Deutzia
(named in honour of Johann Deutz, Dutch naturalist, a friend and patron of Thunberg's). ORD. Saxifrageae. Very ornamental, pubescent or scabrous, hardy deciduous shrubs. Flowers white, axillary, or disposed in axillary and terminal corymbs. Leaves opposite, petiolate, ovate, acuminated, serrated, wrinkled and veined, scabrous from stellate hairs. Branches purplish and villous. Some of the Deutzias are amongst the hardiest of dwarf white-flowering shrubs; and, as they are also well adapted for growing in a cool-house, or for forcing, they are extremely useful. If cultivated in a temperature from 45deg. to 50deg., they develop both foliage and flowers, in which condition they are, of course, far preferable. A compost of loam, enriched with thoroughly decayed cow manure, with the addition of coarse sand, suits them well. The plants will require repotting every year, after flowering, and then plunging in a bed of coal ashes. Attention must be paid to thinning the shoots, in such a manner that an equal growth is maintained throughout the plant, so that it shall have a somewhat globular form. D. gracilis is the species most grown for forcing, for which purpose it can hardly be superseded; it forms a beautiful plant when so treated. Deutzias will not succeed if forced two years in succession, but will do so when only gradually brought on earlier in the spring. It is a good plan to place them in the open ground, in summer, and have two batches of plants, so that one may be forced while the other is left in the open ground, to succeed it the following year. Deutzias lift well in autumn, and should be potted and placed in cold frames, in October, to be gradually brought on as required. The stronger-growing sorts succeed in almost any soil or position in the shrubbery border.
D. corymbosa (corymbose).* fl. white; panicles corymbose, trichotomous; panicle and outside of calyx dotted. l. oblong or elliptic lanceolate. h. 5ft. Himalayas.
D. crenata (crenate).* fl. white, racemose or paniculate. l. ovate-lanceolate, rigidly serrulate, rough to the touch. Stems slender. h. 4ft. to 8ft. Japan. A very handsome shrub. SYNS. D. Fortunei and D. scabra, of gardens. (B. R. 1718, under the name of D. scabra.) The varieties flore-pleno and purpured-plena have double-white and pink-tinted flowers respectively. D. Fortunei (Fortune's). A synonym of D. crenata.
D. gracilis (slender).* fl. white, numerously disposed in terminal racemes. April. l. small, ovate, acuminate, serrated. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Japan. D. scabra (rough). A synonym of D. crenata.
D. staminea (conspicuous-stamened).* fl. white, sweet-scented; petals oblong, induplicate - valvate; corymbs many-flowered; calyx tube hoary-tomentose with stellate hairs; teeth short, triangular. May and June. l. 1in. to 2in. long, oblong, or elliptic-lanceolate, grey tomentose beneath with stellate hairs. h. 3ft. Himalayas, 1841. Deciduous. (B. R. 1847, 13.)