Series 2 Ep 3 Mona’s Corokia

Mona Abboud in her garden, standing beside Corokia x virgata ‘Mona’s magic’

If there is one thing you should never say to Mona Abboud, it is: “these plants are only for trade’. Her passion for and knowledge of corokia species and cultivars has taken her to gardens far and wide. Her National Collection features 41 different corokia species and cultivars and is testament to her determination to not only find the plants but to work tirelessly to encourage the rest of us to appreciate and have this plant in our gardens.

Making this podcast I realised that ‘the search’ was part of the story and as Mona herself says: ‘It's like a cross between a hunter and a collector…once you're after something, you've got to find every single means of finding what you want.’ I also realised that when we create a garden we are often seeking to create something from our own childhood and for Mona though her plants may come from New Zealand, a country she has never visited, this is also true. Listen to the episode to hear why.

I visited Mona’s garden on a most gorgeous sunny Autumn day which is reflected in the photographs below. As you walk through her garden you are struck by the amazing architectural shapes of the New Zealand plants.

A little bit of corokia ‘family’ history courtesy of Mona’s book:

Corokia is an evergreen shrub hailing from New Zealand and inhabiting its forests and rocky mountains. It’s name comes from the Maori ‘korokio’. The 2 (of 10 species in the genus) you will hear talked about are:

Corokia buddleoides - It can reach 2-3 metres, it has the largest leaves of all corokias, a Forest Margin in New Zealand

Corokia cotoneaster - also known as the ‘wire-netting bush’ because of the tangled (divaricating) branches. Can reach 2 metres, it has tiny leaves.

Corokia x virgata is the offspring resulting from the natural hybridisation between Corokia buddleoides and Corokia cotoneaster. It has in turn led to a huge range of cultivars.

Top Row left to right: an overview of Mona’s rear garden, Corokia x virgata ‘Yellow Wonder’, corokia babies

Middle Row left to right: C. x virgata ‘Welsh Whiskey’, C. x virgata ‘ Geenty’s Ghost’, C. cotoneaster ‘Boundary Hill’

Bottom Row left to right: C. buddleoides ‘Coco’ in flower, C. buddleoides ‘Coco’ with berries, C. x virgata ‘Frosted Chocolate’

Mona has written a book entitled Corokia My Adventure. She never set out to hold a national collection, as she tells us in this episode it was born out of a cunning plan which ‘boomeranged on her’. Having put so much of her time and her energy into this wonderful garden she wanted future gardeners to learn from it, as an example of how we can use New Zealand plants in our UK gardens. To that end she has left the garden in her Will to the charity Perennial. There’s an Offshoot coming up about this charity and its fascinating history.

Mona has described being a New Zealand garden enthusiast in the UK as a little lonely at times so I knew I needed to find someone who would really share her passion and I found that person in Fiona Eadie, the author of 100 Best Native Plants for New Zealand Gardens.  They also bonded over a dislike of Camellias! (But there is a very good episode on Camellias to be found in series one of Our Plant Stories, which follows the 200th anniversary of the first Camellia arriving in Australia.)   

Fiona Eadie is Head Gardener at Larnach Castle in Dunedin.

Fiona: “ The divaricating, twiggy habit, of pure Corokia cotoneaster looks great with bold leaved plants such as our native ferns, in this case prickly shield fern (Polystichum vestitum). Bold-leaved plants and C. cotoneaster bring out the best of one another well so I think but then I am a contrast person.”

Do take a look on the castles website here where there are photographs and a video of the garden that Fiona manages - it is stunning.

I hope that the passion for corokia shared in conversation between Mona and Fiona will inspire a few listeners to go out and buy themselves this plant. This is their advice on how to grow it.

How to grow corokia
Could I grow it in a pot or do I have to grow it in the ground?

Fiona: It’s a perfect pot plant. I am an expert in pots because I don't water them. I know all the plants you can grow in pots of New Zealand natives, because I've done it. And it's that whole thing that they like it reasonably dry. So if you go away for two weeks for a summer holiday, if you give us some water before you go, they're pretty hearty mothers. They will actually be able to come back. Yep, I'll be a bit stressed, but hey, just give me some more water. Would you agree, Mona?

Mona: Absolutely. And let me tell you something. There is a very, very famous woman who's now in her 80s, a very famous author, who lived in Egypt and other things. So she's not really into... English plants. She's called Penelope Lively and she actually wrote a novel called Oleander Jacaranda. And she came to my garden and she told me I nearly fainted because I wouldn't have the guts, you see. I tend to cluck, I'm like a mother hen, I tend to cluck over them and probably water them too much, she's had the same Corokia cotoneaster in a pot for 25 years!

Fiona Right, that's it. The stronger you get to the cotoneaster side of it, so the smaller the leaf, the more divaricating the habit, which is like a twiggy habit, which New Zealand abounds in, is that can survive in central Otago, which is very, very low rainfall, you know, under 12 inches, 12 inches this year. It can survive up there. And so that is why the smaller the leaf of your cultivar - it's more of the cotoneaster that's going to have in its gene pool, so the more tolerant it's going to be.

Sun or shade?

Mona: Oh, sun.

Fiona: They'll take light shade. And I would go, just as a possibility, Mona, if you put them in light shade, then they're protected and its not as harsh in terms of in your cold winters. You know how you've got a tree sitting above something and so you've got light shade. I'm wondering if that would be better for your winter conditions because I mean I know at Larnach's Castle we have grown some plants which in Auckland would get frosted if there was a big frost whereas they are surviving in Dunedin. But a big thing for the more tender ones is putting them slightly under a tree fern. So that's where I would go corokias are 100% happy in a light shade and if you're in a part of England where you do get harsher conditions, then you are more likely that it's going to be less hit in your winters. And it's drier because, again, around trees, because the tree is sucking up a lot of the water. So you are getting that scenario where you are keeping it dry when you are getting your big rains.

If you recall from Mona’s corokia ‘family’ history the huge variety of cultivars come from just 2 species: C. cotoneaster and C. buddleoides.

Fiona: That's the thing with plants, eh? You put them, they coerce together, and obviously they did randomly, but I'm blown if I can find out where, they just go, how are you tonight? You wanna have babies? And they just- Yeah, exactly, exactly! It's true love, It’s bizarre, you've got two corokias in different parts, developing in different ways and out of that we have ended up with just zillions of different ones

Mona: I mean going back to my thing - the leaf colour range from two species is absolutely phenomenal. It's mind boggling. You can't believe they end up not looking like the parents at all. You wonder. You wonder what the milkman looked like. I mean, one parent has got very greeny kind of olivey green, it looks like an olive. And large. And the other one is a tiny, tiny thing all twisted. And then suddenly you have a plant that goes all bronze in the winter.

Do let me know in the comments if you decide to buy a corokia of whichever description, I know Mona will be thrilled to hear that her passion has encouraged someone else to grow this plant.