BREEDING WOODY ORNAMENTALS AT EAST MALLING, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO SAMBUCUS NIGRA

East Malling started to breed woody ornamentals in the early 1980s, building on its experience of breeding fruit crops.
The principal genera investigated are Buddleia, Malus, Pieris, Sambucus and Syringa. Objectives vary with the genus, but novelty itself is an important character to interest the nurseryman and the public.
Progenies have been raised, usually from controlled pollinations.
Among items selected or soon to be selected for trial are dwarf Buddleias of various flower colour, red-leaved Malus with columnar habit and resistance to scab and mildew, Pieris that appear to be resistant to lime induced chlorosis, Sambucus with variously cut leaves in yellow or red or both, and Syringa combining large inflorescences with pinnatifid foliage.
Genetic studies are in progress in Buddleia, Malus and Sambucus.

In Sambucus nigra crosses have been made among ‘Aurea’, ‘Guincho Purple’, and ‘Laciniata’ and between two first generation selections.
The resulting segregations indicate that red leaf colour and yellow leaf colour are attributable to dominant genes, Pur and Aur, and laciniate foliage to a recessive gene, lac. Red leaved individuals usually have green, or yellow, flecks; this flecking may be caused by a transposon.
Some selections combining laciniate foliage with red or yellow leaf colour or both may have sufficient ornamental merit to be grown in place of Japanese maples.

International Symposium on Selection and Breeding of Woody Ornamentals

K.R. Tobutt

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1992.320.8