Silk Tassel Bush

In the garden of a friend from the Rock Garden Society, Garrya elliptica hybridized with G. fremontia to produce G. x issaquahensis, depicted here. An astute gardener, Pat Ballard made note of the new plant and it was named after Issaquah, the town, east of Seattle, where she lived. Lord Talbot de Malahide, using American seeds, created a cultivar with beautiful maroon tassels which he named after Pat. The parent plants, natives to the coastal area of Northern California to the Pacific NW are called Silk Tassel bushes and have grey or silvery tassels. The plants are dioecious, having different male and female flowers. The males are the ones with all the catkin frippery, so that’s the most common in the garden. I have this one and G. elliptica ‘James Roof’ with long silver catkins. Apparently the fruit produce grey and black dyes (interesting to me as a wool dyer), but I only have the ornamental males, so have no fruit.