Potentilla atrosanguinea 'Chadwell's Tibetan Velvet'.
For those unfamiliar with Chris’ work, please visit his website www.shpa.org.uk and consider supporting him yourself. He does not receive any funding for either his research or conservation projects and we think it reasonable to ask that, if any nursery goes on to propagate this plant further, a donation from sales be given back to fund his efforts. Without his dedication and knowledge we would not have such plants in cultivation.