Parahebe ‘Walter Brockie’
A lovely little soft woody New Zealand native subshrub which grows readily in a rock garden environment and flowers freely. Metcalf (2006) describes this as possibly a hybrid between Parahebe linifolia ‘Blue Skies’ and P.catarractae when they were crossed artificially in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens in the mid 1960’s.
It really does not look much like its parents having branchlets of reddish brown with golden hairs and green shiny leaves which I have seen take on the brown tinge along the veins and edges of leaves.
Its lovely flowers are tinged pink with strong magenta veins and ocular ring surrounding a greenish yellow throat. While the flowering racemes are short there are many racemes produced from the leaf axils so when in full flower is a lovely sight.
Easily propagated by cuttings taken at any time.
I was lucky enough to suggest to Lawrie Metcalf the name P. 'Walter Brockie'. W. B. Brockie was in charge of the rock garden and native garden for many years before moving to Wellington to establish the Otari Native Plant Museum at Wilton’s Bush.
It really does not look much like its parents having branchlets of reddish brown with golden hairs and green shiny leaves which I have seen take on the brown tinge along the veins and edges of leaves.
Its lovely flowers are tinged pink with strong magenta veins and ocular ring surrounding a greenish yellow throat. While the flowering racemes are short there are many racemes produced from the leaf axils so when in full flower is a lovely sight.
Easily propagated by cuttings taken at any time.
I was lucky enough to suggest to Lawrie Metcalf the name P. 'Walter Brockie'. W. B. Brockie was in charge of the rock garden and native garden for many years before moving to Wellington to establish the Otari Native Plant Museum at Wilton’s Bush.
